NEW AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES … … … 9 [621679]

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 6
NEW AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 9
THE AIM OF THE ARTICLE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………….. 11
RESEARCH METHODS AND MEANS USED IN DEVELOPING OF THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY …………………. 12
ORADEA AS A SMART CITY, SMART TOURISM DESTINATION ………………………….. ……………………….. 14
Smart cities ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …… 14
Oradea – short pr esentation ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 15
Oradea – smart city ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………… 17
THE TRAVEL CYCLE ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 19
Dreaming Phase ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………… 20
Researching Phase ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………….. 20
Booking Ph ase ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. . 24
Experiencing Phase ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 25
Sharing Phase ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 32
ORADEA CITY CARD ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………….. 34
Partners’ questionnaire ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 35
Rand om people’s questionnaire ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 40
CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……… 48
Conclusions ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 48
Proposals ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……… 50
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …. 53

6

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the world is witnessing a revolution in communications and information
technology. Various s mart technologies reach into almost all aspects of our life, although
they are often unnoticed by customers and taken for granted. These innovation s lead to a
rapid and tangible development in various economic, social, and industrial fields of all
human communities (Barten Christa, 2015). In other words, t echn ology has a significant
impact on individuals ‟ lives due to its permanent and rapid developments and hence it can
be considered as an unpredictable power of imperative importance people have to take note
of (Hooijdonk, 2015 ).
Recently, tourism destinations have also started to implement smart technologies , the
main purpose being the enhance ment of the experience of incoming travelers, tourism being
a rapidly evolving industry that has become increasingly compet itive in the global
marketplace, by using different advantages offered by technology. Therefore, b eing one of
the major contributors to the economy of developed and developing countries with natural
and cultural tourism potential, it has more or less adapted to the adjustment in technology
which is being continuously infused from 1990s.
As an industry, tourism has three major components: Attraction, Accommodation
and Transport. In the developed world, today, all these elements can reach at their zenith in
satisfying the needs of their clien ts aided by the modern technology. Various high tech
information and communication technologies are in use in the tourism sector around the
world not only for the development of the tourism produc t and marketing, but also for the
training of tourism sector personnel. In the case of attractions, both manmade and natural

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attraction owners need to inform their clients about their location, the way their clients can
reach them. So, the tourist offices discharge the duty of promoting the sites, by using the
information technology products. The main dissemination tools of information are the
following: promotional videos, television advertisements, travel documentaries and Internet
web sites. The accommodation units use the information technology, in the sense tha t any
possible client or group of clients has an easy access to the accommodation service
providers. In the transport sector also the contribution of information technology is
outstanding. With the transport providing the link between the origin of residen ts and
destination areas, but also their movement in the area , it is normal to be characterized by a
modern technology. Thus, an airplane flies with the help of modern information technology
equipment, providing information about weather, altitude etc., buses and taxis are equipped
with radio communication systems (A nand & Deepa, 2017).
This being said, w ith so many advances in technology, almost every destination
competes directly with others destinations ar ound the world, and vice versa. It is important
that today‟s destination management organization1 (DMO) managers keep up with
discoveries and changes within this remarkable industry. DMO worldwide are increasingly
investing into their online presence and refer to destination management systems (DMS) in
terms of assisting destinations with these functions due to their lack of technological
understanding. DMS therefore help DMOs by providing a variety of products such as
content management systems and databases to support their web and social media presen ce.
Thus, the integration of IT into the organizational fabric of the DMO is an important key to
success . Integration means that all types of technology, strategies of advertising and overall
organizational goals are coordinated in such a way that they will achieve the desired
effectiveness. (Buhalis &Wagner 2013) However, little research has been conducted about
global best practice e – destinations and limited attempts have been made to benchmark and
rank global e – destinations in terms of their perfor mance and technologies and applications
used (WTO 2005 & WTO 2008).

1 A DMO is an organization, at any level, that is responsible for the marketing of a
destination.

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Smith (2015) highlights the fact that the smart tourism destination s have a better
chance to be competitive compared with other destinations. Moreover, it could be attractive
for foreign investment. Despite this, i t is difficult for most destination marketing
organizations to keep pace with the evolution of new technologies, th e emergence of
innovative advertising strategies, the changes in the consumer market, and the growing
competition due to the increasing globalization (Anand & Deepa, 2017). The biggest
challenge in the tourism industry in adopting technology is the lack of authentic training of
the „right‟ technology that is suitable for a business. Therefore, a very big gap between the
tourism industry and the technology industry can be observed. This being said, there are
some organizations that have been able to tap into this gap, turning themselves into Online
Travel Agents (OTA). Anyway, not every tourism business needs to become an OTA to
successfully utilize technology. The most important thing is to understand each business‟s
competitive edge and to adopt the desired technology in order to improve their competencies
(UNWTO, 2011 ). Thus , a best practice exemplifies initiative, c ourage and renewal . Using
innovative practices is a proof of a significant improve ment over traditional ones and a thing
that differentiates you from competitors. In addition , many destinations worldwide struggle
with this process of implementing the latest technology improvements as their Internet and
online presence might still be quite basic (Buhalis 2000). Therefore, s ome destinations can
be identified as best practice examples due to their use of certai n technologies and
applications, b ut, there are other areas in which these destinations can improve in order to
sustain their future success of the web presence.
In short, tourism activity have been shaped by price competition and combination
technology; new applications for mobiles that offer a wide range of opportunities appear ;
social networks are consolidating themselves within a transparent market i n which citizens
have the possibility to provide services together; changes in the concept of the value chain
are generating new business models ( UNWTO, 2011 ).

