Title: Soft factors in integrating innovation in advanced e-services

Authors: Krassimira Paskaleva, Ian Cooper, Jose Angel Azorin

Addresses: Herbert Simon Institute, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK; Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, D-76021, Karlsruhe, Germany. ' Eclipse Research Consultants, 121 Arbury Road, Cambridge, CB4 2JD, UK. ' Turespana, Spanish Tourism State Department, Spanisches Fremdenverkehrsamt Kurfurstendamm 63, Berlin 10707, Germany

Abstract: Along with economic development and competitiveness, contemporary urban destinations are increasingly concerned with improving their services via information and communication technologies (ICT). The latter can be a powerful vehicle for destination promotion, combining positive contributions to the tourism, cultural heritage, visitors| and wider community interests. Based on the results of the ISAAC European project, this paper shows how cultural tourism destinations can develop advanced e-services that improve access and use of their local heritage by adopting innovation practices in integration. It is argued that if these new e-services have to convey diverse, distributed and multi-media information on cultural destinations in order to enrich the user experience and satisfaction then there is a need for wide-ranging innovations – not just technical but also organisational, process and policy – addressing governance and sustainable development issues. The discussion is based on theoretical analysis, previous research conducted by the authors, and three case study examples from Europe – Amsterdam, Leipzig, and Genoa, focusing specifically on the soft factors of innovation and the practical implications of the research reported.

Keywords: innovation; integrated e-services; soft factors; e-tourism; heritage e-destination; cultural heritage; electronic tourism; online tourism; electronic services; online services; destination promotion; tourist destinations; cultural tourism; governance; sustainable development; sustainability; Amsterdam; Leipzig; Genoa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2011.040374

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2011 Vol.15 No.3/4, pp.161 - 177

Received: 11 Nov 2009
Accepted: 17 Jun 2010
Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article