State and Condidtion for Implementing ICT inRural Tourism in the Republic of Serbia
2016
Information and communication technology (ICT) has been rapidly
developing since seventies of twenty century. ICT development has affected
to all spheres of society. ICT can help industries to be more competitive on
the market. Advantages of business that can be realized by using IT
influenced that its application has been made in all sectors of the economy.
Implementation of ICT in some countries has shown that ICT can play a key
role in business (for example, Small Business and Entrepreneurship), as well
as the impact on the development of certain regions (rural or urban), or on
development of local economies, etc.
Advantages that can bring implementation of ICT also recognized in tourism
business. Implementation of ICT is nowadays especially present in so-called
"mass forms of tourism". Application of computer reservation systems (CRS)
and global distribution systems (GDS) completely changes the role that
intermediaries (travel agencies/tour operators) have until recently. On the
other hand, the application of ICT in rural tourism has been late. This has
resulted in the backwardness of rural tourism development for other forms of
tourism. This is a global problem.
A characteristic of rural tourism is the physical distance between the rural
tourism supply and demand which is located in the urban city centers. A role
of tourism intermediaries is to make their connection. The application of ICT
has significantly contributed to improvement of intermediaries business. In
order to made rural tourism supply available for urban tourist demand, one
of the important conditions is to educate local rural population for use IT in
rural tourism business. This requires special training programs. This comes from the fact that progress in the development of ICT has enabled a wide
range of tools and services with which improved business in tourism.
Rural tourism in Serbia has been developing since the seventies of the
twentieth century. The period in which rural tourism recorded the stagnation
of development and later lag, was in the nineties and reason is „well-known
events“ that were characteristic of the entire area of former Yugoslavia.
After 2000 begins new accelerated development of rural tourism. A special
expansion has been recorded since 2006, when the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia allocated around
92 million dinars to develop rural tourism. Today, almost all regions in
Serbia have a greater or lesser level of development rural tourism. What
appears as a problem in tourist business is just a lack of application ICT.
This is characteristic of the organization and management of rural tourism
at all levels from local, regional to the national. Also, the use of the Internet
in the tourism business is not satisfactory.
As one of the tasks which stands in front of Serbia is development of network
economy, which would be based on the adopted Strategy for the
Development of the Information Society till the 2020. Expectations are that
the implementation of ICT should contribute to develop rural tourism, and
increasing the income of the local population, also it would enable farms as
small business entities to remain competitive in the tourism market which is
precisely one of the characteristics increased competition. The aim of paper
work is based on the analysis of the current situation in the sector of rural
tourism in Serbia and point out the importance that can bring
implementation of ICT in rural tourism business. Article indicates the
necessary steps which would promote business of rural tourism in the micro
level (small family farms) and macro level (operations at the level of rural
tourist destinations - villages, local rural areas, region or country as a total
destination system).
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