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NEW AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

1. Collaborative Filtering is an application that uses the power of customer
databases to identify clients with similar profiles based on previously accumulated customer
knowledge. The discoveries are used for direct marketing. The most known are the
followin g: Amazon.com, SkyMall, Barnes&Noble.
2. Personalization Software/Profiling is a form of data mining, which based on
the believing that the costumers live a busy life, tracks and monitors their preferences and
purchasing behaviors, performing direct marketing accordingly.
3. Knowledge -Based Softwar e is a real threat to advertising, because it not
automatically finds information for clients, but al so narrows down the multiple choices, so
the customer can find the best deal.
4. Electronic payment is the type of software that enables electronic
transactio ns, having as impacts on business operations the following: it lowers the entry
barriers into the tourism industry, increasing competition; it simplifies a complex process of
buying -payment; it facilitates the efforts required for niche marketing and narro w casting
etc.
5. Video Conferencing is a type of software in an infant stage, allow ing people
to communicate with each other visually, disregarding their physical location. That may
reduce the need for business travel.
6. Virtual Reality and Web Casting. Th e fo rmer is a computer -generated
scenario that displays three -dimensional worlds. The latter provides online live events and

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videos. There are t wo things that can happen. One is the loss of intrigue, this being the
reason that motivate individuals to travel. O n the other hand, a balance between
advertisement and reality may appear because have a clear image of the travel destination
which they are supposed to see , their expectations will be well formulated.
7. Online Word of Mouth (WOM) Monitoring refers to the f act that the tourism
organizations can influence conversations related to the travel product and the finale
destination, providing, for example, a virtual community for individuals to share their travel
experiences.
8. Knowledge -based systems – knowledge is the main resource for DMOs, those
being in the business of shifting information and knowledge. Knowledge -based systems help
DMOs in increasing their competitiveness, by facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and
by encouraging learning.
9. CRS (Computer Re servation System) make possible the existence of an
inventory control so their revenue streams will be maximized, being in this sense crucial to
airlines. In plus, nowadays car hiring companies and hotels rent the services from the airline
companies, so th at they are also engaged these systems.
10. GDS (Global Distribution Systems) share reservation and data services to
sales outlets worldwide. The difference between CRS and GDS is the fact that CRS is used
solely by a hotel chain or airline, meanwhile GDS dis tribute more than one CRS to users,
this users being usually travel agents. GDS implies switches or simply computers that are
connected on the one hand with many distinct supplier systems and on the other hand to
numerous end users, those comprising travel agents with a single reservation system to
maintain the sale of airline seats and related tr avel products.
11. GIS Applications in Tourism Planning . Geographic Information System
(GIS) is a treasured tool whose purpose is to capture, stock, manipulate, i nterpret, manage,
and share large volume of geographic information to many local and regional activities of
planning . Unfortunately, GIS applications in the field of tourism have been neglected due to
an unorganized and chaotic data collection and lack of funding. These kind s of applications
usually have been limited to the management of tourism -based land, inventory of
recreational facilities, assessment of visitors ' impact, recreation -wildlife conflict . (Anand &
Deepa, 2017).

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THE AIM OF THE ARTICLE

The paper discusses fields related to tourism and various technologies available to
enhance the existing infrastructure. The technologies discussed are mostly applicable in
advertising and attraction sectors , but also in the development of the tourism pro duct.
Going from general to particular, it also presents a case study about the City of
Oradea, the various advance technologies that have been implemented in order to help
tourist, as well as the people that are not familiar with the city , highlighting the smartness of
Oradea as a city, but also as a tourist destination. It shows the successful strategies and
approaches that have been easily adopted by city of Oradea, in order to increase the tourism
services quality, better said , to enhance the experien ce of incoming traveler , but with these
strategies being an important tool for increasing local tourist consumption , also to increase
the revenues of economic agents in tourism and se rvices , by promoting them, as well as to
increase the city's income .
Last but not least , it analyses the effects of these strategies and it make s proposals
with the aim of complet ing or improving them not only for the benefit of travellers, but also
for the benefit of all stakeholders.

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RESEARCH METHODS AND MEANS USED IN DEVELOPING OF THE
SCIENTIFIC STUDY

For the study of the impact of t echnology on the tourism development in Oradea, a
wide range of research methods were used.
Bibliographic documentation phase involved various types of marketing works, but
also from o ther fields, such as management , administration, aiming to a better understanding
of the development of tourism phenomenon in a modern era in which the technology
occupies an important part of the time of individuals, in general, and, in our case, of touri sts.
The literature review explains the main theories involved in this research project , giving
definitions for the most significant concepts and it shows that there are risks and benefits
involved in smart tourism. However, there are a meaningful number of aspects to be
examine d when it comes to enhancing the customer experience and this also leads to the
research question and specific case study the research will deal with.
Field documentation involved various visits to Tourism Prom otion Association o f
Oradea and the region, numerous discussions with executive director Jurca Mihai and others
actors involved in the association.
Another method of gathering information that took place three months, during which
I observed the evolution of the number of the followers on Instagram and Facebook, sites
that are used in order to promote Oradea, was the observation.

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In plus, a method used was the survey . In this case, I made a visit to the all partners
of Oradea City Card. Following questionnaires in these restaurants, shopping places,
museums , coffee shops SPA & AQUAPARK and other tourists sites I was able to identify
some information related to the approximate number of cardholders that visit them , the
benefits – if there are some – that this visit have brought to partners in terms of economic
impact and marketing .
Once these methods of gathering information were completed, the next step was the
analysis . Based on the analyzed and interpreted data I realized graphic and cartographic
representations, by using special software such as ArcGIS, Google Maps. The last method is
the synthesis . The results and strategies, used in a creative way, were substantiat ed to define
conclusions and to make proposals for a better implementation of smart technologies in this
field.

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ORADEA AS A SMART CITY, SMART TOURISM DESTINATION

Smart cities
Newly , a new expression appeared : “smart city”. Essentially , this expression
involves six different aspects and it focuses on: smart economy, smart people, smart
governance, smart mobility, smart environment and smart living (Giffinger et al., 2007:11 ).
A Smart City was defined as “a city well performing in a for ward -looking way in these six
characteristics, built on the „smart‟ combination of endowments and activities of self –
decisive, independent and aware citizens” (Giffinger et al., 2007:11) . Smart is the term that
describes all things w hich are improved by technology. Thus, smartness is usually closely
related to enhancing the usability of certain products by implementing technologies. So, a
smart city is heavily related to the use of communication and information technology. One
of its aims is to give answers to all various kind of needs associated to a city in a well-
informed and quick manner (Su, Li, & Fu, 2011). Su, Li & Fu (2011) highlighted the
usefulness of creating smart application systems. There is a large number of various main
applications which were identified, for example: the development of a “green city, smart
medical treatment, smart transportation, wireless city, smart home, smart urban
management, smart public services and smart tourism” (Su, Li & Fu, 2011:1029).

