Industrial Heritage 2.0: Internet Presence and Development of the Electronic Commerce of Industrial Tourism

Abstract

The role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in business management is currently a topic of increasing interest. Web 2.0 has emerged as an important source of innovation that contributes to organizational performance and improving the competitiveness of the tourism industry. However, evidence has been found that the tourism industry encounters difficulties when it comes to adopting these technologies and effectively applying them to e-commerce. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the websites belonging to industrial tourism facilitate effective communication with their target audiences. To this end, we propose and implement a model for analyzing websites based on the content analysis technique, considering the dimensions of information, communication, e-commerce, and additional Functions. This model is applied to 128 tourism resources in Catalonia with the aim of identifying opportunities arising from the use of Web 2.0 tools and addressing identified weaknesses and thus enabling more competitive management in the industry.