ToLearn, Danish Implementation project: Applying new information and communication technologies for tourism in the Wadden Sea area more

ToLearn, Danish Implementation project: Applying new information and communication technologies for tourism in the Wadden Sea area N.C. Nielsen, SDU-Esbjerg Background and geographical setting The effective communication of the attractions and services on offer in an area plays a pivotal role in its development as a tourist destination. Following this, changes in supply and demand such as the availability of and preferences for channels of communication can mean that destinations have to adapt and re-define their strategies in order to be in line with the ways tourists search and use information. The Danish Wadden Sea area has not traditionally been seen as a homogeneous destination, due to the very different natural settings and tourism infrastructure found in the area, ranging from traditional coastal resort tourism along the North Sea coast to business tourism in Esbjerg and rural tourism in the marsh area and its hinterland. However, the recent decision by the Danish parliament to designate the un-cultivated parts of the area as national park from 2009, as well as initiatives in marketing of locally produced foods, and the development of regional events also indicate an increasing use of the Wadden Sea label in branding and marketing of the Wadden Sea Area as a tourist destination. This implementation project is based partly on the aim to follow the possible development of the Danish Wadden Sea area as a well defined tourist destination, and partly on the recognition that the tourist experience includes not only travel and accommodation, but that attractions and 1 activities linked to the history, nature and culture of the visited areas are of central importance. The desire of vacationers to differentiate themselves from the mass market and have individualised experiences is a well-documented trend in tourism. The necessity to develop a niche strategy focussing on thematic offers such as heritage tourism and wellness, has only recently been acknowledged in the pilot region and hence, has not been capitalized on to its full extent. At the same time, on the demand side, development of hybrid forms of tourism is being observed, in particular the so-called “new tourists” who want to combine vacationing with learning or voluntary (charitable) work. Furthermore, respondents from the business1 emphasised the need to continue developing family activities in order to attract and retain families with pre-teens and teenagers. All in all, these trends call for learning amongst destination managers, combined with intensified training and education in the tourism sector in general, given that improved qualifications are considered a prerequisite for competitiveness. Using a learning process to introduce new forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) could potentially contribute to putting technological advancements to use for more sustainable tourism – preferably in combination with schemes for environmental awareness at various levels: schools, families etc. (an approach that logically follows from the newly acquired national park status). Recognizing this potential, the University of Southern Denmark initiated the implementation project described hereafter. The project has the rather ambitious aim of joining forces to contribute to the development of information on the Wadden Sea area, to be presented and communicated in digital forms to potential and actual visitors. 1 Pilot interviews with managers at Fanø and Esbjerg Tourist Bureaus, November and December 2007.. 2 Related research on communication in tourism Since the Centre for Tourism, Innovation and Culture (TIC) was established at the Esbjerg Campus of the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), one of the research topics has been the impacts and potential use of information and communication technologies both on the supply (business, destination infrastructure) as well as on the demand side (tourist behaviour, information retrieval, decision making); a process also termed development of eDestinations. This focus was already reflected in the university’s contribution to the Danish “spearhead” project on mobile tourist information2. Also the events management and heritage tourism are topics of research and education at TIC. In 2007, a post doc position was established at TIC, with the aim to develop models of placebased communication in tourism, following the evolution from paper maps to Internet and mobile phones. Particular attention was to be given to the emerging possibilities in marketing and in communication generally that follow from information being location-based and the communication medium (mobile phone, PDA or car navigation system) knowing its position through information from an integrated or attached GPS-device. Also the strong growth in web 2.0 applications, i.e. information being created and shared by users in a process mediated by ICT, and the effects of this user “empowerment” on tourism information search strategies and behaviour will be followed closely3. Large parts of the work assigned to this position As for instance described in Liburd, J.J. (2005): Sustainable Tourism and Innovation in Mobile Tourism Services. Tourism Review International vol. 9(1) pp. 107-118 For a recent literature survey and scenario based examples see Nielsen, N.C. and Liburd, J.J. (2008): Geographical information and landscape history in tourism communication in the age of Web 2.0. The case of the Salt River Bay National Park in St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Accepted for publication in forthcoming special issue on ‘Geography and Tourism Marketing’, of the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing. 