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Oradea – short presentation
The study area for this project is Oradea. Before I come with arguments in order to
prove its smartness , I will introduce the city , in this way the readers will have a better
appreciation of the subject matter. Oradea lies at the meeting point of the Crișul Repede's
basin and the Crișana plain, being situated 126 meters above sea level. It is surrounded on
the north -eastern part by the hills o f Oradea, part of the Șes hills, representing the area of
transition from relief hills, t o the Pannonian plain. It is located in the west ern part of
Romania, on the Crișul Repede River, in the immediate vicinity of the Hungarian border. It
is the administrative residence of the county, located only 13 km from the western border of
Romania . (Figure 1 and 2)

Figure1. The settlement of Oradea at national level2

2 www.arcgis.co m

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Figure2. The settlement of Oradea in Bihor3
Throughout history, one of t he events that influenced decisively its evolution is the
entry under the rule of Habsburgs, this moment corresponding to the entrance to its golden
age. Many of the city's current landmarks were constructed such as the Roman Catholic

3 www.arcgis.com

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Cathedral, the Moon Chu rch, the State Theatre and the Baroque Palace, o ne of the most
important engineers being Franz Anton Hillebrandt, a Viennesse one that had the task of
planning the city in the Baroque style. Now , Oradea's current architecture is a mix of
Communist -era apar tment buildings and beautiful historical buildings, the latters being
remnants of the era when the city was part of Austria -Hungary. In addition to these
buildings, Oradea is remarkable for its particularly rich collection of Art Nouveau
architecture. All these constructions are very important assets of Oradea as a travel
destination and, nowadays, a travel destination definitely needs modern techniques of
promotion and development of travel product in order to attract a significant number of
tourists . They represent the tourist potential of Oradea, a potential that can be and must be
exploited with the help of many advances in technology.
Oradea – smart city
Related to our study area, one thing that supports the idea of a smart city is the
implement ation of different smart city‟s applications. For example, on 07.11.2014 Oradea
City Hall officially launched the Oradea City Report application, which is a free, simple and
intuitive mobile or tablet application app that allows the citizens to send notifi cations
directly various complaints and incidents to Oradea City Hall and local public service
operators (Oradea Water Company, Oradea Local Transport, Oradea Terminal Services,
Oradea Local Police, Luxten Lighting Company, RER Ecological Service). Users u sing the
app can view both their own notifications and those sent by other users, which become
public when they are taken over by the authorities. An important thing is that user
identification data is required in order to send a referral (name, surname, p hone number), but
they are not going to be made public.
Not long after, the City Hall launched the Mobile Pay, an o nline card payment of
taxes and fees through mobile devices , made with a 0 (zero) commission. The system is
developed for the management of el ectronic payments, made by bank card through the
Internet, related to tax liabilities due by natural or legal taxpayers to the local budget, as well
as fines and parking fines.

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Another application launched by the City Hall is the Oradea City App. I will n ot
approach this app here, leaving it for later, when I will approach it more closely, being
effectively linked to the tourism side.
In this order of ideas, I move on to Smart Tourism Destinations . To understand better
the concept, I present o ne of the def initions received by s mart tourism destination: “a
platform, which is implementing ICTs such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing and
Internet of Things to offer the tourist personalized information and enhanced services
established by mobile end -user devices” ( Boes, 2015).
ICT has a key role in the competition of tourism destinations and organizations . It
“empowers consumers to identify, customize and purchase tourism products and supports
the globalization of the industry by providing tools for developing, managing and
distributing offerings w orldwide” (Buhalis & O'Connor, 2005:7).
There are many procedures to achieve smartness as a tourism destination.
Technological ly, smartness is also delineated by the implementation of tourism related
applications . These apps can be used within Smart Cities ‟ components. Smart Tourism
Destinations should also empower a creative environment within the city. They should be
able to provide their people with room and space for training , innovation and knowledge
creation. In plus , they should establish a functiona l digital infrastructure , this one allowing
an up to date communication and knowledge management. Another key aspect is the public
and private communication within the destination since these sectors are in the position of
need ing to cooperate for implementing smartness in the destination (Buhalis &
Amaranggana, 2013).
Here comes the Oradea City App, an application offered by the City of Oradea with
the main purpose of providing tourists and people that are not familiar with the ci ty, useful
information, in order to enhance their experience. Its users get access to places to visit,
events, maps, ATMs, shops, hotels, restaurants, tourists routs and many more. However, we
are going to take a closer look on it a bit later, when we will discuss about the travel cycle ‟s
phases and we will see the various advance technologies used in each stage.

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THE TRAVEL CYCLE

Travel cycle is a flow where the sharing stage as one person‟s shared experience
often inspires other person s‟ dreaming phase (UNWTO, 2011 ). It comprises the following
phases: Dreaming, Researching, Booking, Experiencing and Sharing. (Figure 3)

Figure3. Travel cycle
This chapter present s the smart technologies used by city of Oradea in order t o
capture the attention of the potential tourists, to arouse their interest, win their trust, so, in
this order of ideas, to enhance the tourist experience, making reference in a permanent way
to the phases of travel cycle.

