Cultural Information Flows Of Tourism And Recreation Industry

Abstract

The article explores the cultural and informational flows in the tourism and recreational sphere, which make up its main content, its condition and basis. The tourism industry is an information-intensive activity in the trade in information services. And in the modern economy – in the transition to information civilization and the total introduction of information and communication technologies in all spheres of public life - this is also the emergence of completely new types of info-communications, focused on the provision of network services that can cover territories of any scale. First of all, these are portals with online booking and online payments, electronic tickets and electronic visas, which provide the network nature of communication and individualisation. One of the features of the tourism and recreational complex is the ability to overlay various historical information and cultural systems, both natural and artificially created (for example, 3D computer modeling tools for reconstructing historical events). Various types of modern, so-called creative tourism are well suited for implementing the above ideas. The article notes that the functional types of tourism and recreation significantly affect the preference of certain cultural and information flows. It is emphasized that it is important to orient the content of the advertising stream on the social and ethno-cultural composition of tourist groups, offering cultural information that meets their expectations and needs, as well as their lifestyle and preferences. The principles of optimizing the structure of communications that provide the main systemic effect of the tourism and recreational complex are proposed.

Keywords: Communication structure optimizationcultural information flowstourism-recreation regional complextourism and recreation industry

Introduction

The quality of the information and communication system of modern society allows us to characterize it as an “information society”, an “information civilization” based on network interactions through computer technologies that provide both the functioning of intelligent decision centres and a recreational complex, immersing it in an electronic environment, forming an electronic leisure industry.

As for the tourist and recreational sphere, communication is its main content. It is information flows (and not traditional goods and services) that provide links between producers of tourism services and their potential consumers. The effectiveness of the tourism and recreation sector directly depends on the quality of building information flows, providing a more complete saturation of the market with information, as a result – more full satisfaction of ever-growing needs of the modern consumer.

Problem Statement

The solution to the problem of optimizing the structure of communications (cultural and information flows) is based on a number of methodological prerequisites. It is known, for example, that the structural and substantial transformation of the information field of society has a radical effect not only on social psychology, but also on the psycho-somatic organization of a person (Jaynes, 1982).

Summarizing and developing the achievements of his predecessors in the field of studying the socio-cultural differences of direct and indirect communications, the famous psychologist Shkuratov (1997). showed that the transition to a written information system generates such features of the organization of intelligence as subordination, accuracy, analyticity, innovation, abstractness, distance, etc. The symbolic organization of society is becoming more complicated, it becomes possible to present any object, including a person, as a text, a special attitude of society to the sign-graphic side of its existence appears.

To study the problem posed, it is advisable to limit the field of cultural and information flows to communications, since it is in them that the content of culture is removed and manifests itself as a combination of value and practice systems, doctrines, ceremonies, images of thought, etiquette that characterize a given society in a given period. It is no accident that one of the authors of the theory of dynamic influences Latane (1996) noted that society can be represented as a set of subcultures, a changing organic unity that exists due to communication.

A certain degree of absolutization of the sociocultural significance of communication is presented in the concept of McLuhan (2018), who believed that its form determines the qualitative certainty of the cultural-historical type and the personality corresponding to this type. The followers of McLuhan (for example, Fedotova, 2002) considered the communicative organization of social experience as the main object of their research.

At the same time, the importance of communication is still unambiguously underestimated, each sphere of human life and the economic life of society as a whole brings to the forefront its specificity in organizing cultural and information flows, especially with the involvement of modern technical capabilities (Fikhtner, 2019). Therefore, the authors made an attempt to contribute to the development of the theory of communication, its understanding and identification of new trends in the organization of communication in the tourism industry.

Research Questions

3.1. What are the communication features of the tourism and recreation industry?

3.2. How is the content of culture removed and manifested in communications?

3.3. What determines the preference of certain cultural and information flows?

3.4. What are the main principles for optimizing the communication structure of the tourism industry?

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the study is to analyze the characteristics of the organization of communication in the tourism and recreation sector; to identify the changes in the nature of cultural and information flows in connection with the introduction of electronic means of communication based on modern digital technologies and the intellectualization of tourism activities in general; to determine the principles of optimizing the communication structure of the tourism and recreation sector.

Research Methods

The methodological basis of the study is dialectical logic, which gives an idea of the laws of development; general methods of scientific knowledge; a systematic approach related to the concept of an object as a holistic system, and to the identification of diverse types of connections of a complex object and their reduction into a single theoretical picture.

Findings

Tourism and recreation are information-intensive activities, they represent a powerful industry in the trade in information services. The volume of the tourism market is almost entirely dependent on images, descriptions, video tools, communication means, processing and transmission of information on the availability, cost and quality of services. Travel services are available not only in the form of data streams, but also in the form of electronic "online" payments, virtual payment cards, remote banking, global computer systems for booking travel packages, etc. (Salova, 2011).