3 2 3 could easily be integrated with the tasks involved in setting up an implementation project for SDU’s contribution to the ToLearn project. Onset of the project, concept of demonstration case During late summer 2007, TIC was approached by representatives of an environmental action group based on the Wadden Sea island of Fanø, which is also an independent municipality, one of Denmark’s smallest, following the administrative structural reform of 2007 (see Challenge profile). A nature restoration project had been designed and funding had partly been secured. The project includes the creation of a small lake (total project area 30 ha, surface area of lake 2 ha with a maximum depth about 2m) near the coast between two parallel lines of sand dunes, and grazing grounds of semi-natural meadows for sheep and cattle along a restored stream. At the lake a shelter for bird-watching is to be established. Given the protected status of this area and the surroundings, the use of signs and information plaques should be restricted to a minimum, leaving the visual environment as un-disturbed as possible. At the same time, the various stakeholders of the project have different interests in and objectives of communicating with the visitors to the area. This became clear already in the planning phase for our local workshop, see subsequent section. It was thus considered important to gain an overview of the information and communication needs and expectations for the various aspects of the project, and to identify the values, attractions and possibly the related information that was unique to Fanø and what could be applied to the entire Wadden Sea area (of which the island constitutes only a fraction, though a central one and a hot-spot for tourism). It was therefore decided by SDU to focus the implementation project on demonstrating the use of Internet and mobile technologies, in order 4 to facilitate communication to and between tourists in the Wadden Sea Area. To this end, Fanø Strandsø would function as the demonstration case. After a brief survey of the activities of the ToLearn project partners (a year after project start) it was clear that much was to be learned from the German implementation project Nordseerouten that addresses some similar challenges. Here, an approach with building on advanced but proven technology appears to have made it possible to set up a working information system within the time frame of the ToLearn project . Survey of technology, educational and museum initiatives In order to know the general state-of-the-art in mobile communication as well as in mediation of cultural and natural history, an interview- and web-based survey was conducted with a handful of key persons in Danish tourism, working with place-based information. A literature survey as well as findings from foregoing projects pointed to the growing use of GPS systems, not only for car navigation but also for guiding bicycle and hiking tours and more exploratory walks in rural and urban environments. The literature also pointed to the growing importance of geo-tagged imagery in travellers’ sharing of experience and advice through web 2.0 applications. In order to test the precision and ease-of-use of such technology, we purchased a standard, but high-end digital camera, and a compatible GPS-recorder4. In order to further test and demonstrate how the recorded information could be shared on the web, we obtained a licence for the Tiles2kml software that convers GPS-format location data to the .kml format used for display in Google Earth and Google Maps (de facto standards as map/image backgrounds for display of volunteered and shared geographic data or data with a geographic dimension). This equipment and software allowed us to demonstrate the potentials of geo4 A Sony GPS-CS1 unit. 5 referenced information, in general and in a tourism context, as done at meetings with local stakeholders as well as at the implementation workshop (see following section). The meetings with local stakeholdes included: Conference/course organisers at Taarnborg in Ribe, October 2007 (GPS-geocaching event in Ribe) Agendagruppen Fanø, November 2007 Topic groups on Beach/Nature use and Communication created for the ErBy5-project, Fanø January 2008 Miljøgruppen Fanø, March 2008 The respondents in the tourism industries pointed to their frequent use of the GuideDenmark database, developed by the Danish national tourism board in cooperation with local tourist agencies, and maintained through input form certified local and regional tourist offices. It is possible for potential visitors to access the database from the national tourist portal visitdenmark.com, also using a map interface based on Google Maps. The local tourist agencies have the option to use selected parts of the database and integrate it in their own websites, based on a common design schedule and having addresses like visitesbjerg.dk or visitfanoe.dk. This concept of a common database with shared input, central quality control and shared use by licensed partners is rather unique for Denmark. It has correctly been seen as a good starting point for development of mobile based information and guidance solutions, such as the Mobile Tourism Information project, that amongst other places had Esbjerg and 5 Erhvers- og Byudvikling (Business and Town development), in peripheral areas, a project supported by the Danish ministry of Welfare and the local municipalities. 