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Dreaming Phase
The importance of information technology in tourism, especially in World Wide
Web, has increased tremendously over the past three decades and this trend will certainly
continue. So, t he first thing that must be mentioned here is the fact that nowadays the
primary source of information – the traditional one- word -of-mouth is being far exceeded by
the W eb. Thus, the first thing one does when wanting to travel to a new place is to search
online for information. One does this in order to find out wh ere and how to travel. The most
popular sourc es of information are the blogs and reviews , where tourists can read about the
destination and they also watch online travel videos more and more, both le isure and
business travellers. In short, the vast majorit y of travellers are clearly finding inspiration on
the Web .
This being said the question that Oradea need and has to ask is: Is the brand of the
city present at relevant inspiration points? Is it promoted in such a way that the tourists are
informed about it very fast and easy? This will be highlighted in the following subchapters.
Researching Phase
An outstanding result of these advances in technology is the fact that tourism
industry has experience d a shift fr om offline to online travellers, r egarding ways of
communication and search of information. Today the Internet is one of the most effective
communication, i nformation and promotion tools. Depending on accessibility and
knowledge, a destination explore s and use s different options (web sites, emails, web
advertising) to contact its former or future clients, so that it keep s them updated . For
example, it can be observed an increasing number of consumers worldwide that are not
dependent on travel agencies anymore to look for data and answers for their next holiday.
Instead of that , consumers make use of the Web1, Web2 and Internet. They browse online
for information about their potential next holiday destination (ETC 2012). Summarily , the
appearance of Information and communications technology (ICT) makes possible for
consumers to search for destinations more easily, making it necessary for destination
marketing to constantly improve the web presence and social media used by destinations .
(Buhalis &Wagner 2013) Through the move from offline to online travellers, the web and
social media presence of destinations are crucial as e -Destinations serve as platforms where

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consumers can be inspired, get all the information about a potential trip t o a destination and
eventually book the holiday (Pan& Fesenmaier 2003).
Returning to travel cycle, a fter dreaming and starting narrowing down their options,
tourists get deep into the Researching stage . Here they spend quite a bit of time. One of the
important planning tools for leisure and un managed business travel is Search. The number
of visited sites before making the booking increases, the intensity of research being more
acute. Therefore, this phase is a demanding one before going to the next one – booking. In
this order of ideas, what Oradea needs to do is to understand its consumer‟s path to
purchase, to know what search terms its customers have along the way and, in this regard,
how to capitalize on the opportunity to be in front of them . Thus, the different promotion
means that Oradea has must be mentioned here.
Trying to get into deep water I made a visit to the Tourism Promotion Association o f
Oradea in Piața Unirii, 410100 Oradea. There I had the chance to talk to its executive
director Jur ca Mihai. The answer I received was: as far as the promotion of the city through
is concerned, I can tell you that it is oradea.travel, although the website is not updated . The
site can be accessed in five languages : Romanian, English, Hungarian, German and Italian
and it offers information about accessibility of the tourist destination, its tourist sites,
accommodation units in Oradea, ATM&POS, tourist information points, public institutions,
educational institutions , also providing a cultural agenda sch edule, all these being
accompanied by representative photos, videos or interactive maps.
In plus, t he presence of Oradea on social media under the name of Visit Oradea must
be mentioned here. Oradea Tourism is the official website of the Tourism Promotion
Association o f Oradea, as well as the region, being an organization of the City Hall of
Oradea. It aims to stimulate and support local, regional and national development through
initiatives, actions and measures aimed at increasing the number of tourists, developing and
promoting tourism in Oradea and the region, both in the Romania and abroad. Another goal
is to achieve or provide the necessary support for the development and implementation of
local , regional and national tourism development strategies taking into account the
principles of sustainable tourism. The founding members of this association are the
following: City Hall of Oradea, Eurobusiness Parc Oradea, Oradea Metropolitan Area Lotus

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Cent er Commercial Center Oradea, Double Tree by Hilton Oradea, Hotel President Băile
Felix, Hotel Ramada Oradea .
Since its launch in 2014, Visit Oradea – the Official Visitor Information for Oradea –
have reached a total number of “likes” of 26 113 and a number of followers 26 351 on
20.04.2018 on Facebook . Thus, Facebook pages can have a great impact upon tourists. But
one will have impact only if it generates traffic. This being said, I have follow the evolution
of the number of likes and followers. Thus , after a month the number of likes increased to 26
422 and the number of followers increased to 26 673 (On 20 .05.2018.). The Official Visitor
Information for the city offers information related to the location of the association, its
schedule, contact dat a and its mission. Other information revealed here is the possibility to
purchase the Oradea city card and the Oradea Tourist Guide, the page providing information
about the location point where you can purchase them and their prices. In the last month of
the study the situation was the following: the number of likes increased to 26 880 and the
number of followers increased to 27 146 (on 20.06.2018) . (Figure 4)

Figure4. The evolution of likes and of followers on Facebook
Another impact on the travelers worth to be mentioned here are the review s. I took a
look at the review s and the thing that I was able to see is the fact that the vast majority are
26.113 26.422 26.880
26.351 26.673 27.146
25.40025.60025.80026.00026.20026.40026.60026.80027.00027.20027.400
20.04.2018 20.05.2018 20.06.2018The evolution of likes and of followers on
Facebook
Likes
Folowers

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positive. From a total number of 240 of reviews, 229 are 5 star review, 7 a re 4 star review, 2
are 3 star review, 1 is 2 star review and 1 is 1 star review . Thus, the average is 4.9 star s of 5
(this data is from 20 .04.2018). On 20 .05.2018 I took a look again and I could find out that
the number of reviews have increased with 10, a fairly small number , considering the time –
one month. From a total number of 250 of reviews, 238 are 5 star review, 8 are 4 star
review, 2 are 3 star review, 1 is 2 star review and 1 is 1 star review. Thus, the average is still
4.9 stars of 5. In the las t month of the study the number of reviews was 253 with 238 – 5 star
review, 8 – 4 star review, 2 – 3 star review, 1 – 2 star review and 1 – 1 star review, the average
being again 4.9 stars of 5 (this data is from 20.05.2018). (Figure 5)

Figure5. The evoluti on of the reviews on Facebook
Another site or social network that is been used in order to promote Oradea is
Instagram. Here, the Official Page of Oradea has 3001 followers and a tot al number of
publications of 388 on 20 .03.2018 . After a month, it had 3096 followers and a total number
of 408 publications on 20 .04.2018. After a nother month, on 20 .05.2018 the number of
followers increased to 3210 and the total number of publications to 425. In the last month of
the study, on 20.06.2018 the total number o f followers has increased to 3356 and the total
number of publications to 440 . (Figure 6)
229 238 239
7 8 10 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1
20.04.2018 20.05.2018 20.06.2018The evoution of the reviews on Facebook
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star

