Information and Communication Technologies supporting Destination Management: a multimedia application

The chapter is focused on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) dissemination in the tourism industry and their strategic value as tools to support destination management. Based on an economic-managerial approach to the destination management concept (section 2), this paper firstly analyses the determinants of rapid ICT dissemination in the tourism industry (section 3) to understand how ICT and multimedia technologies can support destination strategic marketing and management (section 4). In the near future, multimedia networks - universal and interactive link tools - will have a high development potential thanks to their effectiveness and flexibility. As an example of what was mentioned above, the project Campania in Pillole (section 5) is presented, a multimedia application to promote tourism in Campania, set up by IRAT-CNR with other Partners. The project developed a hardware and software prototype that, through Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), enables tourists to access information - sites of interest, suggested routes, opening hours of museums - on the historical-artistic heritage in Campania. This example of multimedia application is a tool to enhance a specific tourism destination; it favours an inflow of resources made available directly on-line or subordinate to the physical movement of tourists. In the conclusion, the strategic role of technology is reiterated, viewed as a factor enabling aggregation amongst local stakeholders, products and services, and as a factor that may have an impact on the ways through which value is created for end users.