CC BY
14
УДК 378.4 + 379.85
Н.Б. КУЩЕВА, Е. ГОРЕЛКИНА
УНИВЕРСИТЕТЫ В РАЗВИТИИ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО ТУРИЗМА: ЦИФРОВОЕ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ В ОБРАЗОВАНИИ, ВЗАИМНОМ СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВЕ И МАРКЕТИНГЕ ДЕСТИНАЦИЙ
Исследования, разработки и инновации - одна из обязательных сфер деятельности университетов прикладные наук в Финляндии. Университет прикладные наук Юго-Восточной Финляндии (ХАМК) разрабатывает новые методы, товары и услуги в соответствии с запросами регионов Коувола, Котка, Миккели и Савонлинна. Важно, что исследования, разработки и инновации также способствуют развитию образовательного процесса. Исследовательская и инновационная деятельность регулируется, например, стратегиями регионов и Евросоюза. В статье рассказано о двух проектах, софинансируемыш Евросоюзом и партнерами проектов. Проектыг начали свою работу в 2020-2021 годах, они направлены на развитие международного туризма путем цифрового взаимодействия и маркетинга туристских дестинаций.
Ключевые слова: ХАМК, цифровое измерение, маркетинг дестинаций, международный туризм, имидж.
Research, development and innovation is one of the mandatory fields of activity for universities of applied sciences in Finland. The South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) develops new methods, products and services in accordance with the demands of the Kouvola, Kotka, Mikkeli and Savonlinna regions. It is important that research, development and innovation also contribute to the development of the educational process. Research and innovation activities are regulated, for example, by the strategies of the regions and the European Union. This article describes two projects co-funded by European Union and project partners. The projects began their work in 2020-21, and they are aimed at the development of international tourism through digital interaction and marketing of tourist destinations. Keywords: XAMK, digital dimension, destination marketing, international tourism, image.
Introduction
The RDI activities of South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) are focused on enhancing the vitality of the South Savo and Kymenlaakso regions. Our goals are to help businesses thrive and to generate new entrepreneurship.
XAMK has 4 research focus areas: Forest, the Environment and Energy;
© Кущева Н.Б., Горелкина Е., 2021
Sustainable Wellbeing; Logistics and Seafaring and Digital Economy. In 2019 XAMK got more than 63 mln euros for RDI activities, 15 mln euros from which was external research funding [9]. 1 350 partners, including 686 corporate partners are running 259 projects, including 55 international. We have approximately 250 ongoing projects annually, in which our experts find, test and develop new products and services, or conduct re-
search for the needs of businesses and the world of work.
In geographical terms, our continuously increasing RDI activities are mainly focused on Europe, the Baltic Sea Region and Russia. In collaboration with our international partners, we strive to solve the common challenges of the future. Our four focus areas feature national and international top expertise serving the needs of the largest companies in Finland and the export industry. The focus area also provides expert services tailored to the specific needs of customers.
The primary sources of research and development funding include EU structural funds, other EU and international research programs, Business Finland, Academy of Finland, together with foundations, businesses and other organizations.
Examples of cooperation can be found in ongoing projects. In this article, authors would like to give an overview of two ongoing projects "Online reputation management" and "King's Road Renascence: new dimension and digital tools".
Project "Online reputation management"
The project duration is 09.2020-04.2023, which is running by 4 international part-
ners: the University of Economics from Prague, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences from Mikkeli, Matej Bel University from Banská Bystrica and the University of Florence. The topic of online reputation management is very actual in the last decade and not all tourist and hotels managers are ready to manage it actively and effectively. The main objective of the project is to create a syllabus and teaching materials for a new course that will enable to teach this topic online reputation management (ORM) systematically, based on real data and experience. Online course are less time consuming and require less commitment [2]. The overall strategy of the project is to develop a sustainable training product for the enhancement of the skills and competencies for future managers and tourism workers.
Most business leaders believe a positive reputation is important. Executives rarely understand how to effectively influence online sentiment, or measure its financial impact on their company. As a result, business owners rarely take action to manage their online reputation, leaving it to chance. There are so many misconceptions floating around about online reputation management (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Online reputation management services and free platforms
According to TripAdvisor [10], "More than 90% of business representatives rated online traveler reviews, repeat business and increased direct bookings as the three most important factors to the future of their business." It is no surprise that the internet is hugely influential in people's travel decisions - travelers can't amble down the high street and compare various hotels as they would mobile phones or shoes, and not everyone knows someone personally who has travelled to wherever they plan to vacation. Increased mobile penetration, greater and faster adoption of new technology, improved communication infrastructure, and more reliance on realtime information for decision-making purposes will drive mobile device usage [6]. The internet is the most convenient way of exploring the globe from home, and weighing up the opinions of other travelers:
• 65% of leisure travelers turn to the internet to research their holidays, even before they know where they will be travelling;
• when travelers start actually planning their trips, 74% of them use the internet;
• almost 38% of people booking hotels say that positive online reviews are an incentive to stay at an independent hotel;
• 59% of holidaymakers say that review websites and online forums are the most influential resource when they make travel plans [4].