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Figure6. The evolution of the number of followers and publications on Instagram
Booking Phase
Another outstanding result of these advances in technology is the booking
procedures. The consumers are no longer dependent on travel agencies anymore to book
their next holiday. They can do this online.
Thus, o nline booking have been in a continuous process of growth and an impressive
growth in mobile bookings for air and hotel that it is even accelerating further in 2011 can
be seen . The most important thing which the points of interest of Oradea must be aware of is
the fact that their consumers must find and book them via any device. An approach to this
can be the mobile field apps, but the, marketers capitalize on the opportunity via Search
advertising as well. Recently, Google added the capability to add a phone number to mobile
ads for those compa nies that have a call center. The c onclusion they reached is that calls
generated via the Click to Call ads were much more likely to lead to a booking than other
lead channels. Anther effect of adding the phone number was to improve the overall click
through rates . This also strongly contri buted to an increase in bookings over mobile devices.
3001 3096 3210 3356
388 408 425 440
05001000150020002500300035004000
20.03.2018 20.04.2018 20.05.2018 20.06.2018The evolution of the number of followers
and publications on Instagram
Followers
Publications

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Experiencing Phase
The most important thing worth to be mentioned here is the fact that individuals
continue to search and , of course, to book en rout e to and from their destination. In this
order of ideas, tourists travel together with a “portable concierge”, whether it is a smart
phone, a laptop or a tablet .
Therefore, t he utilization of Information Technology (IT) is spreading in tourism
industry with explosive growth of Interne t, Social Network Servi ce (SNS) through smart
phone app lications. Especially, since intensive information has high value on tourism area,
IT is becoming a crucial factor in the tourism industry. The smart tourism is explained as an
holistic approach that p rovide tour information, service rel ated to travel, such as destina tion,
food, transportation, reservation, travel guide, conveniently to tourists through IT devices.
(Barten Christa, 2015) . The tools within smart tourism enhance the access to information
about points of interest that are nearby (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2013 . They have the main
benefit to enrich the tourist experience (Smith, 2015).
Each kind of technology gives an upside that makes traveling easier and better as for
example smartphones have the capacity to improve the planning of trips and in plus to add
the new element of meeting instant needs to traveling (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014)
The usage of smartpho nes and therefore also apps, is considered to be a mediating
source due to the fact that they provide information not only during the anticipatory phase,
when the tourists research information and plan the trip/ visit, but also during the
experiential phas e in which the experience happens and reflective phase, when tourists
reflect on their activities and produce a judgment as they provide useful insight in the event
the tourist participates in, its location etc. Thus, travellers use them to look up and boo k
excursion opportunities, make car service or restaurant reservations, etc.
In other words, t ravelers usually search and collect any tour information, such as
route, transportation, food, accommodation, not only before the tour but also during the tour.
In this respect, smart phone application can be considered as efficient tourism tools because
it enables the tourists to find information anywhere and anytime in accordance with where
the users are and what situation is through latest technology, including appli cations,

26
Augmented Reality (AG)4, and Location -based Service (LB S)5. For example, smart tourism
tool with augmented reality enables tourists to have an experience in a different place and a
different time, with travel guides having now the p ossibility to come to life in real -time
locations (Chillon, 2012). Therefore, there is a large number of domestic applications
services among the travel destinations, each of these application s focus on promotion of
tourism by providing introduction of des tination, announcement of inbound tourism, local
event s, and also meet the tourists‟ standard demands through giving basic tour information,
restaurants, transportation, accommodation, mapping service . Also, there are special
applications which function as a tour gui de for travelers in only specif ic sites, famous
historical destination, museums, trails, mainly with storytelling information through smart
phone‟s audio service and AG. Given the foreign language services, these applications are
useful especial ly for Foreign Independent Tour (FIT ).
This being said, the question s city of Oradea must ask itself are the following: Do I
make it easy for the customers to find concierge type information when they‟re traveling?
And there are kind of three sides to this: is it easy for consumers to get online with reli able
access when they are travel ing in the destination area? D o they have the opportunity to use
different apps without necessitating an Internet connection . Are the different apps and si tes
etc. offering up useful information to guests and tourists that helps enhance their trip and
their experience ?
In order to find out the answers to these questions, the degree in which Oradea
responds to these requests I did a research and I discovered the following.
The Oradea.travel site is a useful information and promotion tool mostly in the
second phase of the travel cycle, not especially in this one because it provides information to
the travelers as long as they have mobile data active or Wi-Fi. Firstly, using mobile data in

4 Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real -world environment whose
elements are augmented by computer -generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data
(http://en.wikipedia.org/ ).
5 Location -based services (LBS) are a general class of computer program -level services used to include specific
controls for location and time data as control features in compu ter programs. As such LBS is an information
and has a number of uses in Social Networking today as an entertainment service, which is accessible with
mobile devices through the mobile network and which uses information on the geographical position of the
mobile device. This has become more and more important with the expansion of the smartphone and tablet
markets as well ( http://en.wikipedia.org/ ).

27
another country than the one of your residence is pretty or very expensive. Secondly, not
anywhere in Oradea tourists have access to Wi -Fi, the free internet areas offered by the
municipality are in number of approximately 20 and they do not cover a very wide area.
Therefore, the site has a large amount of useful information for its visitors, including tourist
trails with different themes such as: Palaces and Fortress, Seccession Oradea, Oradea cit y of
Curches, Memorable Oradea, but also neighboring tourist routes such as the Health Route,
Oradea – Băile Felix , information about public transport and all the things I mentioned
above ., but like in the case of any other site you need internet connectio n to have access to
it, a thing not possible without additional cost for the foreign travellers.
This being said, on February 3, 2015 , the City Hall of Oradea with the support of the
Association for Tourism Promotion from Oradea and from the region launched the official
tourism application of Oradea and Bă ile Felix. Oradea City is available for free in the App
Store and Google Play stores. The use of the application is not conditional upon the use of
an Internet connection : once the information has b een dow nloaded, it can be viewed without
an Internet connection , after installing the application, the latter download ing all content in
the default language . In plus, f or those who want or need to use the internet, the application
provides details of all the free internet areas offered by the municipality – the WIFI section.
Besides the vast offer of information, in various forms: photos, audio, text, the
application is pro -active, announcing the user about the events taking place in the city.
Those who create events have the opportunity to make them public almost instantly to all
those interested by simply notifying the application. Like the other information, the event
section is a "point of interest" , a geo -locatio n point on a map Therefore, the travellers have
the possibility to program their route s to the venue or event put in their phone's calendar, not
to forget about it.
The application presents information from Oradea and Băile Felix in the form of
points of interest. The geo -location system of each point of interest gives the opportunity to
create routes to tourist attractions or the location of events mentioned above . Geo -location is
available no matter where the user is.

