Abstract
As of July 2013, 981 properties in 160 States were enlisted by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites (WHSs), according to its “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage”, signed in 1972. While the main emphasis of the Convention is on protection and conservation of cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, also its presentation is included among UNESCO’s goals. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) may help in fulfilling the goal of presentation, on the one hand opening up such properties and their meaning also to people who are not able to visit them, on the other hand supporting responsible and sustainable tourism by those who can access them, so that visitors can better understand and enjoy WHSs, becoming aware of their importance and of their fragility, hence behaving in a way that does not hinder their transmission to future generations. To better understand the role of ICTs for WHSs’ presentation, this paper provides an analysis of mobile apps concerning WHSs, mapping them according to several factors, including covered sites and areas, main contents and functionalities, intended publics, costs, and presence of UNESCO-related info.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ali, A., & Frew, A. J. (2013). Information and communication technologies for sustainable tourism. New York: Routledge.
Ashworth, G. (2012). Do tourists destroy the heritage they have come to experience? In T. V. Singh (Ed.), Critical debates in tourism (pp. 278–286). Bristol: Channel View Publications.
Barragáns-Martínez, A. B., & Costa-Montenegro, E. (2013). Adding personalization and social features to a context-aware application for mobile tourism. In A. Waising Loo (Ed.), Distributed computing innovations for business, engineering, and science (pp. 253–265). Hershey: Information Science Reference.
Berg Insight. (2013). The mobile application market. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from http://www.berginsight.com/ReportPDF/ProductSheet/bi-app2-ps.pdf.
Brown, A., Kappes, J., & Marks, J. (2013). Mitigating theme park crowding with incentives and information on mobile devices. Journal of Travel Research, 20(10), 1–11.
Buhalis, D. (2003). eTourism: Information technology for strategic tourism management. Harlow, UK: Prentice Hall.
Cantoni, L., Faré, M., Bolchini, D., Inversini, A., & Giulieri, F. (2007). European cities and web-tourism communication. An indicators-based pilot study. In Proceedings of the travel distribution summit Europe, research conference (pp. 45–54). London, UK: Axon Imprint.
comScore. (2013). Europe digital future in focus 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/2013_Europe_Digital_Future_in_Focus
Dickinson, J. E., Ghali K., Cherrett, T., Speed, C., Davies, N., & Norgate, S. (2012). Tourism and the smartphone app: Capabilities, emerging practice and scope in the travel domain. Current Issues in Tourism, 1–18.
Egger, R., & Jooss, M. (Eds.). (2010). Mtourism: Mobile dienste im tourismus. Wiesbaden: Gabler.
Höpken, W., Fuchs, M., Zanker, M., & Beer, T. (2010). Context-based adaptation of mobile applications in tourism. Information Technology and Tourism, 12, 175–195.
Kennedy-Eden, H., & Gretzel, U. (2012). A taxonomy of mobile applications in tourism. E-review of Tourism Research, 10(2), 47–50.
Kenteris, M., Gavalas, D., & Economou, D. (2011). Electronic mobile guides: A survey. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 15, 97–111.
Kim, D., & Adler, H. (2011). Students’ use of hotel mobile apps: Their effect on brand loyalty. Paper presented at the 16th Graduate Students Research Conference, Houston, TX.
Kramer, R., Modsching, M., Hagen, K., & Gretzel, U. (2007). Behavioral impacts of mobile tourist guides. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2007 (pp. 109–118). New York: Springer.
Lamsfus, C., Xiang, Z., Alzua-Sorzabal, A., & Martin, D. (2013). Conceptualizing context in an intelligent mobile environment in travel and tourism. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 1–11). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Lassnig, M., & Reich, S. (Ed.). (2009). eTourismus. Heidelberg: dpunkt.verlag.
Liu, Y., & Law, R. (2013). The adoption of smartphone applications by airlines. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 47–57). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Lizzi G., Prosino S., & Cantoni L. (2013). Online motor magazines: An opportunity for eTourism? In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 363–374). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Pedersen, A. (2002). Managing tourism at world heritage sites: A practical manual for world heritage site managers. Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
Poon, A. (1993). Tourism, technology and competitive strategies. Wallingford: CAB international.
Rasinger, J., Fuchs, M., Höpken, W., & Grün, C. (2007). Exploring information services for mobile tourist guides: Results from an expert survey. TTRA, Nice, 2007, 4–14.
Scott, M. M., & Frew, A. J. (2013). Exploring the role of in-trip applications for sustainable tourism: Expert perspectives. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 36–46). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Sheldon, P. (1997). Tourism information technologies. Oxford: CAB.
Touray, K., & Jung, T. (2010). Exploratory study on contributions of ICTs to sustainable tourism development in Manchester. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2010 (pp. 493–505). Wien: Springer.
UNESCO. (1972). Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. Adopted by the general conference at its 17th session in Paris. November 16, 1972.
Wang, D., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2013). Transforming the travel experience: The use of Smartphones for travel. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 58–69). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Wang, D., & Xiang, Z. (2012). The new landscape of travel: A comprehensive analysis of Smartphone apps. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2012 (pp. 308–319). New York: Springer.
Yovcheva, Z., Buhalis, D., & Gatzidis, C. (2013). Engineering augmented tourism experiences. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 24–35). Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Schieder, T.K., Adukaite, A., Cantoni, L. (2013). Mobile Apps Devoted to UNESCO World Heritage Sites: A Map. In: Xiang, Z., Tussyadiah, I. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03972-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-03973-2
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)