6 Ribe in the Wadden Sea area as test sites6. In spite of these pilot projects, we have not found evidence of use of mobile services in tourism in the region, apart from basic SMS-services with alerts7 and promotional offers. Recently, a high-profiled initiative on research in and promotion of “information by mobile units” has been initiated by VisitDenmark, Aalborg University and the tourism development agency of region Midtjylland, Midtjysk Turisme. Among the first outcomes of this cooperation is a seminar to take place in Aalborg in late May. We have been following the planning of this event through non-formalised contacts with Midtjysk Turisme (resulting in them sending a participant to our workshop). Midtjysk Turisme is also responsible for the web site videnomturisme.dk, meaning Knowledge about Tourism, that provides basic facilities for user driven exchange of information and posting questions. In the field of culture and heritage, the museums in the area have started to show a strong interest in adapting new ICT’s, with two large institutions in the area taking the lead: the Fisheries and Maritime Museum in Esbjerg and the Wadden Sea Centre in Vester Vedsted near Ribe. Both are involved in projects on new ways to inform the public on the historical and natural richness of the area. These institutions have the intention of building on experiences collected by the Heritage Agency of Denmark through participation in the now finalised project “Nordic Handscape” 8, where the use of mobile platforms in various contexts relating to heritage in landscape and museums were tested – mostly using already existing information. As a follow-up project the Open Air section of the National Museum in Lyngby near Copenhagen has been developing an interactive game, using mobile phones with 6 With tourism researchers at SDU-Esbjerg and the tourist agencies in Esbjerg and Ribe as local partners, providing the contact point for the tourist who tested the equipment. 7 An important and relevant service being SMS information from the ferry line serving the Fanø-Esbjerg connection, informing on queue situations and delays due to weather or technical problems. 8 Sponsored by the Nordic Council, see web site http://www.nordichandscape.net/ (accessed 29. April 2008) 7 integrated GPS. The game is termed “Mulighedernes Land”, i.e. “land of possibilities” 9, and is being created in close cooperation with an IT-company and a design agency. There is an obvious risk of leaving behind smaller museums and collections, which do not have the resources to keep up date with technological advancements and thus may become less visible and attractive; a threat addressed by the current project. Regarding culture and events, the four municipalities in the Wadden Sea area have recently agreed on cultural cooperation within the framework of “Kulturregion Vadehavet”. An agreement has been struck with the Danish Ministry of Culture, securing financial support until 2010, given co-financing from the municipalities. A web site has been set up, to facilitate communication between the partners, related networks and the public and to promote the initiatives. For teaching at primary school level, a strong network exists in the International Wadden Sea School (IWSS), a cooperative programme initiated in 2003 by the Common Wadden Sea secretariat (CWSS)10. Within the area a forum for presenters of nature and developers of educational materials has been established, termed “Vadehavets formidlerforum”. The activities within this forum include training schemes for teachers and provision of facilities and organization of activities for visiting school classes. The forum also maintains the educational portal vadehav.dk and the educational project for 4. to 7. grade pupils: mitvadehav.dk (literally “my Wadden Sea”). These sites are also accessible through the temporary web site that was set up as part of the information campaign concerning the ToLearn implementation workshop (see the following section). The institutions involved in 9 10 Web site so far only in Danish: http://mulighedernesland.natmus.dk/index.htm (accessed 29. April 2008) See web site http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/ (accessed 29. April 2008). 8 teaching activities have expressed strong interest in taking part in the development of placebased equipment and content, foremost GPS-based devices and software. The conclusions from the survey on how to proceed was, that we should rather concentrate on facilitating learning and exchange of “tips, trick and ideas” between relevant parties in the region than start setting up a technologically challenging web solution, not knowing if the relevant actors have interest in and resources to, become familiarised with it or to contribute. In short, we found more technological options to build on and integrate than expected, as well as professional networks that can be useful as channels for dissemination of information11. Thus, there is no need to start “from scratch”! Organisation of regional workshop, dissemination of information Following the efforts to map out the technological options and identify stakeholders, we set out contacting representatives of local NGOs and people in relevant administrative functions who might be interested in taking part in a regional workshop. At the same time, we identified potential speakers who could contribute innovative and inspiring ideas to be applied in culture and tourism in the pilot region. The date and venue for the workshop was fixed in early January, at the same time as the preliminary agenda for the day was drawn up. The process of setting a relevant agenda and getting people interested proved to be more time consuming than expected, and time had to be drawn from preparation of background materials, where the original intention was to prepare a CD or DVD with information on the use of ICT. Instead, the information selected was put on a temporary web site, hosted on SDU’s server and maintained by TIC staff. We also used postings on the aforementioned website 11 See web site http://www.kulturaftale-vadehavet.dk/ (accessed 2. May 2008) 