28
It also provides information on the routes of the various bus or tr am lines or public
parking system in the city. Thus, the p ayment of the public transport or parking ticket in
Oradea can be made through the application.
Since its launch in 2014, the number of people that have downloaded the application
has reached 5 00 0. Once again, I took a look at the review s and the thing that I was able to
see is the fact that the vast majority are positive. From a total number of 110 of reviews, 80
are 5 star review, 1 3 are 4 star review, 7 are 3 star review, 1 is 2 star review and 9 is 1 star
review . Thus, the average is 4.4 stars of 5 (this data is from 24.04.2018). As I did in the case
of the Facebook and Instagram pages, after a month I verified again the numbers. I identified
the following: From a total number of 122 of reviews, 86 are 5 star review, 17 are 4 star
review, 8 are 3 star review, 1 is 2 star review and 10 is 1 star review. Therefore, on
24.05.2018, the average is still 4.4 stars of 5.
When launching the application , it was available only in two languages: Romanian
and English, one of the immediate purposes being the utilization of the application also in
Hungarian. N owadays , this thing is possible.
Its main purposes are the following:
 To create a free a nd intuitive electronic platform to access the most important
information about the two destinations.
 To promote the most important tourist attractions.
 To integrate part of City Hall's on -line services into one place (OTL tickets,
parking tickets).
 To promote and support the economic agents which provi de services for
tourists.
 To create a way of direct interaction with tourists.
To provide dedicated navigation maps.6
Next to the Oradea City App, there is another tool to enhance the experience of
tourists, therefore, to increase their number. It is called Oradea City Card. An important

6 http://www.oradea.ro/

29
thing to be mentioned here is the fact that these two go hand in hand. Why? Because w hen
purchasing the card, one downloads the app in order to orientate easier or, why not, when
one downloads the application, it realize s the benefits brought by purchasing the card.
The card contains free of charge on the means of transport of the OTL for 48
hours, in Oradea and Băile Felix and 1 Mai, 50% discounts for the most important tourist
attractions in Oradea, a discount booklet to the most important local economic operators in
the city and from Băi and touri st maps of Oradea, Băile Felix and Băile 1 Mai. Depending
on the objectives and services they access, the cardholder can save up to 400 RON , say
promoters of the offer. If at the launch the card cost 15 lei , nowadays, the card can be
purchased for 20 RON, t aking this into consideration, purchasi ng the card shoul d be a good
investment for travellers.
I could find that the number of printed city cards in the last two years was 2000,
of which 65% was sold. Thus, the number of the sold city cards is 1300. The data was given
to me by the representative of the Association for Tourism Promotion in Oradea and the
region, Mihai Jurcă .
At the same time, the Tourism Promotion Association of Oradea also produced
10 souvenir models related to Oradea and Băile Felix, which in turn can be purch ased by the
tourists. These souvenirs: magnets, mug, bag, travel badge, keychain etc. can also be
purchased at Oradea City Card Points of Sale.
Oradea City Card is available both in Oradea and Bă ile Felix. In Oradea, the card
can be purchased from kiosks ( Crișul Shop, Central Railway Station, Fortress Square, CFR
Bridge, Rogerius Square, Olosig, House of Culture, Emanuel Church, Aviatorilor, Ciheiului,
Nufărul, Războieni, Auchan , University , Nufărul Bus station and Cazaban ), from . Points of
sale Oradea press (The Way of the Republic, Crișul Shop, Nufărul Bus station, Union
Square, Central Railway Station Oradea ), from t ourist Attractions in Oradea (Darvas House –
La Roche, The Zion Synagogue, t ower of Oradea City Hall ), but also from hotels (Hotel
Ramada Oradea, Hotel Double Tree by Hilton an d Hotel President Băile Felix) , those not
being mentioned in www.oradeacitycard.ro . On this website one has all the information
related to how the card works – we can see here once again the intervention of technology in

30
the development of the tourism product. Returning to card, i t is activated in public transport
(buses, trams) via card validators. Validation is mandatory for every use. Children up to and
including 5 years old benefit from free of charge in the OTT public transport. (Oradea, Băile
Felix, Băile 1 Mai ).
All points of sale of the card are marked with distinctive markings to make them
more easily identifiable. Each reseller has a set of promotional tools and a City Card user
manual to provide full information on the use of the card. (Figure 7)

Figure7. Points of sale of the city card7
At the time of launch, the 27 July 2015, there were almost 40 private partners
alongside the six tourist attractions – Town Hall Tower, Zoological Garden, three memorial

7 www.arcgis.com

31
houses in Oradea, and the Museum of the Thesaurus and the Museum Collection of the
Roman Catholic Cathedral. `
In this respect, since its launch the City Hall organize each year edition s to look
for partners. On these occasion s, they invite economic agents working in the tourism
industry or tourism -related fields (restaurants, shops, tourist services, etc.) to become
partners of t his project. Partner status of the Oradea City Card package is obtained by
offering a discount to those who purchase the package in the form of a coupon. The partners
will also be presented on the official website of the card: www.oradeacitycard.ro . The mo st
important tourist attractions in Ora dea offer the cardholders a 50% of the displayed price.
The discount applies for a si ngle visit and is valid for one the person. Discounts to private
partners are applied as indicated on the coupon upon presentation.
This Year Oradea Citycard Has As Partners The Following: Spoon Restaurant , The
Hub – Hotel Ramada Oradea , Laurus – Hotel Double Tree By Hilton , Butoiul De Aur , Crinul
Alb, Cyrano , Eldorado , Queen‟s Pub , Lactobar , Mondo – Hotel Continental Forum Oradea ,
Pizza Hut – Lotus Center , Taco Fresh , TO Chefs , Spoon Bar &Grill , Orhideea By Hotel
Nevis , Palace And City Hall Tower , The “ Iosif Vulcan ” Memorial Museum , “Ady Endre”
Memorial Museum , Memorial House “Aurel Lazar”, Roman -Catholic Episcopy, Oradea
Fortress , Sinagoga Neologa Zion , Bookafe , Evolution – Lotus Center , Pellini Top Cafe –
Lotus Center (Figure 8), Ristretto , Bacio Dolce , Fanice , R&R Republicii Street, Semiramis
Café, Cinema Palace – Lotus Center , Zoo Oradea , Lord's Pub , Mydeck , Shot Caffe – Lotus
Center, Escape Zone , Lokal , Rewine, Warzone Oradea , Semiramis Coffee Store , Benvenuti
– Lotus Center (Figure 9), Farmacia 3 – Lotus Center , Kingart , Starshiners – Lotus Center ,
Aqua Park – Hotel President Baile Felix , Eforea Spa – Hotel Double Tree By Hilton ,
Riserva Wine Spa – Hotel Ramada Oradea , Hotel President Baile Felix , Hotel Continental
Forum Oradea , Perla Complex .