Successful online reputation management not only allows hoteliers to track these positive reviews, but it also means disseminating and sharing positive feedback as widely as possible. Positive feedback should be shared across multiple social networks, and displayed on an establishment's own website. Monitoring online feedback and using it to understand guest's experiences
can provide valuable insights that can be used to inform operational decisions.
Online guest feedback can help managers of hospitality businesses to get inside the minds of their guests, and discover what the most critical issues are in their operations from the guest's point of view.
Business competitors are probably monitoring their online reputations as well, and using the insights, they uncover to improve their operations and market their businesses more successfully. In order to stay competitive in the hospitality sphere, one need to keep up with, and preferably surpass the competition.
Monitoring online reviews of the establishment and those of competitors will enable to find out where the business has a competitive advantage, and what should be promoting in marketing materials. Online reviews of competitors will also expose their strengths and weaknesses, and by comparing scores to theirs, one can discover where a hotel needs to improve in order to get more bookings, more satisfied guests, more good reviews, and therefore even more bookings (Fig. 2).
The pace at which information online is updated is astounding. For instance, TripAdvisor has stated that they receive 230 new reviews of businesses every minute, and TripAdvisor is just one of the many sites where customers can post reviews [5]. Luckily, this communication doesn't have to be one-way, and managers are often afforded the opportunity to respond to guest comments online - and doing so should be an integral part of your ORM strategy. In 2019, more than 60% of TripAdvisor users said that they would be more likely to stay at a hotel that has posted polite and professional management responses to reviews instead of at a similar hotel that doesn't respond to reviews.
Fig. 2. The factors that hoteliers consider as important for the future of their businesses [4]
Mobile enabled website Enable bookings from a mobile phone or tablet Continued staff training to exceed expectations Online reputation management overall Enabling online booking Ease of access from any device Differetiating from competition Increasing direct bookings Increasing repeat business Online traveller reviews
9% 9% 90% 90%
1°% 92% 93%
78% 80% 82% 84% 86% 88% 90% 92% 94%
Communication is key in relationships, and relationship of business with the guests is no exception. Because responding to reviews has become so vital in online reputation management, technology providers for the hospitality industry have developed software that crawls the internet and notifies hoteliers of reviews posted on review sites and online travel agent listings. This allows hoteliers to respond promptly to positive and negative reviews. Sentiment analysis software can also automatically work out whether a review mostly positive or negative, allowing busy hoteliers to prioritize which reviews they respond to.
Software that collects and aggregates review scores from multiple online sources is also useful for hoteliers who take their online reputations seriously. This software can help hoteliers to track their average online review scores, as well as scores in specific areas (such as service, cleanliness, food and beverage, etc.) and adjust their operations where necessary.
The potential long-term benefit of the project is an increase in the competitive-
ness of tourism destinations and businesses through better online service quality. Online reputation management is only a reflection of this new "bottom-up" communication where existing and potential customers get a voice around your brand. So, ORM is an essential part of any business, marketing, and growth strategy for any business out there (even the businesses that aren't yet online). People are talking about the business and will continue to do so. The manager must set up a solid online reputation management strategy to navigate through all the online conversations, provide fixes here and there, and provoke positive sentiment.
Project "King's Road Renascence: new dimension and digital tools"
The project duration is 1.1.202130.11.2020. It is funded by South-East Finland - Russia CBC Programme 20142020 - one of the three programmes implemented at the border regions between Finland and Russia under the European
Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). The project is being implemented by consortium of four official partners: South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Lead partner), Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and its unit Helsinki XR Center, Peter the Great Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University, European-Russian InnoPartnership (ERIP). The project is also receiving strong support from the Government of St. Petersburg: Committee on IT and communication of St. Petersburg and Committee for tourism development of St. Petersburg. On the Finnish side the project is supported by non-commercial organization King's Road Association (Kuninkaantie ry).
King's road is an old mailing route in Northern Europe dating back to the 14th century, starting from Bergen in Norway, passing through Oslo and Stockholm crossing the sea through the Aland archipelago to Turku in South-Western Finland and ending up in Vyborg in Russia [11].
The main idea of the project is to give a boost to King's road as an important touristic route of the partner regions by modernizing the whole ecosystem of King's road, offering SMEs digital instruments for business development and by creating a virtual interactive platform for preserving historical heritage and more efficient cooperation on all levels. The area of the project is the part of the route from Helsinki to St. Petersburg.
This project aims to combine cultural history of King's Road with modern highend technological solutions to promote the economical and historical value of the King's Road region. Latest VR / AR technology will be brought to the benefit of businesses and tourists in the area to take the King's Road experience to a whole new dimension.
Implementation plan includes the following stages:
• Developing of King's Road cross-border cooperation and ecosystem
• Working with businesses on improving skills and introducing virtual instruments for business development
• Creation of virtual interactive King's Road platform
Approaches that are being used in King's road project can be applied for developing of other cross-border regions as well.