Many communication features of the tourism industry bring it closer to the gaming sphere: in both cases, it’s access to a temporary free area of activity that is not related to basic needs, it is different from ordinary life, including one that is a condition of tourism and recreation; this is submission to certain non-aggravating rules, rhythm, this is a cult, a sacred action, in the center of which is the tourist himself. At the same time, along with the gaming aspect in tourism communication, the following factors that determine its essence, forms and role in the formation of an effective tourism and recreational complex are of serious importance:

  • cultural-historical and natural-cultural information;

  • acquaintance with a different actual ethno-cultural environment;

  • participation in the natural dialogue of cultures;

  • consumption of a product of modern spiritual culture;

  • useful communication within tourist groups;

  • information and production support of the tourism complex.

In the tourism industry, as in no other one, there are overlays of various historical informational and cultural systems: elements and structures of direct, preliterate communication, in the center of which are primitive symbols, a myth of the primary type; indirect written communication of the "primary" type; communication of rational mentality; communication of traditional eastern society; communication of information civilization. Due to the fact that many world tourist centers are located in the "conditional" East, such overlays arise naturally. However, they are often created artificially, by stimulating psychological immersion in a different historical era.

The condition for the normal functioning of the tourism and recreational complex is its relative information isolation: military, political, economic; business information in general may well become a disturbing factor, and subject the stability of the complex to a certain threat.

The preference of certain cultural and informational flows is determined by the type of tourism and leisure: it is obvious that cognitive, informational-historical, ethnic, culturally-oriented tourism differs markedly from adventure, recreational, and even more from entertainment-oriented and gambling business.

When working with various tourist flows, each tourism and recreational complex should take into account the social composition of tourism product consumers, offering such cultural information to representatives of various social, ethno-cultural and other groups that meets their expectations and needs. At the same time, the proposed information may subsequently interest tourists and vacationers in participating in the development of the complex through various forms of interaction (especially relevant for tourism and recreational complexes of the Black Sea countries). The main factors determining the attractiveness of the tourism region include:

  • nature and climate;

  • price level;

  • sports, recreational and educational opportunities;

  • cultural and social characteristics: architecture, crafts, language, religion, traditions, gastronomy and others (Arzumanova, 2007).

All of them together must be duly taken into account in the formation of regional / territorial policies aimed at finding solutions to sustainable development problems, and, of course, contribute to improving the quality of life of citizens.

Of course, it should be borne in mind that cultural and information flows must directly or indirectly perform an advertising function, but this also presupposes the presence of an advertising information stream itself, the effectiveness of which, for example, in Sochi in 1997 according to expert evaluation (Matyushenko, Bokov, & Lugansky, 1998) was only 1%. A more effective type of marketing communications in the field of tourism is the formation of public opinion, taking into account the lifestyle of individual segments of consumers. Traditionally, segmentation is carried out according to the geographical, sociodemographic (age, gender, education, marital status, income) and psychographic (lifestyle, activity, interests) principles.

Finally, the organization of information and cultural flows of the tourism and recreational complex should ensure the implementation of its main systemic definition, expressed as “creating some sustainable effect that determines the real possibility of obtaining results useful to the subject of action that sufficiently satisfy the initial (real) need” (Kartashev, 1995, p. 145).

Of course, it is impossible to underestimate the economic effect of the complex, although in some cases other factors acquire the greatest importance - the degree of coverage of the target audience (the number of tourists and vacationers who passed through it), the actual information line, political effect, etc. (Markaryan, 2011; Verbin & Shapovalov, 2019).

Conclusion

Based on the foregoing, we define the principles of optimizing the structure of communications (cultural and information flows) of the tourism and recreation industry.

  • Ensuring the relative information isolation of the tourism complex, its specifics as a special, temporary, beyond the scope of ordinary life, the field of activity.

  • Correspondence of cultural and information flows to the developed types of tourism and recreation.

  • Maximum mobilization of the possibilities of historic-cultural, cultural and environmental support of the tourism and recreational complex.

  • Accounting and use of natural and artificially created overlays of historically different information systems.

  • The relationship of filling and replenishment of the advertising information stream with the main historic-cultural, cultural and environmental flows.

  • Orientation of the content of the advertising information flow to the social and ethnocultural composition of vacationers.

  • Study and accounting of the lifestyle of certain segments of consumers of tourist and recreational services.

  • Correspondence of the structure of cultural and information flows to the main system function of the tourist and recreational complex.

Thus, the development of the tourism and recreation industry is determined by the efficiency of organizing information flows, which not only increase the volume and capacity of this sector of the economy, but also serve as a source of balanced economic growth in the corresponding region. The formation of tourism infrastructure, on the one hand, defines new opportunities for the regional economy (new jobs, growth of population incomes, high-tech infrastructure), on the other hand, sets new standards for the consumption of tourist services, and requires the achievement of a higher quality and standard of living of consumers. As a result, in accordance with the criteria for sustainable development of territories, effective communications (information flows) contribute to the practical implementation of a sustainable growth model in the world.

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Publication Date

31 December 2019

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Future Academy

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77

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Industry, industrial studies, project management, sustainability, business, innovation

Cite this article as:

Salova, T. L., & Fikhtner*, O. A. (2019). Cultural Information Flows Of Tourism And Recreation Industry. In I. O. Petrovna (Ed.), Project Management in the Regions of Russia, vol 77. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 492-497). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.12.05.60