32

Figure8. Pellini Top Cafe Figure9. Benvenuti
This being said, the conclusion reached by Eduard Florea , the public
administrator of Oradea is the following: "Next to Oradea City App , the official tourist
information application, Oradea City Card, is an important tool for increasing local tourist
consumption, Oradea being among the first three cities in Romania to launch such an
initiative". "We believe that this instrument will lead to a significant increase in the revenues
of economic agents in tourism and services as well as to the increase of the city's income,"
added Eduard Florea.
Sharing Pha se
It is kno wn that one traveler ‟s shared experience becomes another person ‟s
inspiration for dreaming. So, the cycle starts all over again . Why? Because most of the
people who are planning to travel read reviews from others who visited the places before
them and the trends show that the number of the former continues to grow .
This being said, the question Oradea needs to ask itself is: Am I engaging with
travellers about their experiences? In the case of Oradea‟s Facebook official page, as I
mentioned above -at the Researching Phase – most of the review s are positive, the average
star review being 4.9 stars of 5 (this data is an average of 4 month, from 20.0 3.2018 to
20.06.2015 the time during which I conducted the study ). In the next two months the
average star review remained 4.9 stars of 5. Therefore, the great majority of travelers leave
with a positive experience and a good opinion regarding the destination. Thus, in the section
special designed for these reviews, one can read about the experiences of travelers who have

33
been in the desired tourist destination before them. Regarding this, one thing that I want to
propose is the development of a special online platform . Here one can enter a nd add a
review at the time when it purchases the card. But this subject will be discuss later in the
following chapter which will comprise my proposals in order enhance the usage of the card
and of the app.

34

ORADEA CITY CARD

In this subchapter I will present the current situation of the Oradea City Card in the
field, discovered by applying both partners' questionnaires and questionnaires to local
people. Its main aim is to highlight the negative or positive impacts of these partnerships of
the sta keholders , impacts upon the revenues of economic agents in tourism and services , but
these impacts refer both to the partners and to the tourists .
I started on this road of finding as much information as possible with the intention of
coming up at the end with proposals in order to enhance the benefits or , if there are, to
minimize the negative impacts.
On the one hand , the questions were designed in such a way that the responds would
help me to understand the ir opinion about this system , about the people involved , if they
have any statistic r elated to the usage of the card , if there is a platform for reviews, their
future plans, if they want or not to remain in this partnership , their reasons for joining it, the
things they want to change or to improve.
On the other hand, f ollowing the interpretation of questionnaires and investigations
undertaken results were concluded . All the questions I made helped me to receive the
answers I was looking for. Regarding the achievement of realistic expectations regar ding the
stakeholder ‟s organization, these have been partially met. But this subject will be

35
approached at the end of the chapter, after the detailing the results obtained from the
analysis of the questionnaires.
Partners’ questionnaire
Firstly , I will st art with the part that involved the partners. Thus, I made a visit to the
all associates of Oradea City Card. First of all, I took some calls to some of the partners in
order to develop an idea about the situation before applying the actual questionnaires.
Thus, in the first stage of calling randomly some of the partners of the city card, I
found the following: no one is holding or developing a statistic with the number of tourists
or local people using the city card or with the countries emitting the flow of this kind of
tourists. For example, the first restaurant that I approached was Spoon, located in Lotus
Center. I found that they do not have a real number of their consumers that are cardholders.
Trying to find at least one suggestive number , I talked to the stuff. Therefore, I was said that
from what they have seen the number is very small, about 3 cardholders in 2 month, tourists
with the city card benefiting from a discount of 10% , but they do not know the tourists‟
sending country . This is also the case of ReWine Restaurant, where the data that I found was
approximately the same: 2 or 3 cardholders in 2 months; they do not know the country of
their residence. The data about the flow of the consumers with the city card does not exist.
Wanting to get into deep water, the next step that I made was to apply the
questionnaires to all the partners, which are in a number of 36. The questionnaire was made
in such a way that the questioned person should not need more than 8 minutes to answer the
questions, which are in a number of 10. Five of them are closed questions with “Yes” and
“Now” answers, but there are also two open questions in order to find out opinions and other
details that I h ave not incorporate in the questionnaires: for example, the things that the
partners thing must be improved. There are also two r ating scale (Semantic differential )
questions . Therefore, I applied the questionnaires to all the partners, thing that lasted 5 days,
during which I tried to get all the information I needed in order to have a better idea about
the subject matter .
The questionnaire that I applied to the partners is the following:
1. When did you become a City Card partner?

36
…………………………………………………………… ……………………………
2. What were the main reasons for joining this partnership?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
3. Partnership with Oradea City Card helped to increase the number of clients?
Yes
No
4. Do you have a statistic of the number of cardholders who visited you?
Yes
No
5. Do you have a statistic of the nationalities of the cardholders who visited you?
Yes
No
6. Do you have an online platform where customers can write reviews?
Yes
No
7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think the promotion of the Oradea city
card has evolved since its inception?
A little Very much
8. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think Oradea has developed in terms of
tourism over the past 4 years?
A little Very much
9. Are you planning to stay in this partnership for a long time?