Firstly, marketing of international tourism themes and routes has been an efficient way of promoting international travelling during last decade. Benefits of international route marketing in terms of the economy [3]:
• It can spread demand: with a themed approach, a destination can generate interest in more peripheral regions or at specific times of year to avoid strong seasonality at the destination in order to reduce pressure on key attractions;
• It will tend to lengthen visit stay, and encourage additional stay. In some cases, it can attract a higher-yield visitor;
• As a result, it can help revitalize declining areas and/or open up new destinations, thereby creating new employment opportunities and stimulating entrepreneurship; and
• It can create the conditions for attracting funding or private sector investment
Secondly, combining digital solutions with cultural/historical/natural heritage and bringing the latter to a new dimension is relevant for numerous international and national cultural routes and themes all over the Europe and Russia.
Maintaining common history with the for future generations is our duty and has possibilities of new digital technologies been a strong trend in tourism.
Economic benefits Innovation and tourism development
Transboundary understanding —► Protection of heritage
Consumer appeal
Fig. 3. Benefits and opportunities of international route marketing [3]
Thirdly, in terms of lockdown when tourism sector is facing unprecedented challenges, digital technologies is vital necessity for travel business to stay connected to their audiences. Faced with a new reality of diminished tourism, many believe that Covid-19 might be the watershed moment for VR that changes perceptions from a clever and occasional marketing trick to a permanent fixture of tourism marketing [2]. A virtual tour does not replace a real trip, but on the contrary, arouses interest in it. The possibilities of virtual and augmented reality in tourism:
• quick and comprehensive acquaintance with the sight;
• integration with a virtual guide,
• immersion in places and attractions that, for some reason, are physically inaccessible to an ordinary tourist (addition to the existing tourist program);
• the opportunity to visit an object that doesn't exist anymore or doesn't exist yet (reconstruction of an object or historical ruins);
• demonstration of the same place at different times of the year and under different weather conditions;
• full immersion in a VR copy of an object is the most effective advertising.
SMEs that do not invest in digital tools will not survive, let alone thrive in the future. The hospitality industry has begun to actively apply artificial intelligence technologies in the form of information systems of self-service, registration and departure of guests, provision of robot services, etc. [7]. Destinations, businesses and the wider tourism sector will need to fully embrace new technologies to remain competitive, and to take advantage of the innovation, productivity and value creation potential [8]. When it comes to improving skills of SMEs, motivation is often a challenge. But when the educational programme is built around a topic that is close to the core of companies business, like with the topic of King's road, it is always much easier to find motivation to make efforts towards obtaining new skills and taking business to a new level.
The King's road project's beneficiaries are business communities, consumers, municipalities as well as educational, historical and cultural organizations. The project will improve the competitiveness, capability and competence as well as identify new business possibilities for SMEs in the field of the project thematic in the programme area. The main output of the project will be increased awareness among visitors and general attractiveness of King's Road will further enhance the
cooperation between companies, tour- benefits can be achieved by applying
ism sector and users. In a long term, the key approaches of international tourism
whole cross-border region will benefit development for other destinations and
from the results of this project. The same routes.
ЛИТЕРАТУРА И ЭЛЕКТРОННЫЕ РЕСУРСЫ
1. Bernd Debusmann. Coronavirus: Is virtual reality tourism about to take off? URL: https://www. bbc.com/news/business-54658147 (accessed: 09.04.2021).
2. Brkic T, Kushcheva N.B. Teaching and learning online: UNWTO delivering the course "TRAIN THE TRAINERS"// Vestnik hospitality industry. 2021. С. 7-10.
3. European Travel Commission (ETC), Handbook on Marketing Transnational Tourism Themes and Routes. URL: http://veilletourisme.s3.amazonaws.com/2018/01/Handbook-on-Marketing-Transnational-Tourism-Themes-and-Routes.pdf (accessed: 09.04.2021).
4. How Independent Hotels Tackle Online Reputation Management. URL: https://skift. com/2015/10/29/how-independent-hotels-tackle-online-reputation-management/ (accessed: 04.04.2021).
5. How to Add Management Responses to Tripadvisor Traveler Reviews. URL: https://www. tripadvisor.com/TripAdvisorInsights/w805#footnote1_uwx12qs (accessed: 04.04.2021).
6. Kushcheva N. Life-long learning using mobile educational systems// Материалы XVIIмеждународной конференции/ под ред. В.П. Галенко, Н.А. Лобанова. СПб., 2019. С. 176-179.
7. Kushcheva N, Terekhova V. Transforming of innovative artificial intelligence technologies to successful application in the hospitality industry // Петербургский экономический журнал. 2021. № 1. С. 37-43.
8. OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2020. URL: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/urban-rural-and-regional-development/oecd-tourism-trends-and-policies-2020_6b47b985-en (accessed: 09.04.2021).
9. Official XAMK webpage. URL: https://www.xamk.fi/en/rdi/ (accessed: 04.04.2021).
10. TripAdvisor: "TripBarometer Travel Trends 2019" URL: https://blog.guestrevu.com/back-to-basics-what-is-online-reputation-management-and-why-does-it-matter-to-hotels (accessed: 04.04.2021).
11. Wikipedia, King's road (Finland). URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Road_(Finland) (accessed: 09.04.2021).