9 videnomturisme.dk to reach stakeholders in the tourism sector. In late March, before the workshop, a press release was sent out to local and regional media, which resulted in mentioning of the workshop in journals and regional radio news. The final list of speakers at the workshop ended up composed as such: Professor Martin Rheinheimer, Centre for Maritime and Regional Studies, Esbjerg, welcomed the participants on behalf of the university and talked about historical dimensions in tourist information and destination branding; Janne J. Liburd, leader of Centre for Tourism, Innovation and Culture (TIC) at SDU-Esbjerg, on challenges facing tourism in the area; N. C. Nielsen, post doc at TIC, presenting the background for the implementation project and preliminary findings; Søren Vinding from Fanø, representing the local Agenda 21 group and the Local Action Group (LAG), presenting the physical and administrative setting for the Sønderho Strandsø project. Poul Therkelsen, head of the Tourism and Business department at Fanø municipality, on the current situation and challenges with regards to communication at destination level; Palle Jørly Jensen, web editor at VisitDenmark talked about the structure and use of the GuideDenmark database in relation to the national and local web site directed at visitors – followed by an introduction to the project “Digital Experience Map”12, managed by Syddansk Turisme (tourism development organisation of Danish region Syddanmark, see Challenge Profile); Klaus Støttrup Jensen, curator at the National Museum’s Open Air Museum, introducing and demonstrating the GPS- and mobile-supported edutainment product “Mulighedernes Land” (land of opportunities). Christian Galonska, Geo-Medien, Chr. Albrechts Universitet, Kiel, introduced and demonstrated the visitor and planning web sites nordseerouten.de and ostseerouten.de, contributing parts of the German implementation project. - - - The workshop took place Thursday April 3rd starting at 9.00 and closing at 16.00. The morning was used for the presentations listed above. Following these (and lunch), the participants gathered in themed groups, based on the topics relevant for discussion, identified in the survey phase. The four themes or strings for further discussion defined were: 1. Mediating history, with new media based on existing material 2. Mediating nature, through intelligent use of new technologies and media 12 See promotional material here: http://www.svuf.dk/filer/Digital%20opleveseskort.pdf (accessed 2. Maj 2008) 10 3. Play, learning and sports activities facilitated by new technologies 4. News, events and family activities Each of the group discussions was headed by a moderator with specialist knowledge from the list of registered participants. After 1 ½ hours of parallel discussions, the participants gathered again, to hear reports from the different groups and, if possible draw common conclusions. In summary, the affiliation of the workshop participants turned out to be distributed like this: 4 researchers, 4 IT professionals, 2 municipality and regional representatives, 2 from media, 8 from museums and similar, 2 NGO representatives, 2 teachers (primary level), 1 from regional business promotion, 5 tourism professionals. In total 30 participants, excluding the organisers from TIC, attended the workshop. About 90 potential participants had been contacted, and interestingly it turned out that tourism and ITprofessionals along with museum personnel were more inclined (and willing) to find time to participate than school teachers and nature guides. For representatives of the NGOs, the problem was that they have daytime jobs allowing for little flexibility in schedules. To remedy this, a workshop on specific issues has been proposed for an evening later this year; however, feedback is still awaited from the interested organisations. Immediately after the workshop, a press release was sent to the local and regional media, this unfortunately did only result in little press coverage of the workshop/project, but we will make one or two more during the concluding phase of the project, as results worth communicating appear. Outcome of workshop, recommendations for follow-up activities The summary and conclusions from the workshop are currently (May 2008) being edited and reviewed by the moderators for distribution to the participants and later inclusion in one or 11 more of the publications of the ToLearn project. However, a Danish version is being prepared, and based on that, first findings may be given here: GPS technology allows location based provision of information, i.e. context based communication. At the workshop, the introduction of this technology and the examples given spawned a multitude of ideas, some of which are about to be taken up by groups of stakeholders. Mobile technologies are perhaps not for everyone (yet), but rather for fast movers in specific segments, on both the destination and the visitor sides. Adapting the devices and their applications for tourist information and marketing could advantageously be addressed directly, with applications that are considered useful or “cool”. Internet, on the other hand, is for almost everyone, and tourists are known by the industry to rely on information found at the Internet in the planning phase of their vacation. If mobile technologies are to be used within the destinations, a well thought-out content management system is needed, in order to provide relevant and quality information to the relevant people at the right time and place. Much information on cultural and nature history of the Wadden Sea area is already available on a variety of web sites, but in order for it to be useful through mobile applications, where the demands for timely and relevant information is higher, some degree