Analysis of the Digitization Level of Small and Medium Entrepresis in Tourism. Identifying the Level of Digitization of Businesses from Băile Felix, Bihor, Romania

Abstract

"The topic of digital transformation in our country has had a major impact on both society and the economy, with all its sectors being a paradigm for them. At the same time, the digital transformation of our country is one of the most important components of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans. This fact is also due to the position on which Romania is ranked within the hierarchy based on the Digital Economy and Society Index (European Commission, 2021. Referring to it, we observe a less favorable position of our country, ranking 27th out of the 27 member states of the European Union (European Commision, 2022) with an annual growth lower than the other countries and less convergent. Thus, in order for the European Union to fulfill its objective of the digital decade, Romania must create the ideal context for a significant change in the pace of training and acquisition of basic digital skills. We therefore observe how the introduction of digital technology has corroborated the way tourism companies assert themselves. Digital technology has become an invaluable business tool widely used in the travel and tourism sector Lee & Wicks (2010). We are talking about an economic-social phenomenon reflected in one of the basic sectors of many nations, whose expansion was particularly pronounced in 2019, 2020, as a result of the collapse left in this industry by the COVID19 pandemic. Digital transformation represents a substantial challenge for both organizations and national economies, being a topic that has sparked interest for academic studies and researchers. Starting from this necessity and carrying out a review of the existing works on the market, it was found that there are no studies related to the digitalization level of tourism businesses in Romania. Thus, the present work evaluates, measures and quantifies the level of digitization of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of tourism, with Băile Felix resort in Bihor county as a working sample. Keywords: digitalization, tourism, level of digitalization, small and medium entrepresis, digital tools JEL Classification: Z32, Z39"