TOURISM, CULTURAL HERITAGE AND E-SERVICES: USING FOCUS GROUPS TO ASSESS CONSUMER PREFERENCES

This paper discusses the use of in-depth focus groups to assess residents, tourists and other stakeholders’ preferences for e-services that would enhance access to cultural heritage in Amsterdam, Leipzig, and Genoa. Several e-services are mentioned, and in particular the integration of e-services in these cities is highlighted. The way this integration takes place very much relates to the maturity of each city in terms of cultural tourism, and information and communication technology (ICT). Our results show that the need for tailored information (profiling), interactive maps (geospatial dimension), booking service “one-stop shops”, and consumer-generated content were all common in the three cities. In some cities the focus groups expressed a need for various forms of e-governance. Mobile devices and navigation systems were also high on the agenda in the more ICT-advanced cities