of editing is necessary. Some information and experiences are not easily or practically digitised, and should not be either. Examples mentioned were: using a looking glass to study an insect found in the 12 field, enjoying the silence on a bench in a remote place. There should be room left for experiment and improvisation in the experience “space”. The participants of the workshop were somewhat sceptical about the use of user-generated information in tourist applications, as in the form of reviews and comments on attractions or dining places. It was found, that some editorial function would be needed (as known from existing web logs and chat services). For stored and edited background materials to be used in the presentation and branding of destinations, the common message from IT and museum people was: structure, structure and structure, deemed necessary in order to preserve the information through transfer across (storage) media and make it readable with different software. For the relation between technology and content, the message was: content, content and content, meaning that costs in terms of time and money are severely higher for quality checked and well mediated information compared to the costs of acquiring and maintaining the hard- and software of a communication platform. The participants in discussion group 4 agreed to the model shown in the figure below, outlining a setup for a destination information system, incorporating volunteered13 information and comments, plus information on events and offers to be updated regularly. In principle with anybody taking interest in a specific place or area and/or subjects relating to it – and with access to some medium of communication. 13 13 This model obviously is only a crude sketch, but useful to build on in further discussions of providers, controllers and distributers of destination information; and we intend to use it in the follow-up process to the workshop. The findings, compared to generally accepted trends in design of ICT for tourism and to communication and learning aspects of sustainable destination management, will be reported in an article to be submitted to an international peer-reviewed tourism journal. They will also be used in the press materials sent out in order to promote the final ToLearn conference on Sylt, which is within driving distance of the Danish Wadden Sea area. 14 Comments on the process and setting within the ToLearn project Contributing to ToLearn has indeed been a learning process for us here at TIC in Esbjerg, as we have been guided through it by the preparation of challenge profiles, good practice examples and pilot region studies – and not least the implementation project. Considering this last building block, there has perhaps been put too much emphasis on the workshop part; given the spirit of the project, more efforts should have been put into providing texts and tools to the community or specific target groups. Such were however hard to identify, and the tangling out of the various groups of stakeholders with their differing interests and expectations became a part of the project instead of a clearly identified project prerequisite. Still, we hope that the process initiated by the workshop will contribute to the development of the Danish Wadden Sea area as an attractive, innovative and sustainable tourism destination. One central question remains: What’s to be learned from this implementation initiative for other pilot regions and destinations throughout the NSR? The lessons are to be drawn on two levels, one concerning the process and weighting the outcome against the efforts, the second level being the practical recommendations for destinations elsewhere. We dare summarise as follows, first with regards to the process and the project work form Be clear about the objectives, spend the main part of the preparatory phase identifying the stakeholders and then get to know the challenges they face. Be realistic: can the demands of the stakeholders in the pilot region be met by us as research institutions, or are they policy-related or simply dependent on general economic trends? 15 - Communicate broadly in the region, and be aware that establishing useful channels of communication with the relevant recipients (as well as getting feedback) can be a tedious process. - Inform project partners; find groups with similar interests and exchange ideas and first results as early as possible in the process (also a task for the project management to enable and facilitate regular communication). Then, finally with regards to the practical outcomes: Be well aware of the developments in GPS technology and the convergence of devices, and the implications for tourism – use Internet to provide coordinates and map data to those interested, even if they are still a minority; Heritage and nature can be used actively for increasing the attractiveness of a destination though new ways of storytelling and “edutainment” facilitated by mobile media. Do not get blinded by the possibilities of new technologies, rather look to what central segments of visitors are using AND to what first movers are taking up; Training of practitioners in the business (and possibly education in colleges etc.) should focus on web 2.0 technologies, in order to be prepared for more direct and equal interaction with visitors through electronic media and facilitation of visitors. communication with each other. Also be prepared to use electronically available materials from museums and teaching institutions in tourist information and marketing. The best way to be prepared for new technologies is to have relevant and well edited content to provide, and as far as possible a common data structure among partners interested in providing information through a common, flexible system. 16