37
10. Which are the things that you believe must be change d or improve d at the city
card?
………………………………………………………… ………………………………
In the following I will present each question with its answer . I will begin with the
two r ating scale (Semantic differential ) questions , their result being easily to be represented
with the help of charts. The first r ating scale question was: “ On a scale of 1 to 10 how much
do you think the promotion of Oradea city card has been evolved from its beginning? ” After
the interpretation of all the 36 questionnaires the average note that the promotion of Oradea
city card in the last 4 years received is 6.80 points of 10, an average that shows, little interest
on the card‟s promotion. The opinion of the stakeholders varies from one to another. But the
vast majority agrees with the fact that, from what they have seen, since card‟s launch its
promotion was not really a priority. (Figure 10)

Figure10. The evolution of the promotion of the Oradea city card in the partners‟ vision
Despite this, they all agreed on the fact that, in terms of tourism, city of Oradea has
evolved very much in the last four years. The average not e that Oradea received was 8.58.
When compared this chart with the one of the evolution of the promotion of Oradea city
012345678
1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points 6 points 7 points 8 points 9 points 10
pointsOn a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you
think the promotion of the Oradea city
card has evolved since its inception?

38
card, one can see that the differences are earsplitting , most of the partners agreeing with the
fact that the evolution of Oradea‟s card had a minimum impact over the Oradea ‟s one as a
travel destination. The main reasons they remembered was the modernization of some of the
streets near the city‟s center and their transformation in pedestrian streets as well as the
modernization of the center , the renovation of facades of some buildings that are art –
nouveau . (Figure 11)

Figure11. The evolution of Oradea in terms of tourism in the last 4 years in partners‟ vision
This being said the partners‟ opinion about the card is not so positive. When asking
about the main reasons for joining this partnership, the list that I found out was pretty long,
but when I ask if they met their expectations, most of the answers were negative. In fact, 2 3
of 36 were negative, while the others were positive. The main reasons were: the promotion
of their product, civic spirit – the promotion of Oradea, curiosity, customer loy alty due to the
discount, the development of a reliable brand . (Figure 12)
024681012
1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points 6 points 7 points 8 points 9 points 10
pointsThe evolution of Oradea in terms of
tourism in the last 4 years

39

Figure1 2. Partners‟ reasons for joining the partnership?
Therefore, g oing further , the next question was about the city card‟s effect on the
clients‟ flow. From a total number of 36 partners, only 8 had a positive answer. One partner
that really must be mentione d here is the Cinema Palace, the representative of this cinema
having a very strong positive opinion, saying that the cardholders are very motivated due to
the lowest prices they receive. One thing that I have observed myself is the commercials ,
which appe ar very often. I could dare to say that the city card‟s commercial appears always
before one of two movies. In fact, as for me, I found out about the existence of the city card
at the Cinema Palace in the few minutes with commercials before the movie‟s start .
Other things which emerged from the questionnaire where the following: no on e has
a statistic with the number of car dholders that have visited them and, of course, neither with
the nationalities of the cardholders that visited them. Most of the stakeholders are planning
to remain in this partnership for a long time, in fact, 25 fr om 36 answered affirmatively.
In conclusion, the launch of Oradea City Card came with a large range of
expectations both from partners and clients. As for partners, these expectations are far away
for being fulfilled . On one hand, one thing that comes to my mind now is the reply of an
33%
17%
6% 25% 19% What were the main reasons for joining
this partnership?
The promotion of their
product
Civic spirit
Curiosity
Customer loyalty due to the
discount
The development of a
reliable brand

40
employee of the Butoiul de Aur Restaurant : “The only thing I got from the partnership was a
glass sticker ”. On the other hand, others partners put on the first place the well of Oradea as
a destination. Thus, they are not com plaining of gaining almost nothing from this
partnership , reminding the civic spirit.
Random people ’s questionnaire
In order to see the other face of the situation, namely the opinion of the customers ,
possible -customers or local people , I applied another questionnaire, this time to them. The
questionnaire was made in such a way that the questioned person should not need more than
10 minutes to answer the questions, which are in a number of 13. Eight of them are closed
questions with “Yes” and “Now” answers, but there are also three open questions in order to
find out if the individuals make the difference between the modern and the traditional ways
of promotion or if they know the sites used for the promotion of the city. There are also tw o
rating scale (Semantic differential ) questions . Therefore, I applied the questionnaires to as
many possible people, thing that lasted two weeks, from 25.05.2018 to 08.06.2018, during
which I tried to get all the information I needed in order to have a be tter idea about the
subject matter . The total number of people that who completed the questionnaire was 135.
The questionnaire that I applied to them is the following:
1. Do you think that Oradea is a smart city?
Yes
No
2. W hich are the traditio nal ways of promoting Oradea you familiar with?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
3. Which are the modern ways of promoting Oradea you familiar with?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
4. On a scale from 1 to 10, how efficient do you think social media channels are
compared to the traditional ways of promoting the city ?

41
A little Very much
5. What is the site used to promote Oradea?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
6. Do you know special city applications that serve as travel guides?
Yes
No
7. Have you heard of Oradea City App?
Yes
No
8. Have you downloaded City App?
Yes
No
9. Have you heard of Oradea City Card ?
Yes
No
10. Have you bought such a card from Oradea?
Yes
No
11. Do you know someone who bought the card?
Yes
No

42
12. Have you eve r recommended this card?
Yes
No
13. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think the promotion of the city increased
as a result of includi ng these Smart Promotional Means ?
A little Very much

In the following I will start again with the presentation of each question with its
answer. At the first question the vast majority of the people responded affirmatively: the y
considered Oradea to be a smart city . In fact, from a total number of 135, 123 responded to
“Yes” at the question: “ Do you think that Oradea is a smart city? ” (Figure 13)

Figure13. The smartness of Oradea
Trying to find if they understand the term “s martness”, the following two questions
ask the respondents to list the modern and the traditional ways of promoting Oradea , in
order to see if they make the difference between them. At the question: “ Which are the
91% 9% Do you think that Oradea is a smart city?
Yes-123 respondents
No-12 respondents

43
traditio nal ways of promoting Oradea you familiar with? ” 24 respondents respond with
flyers, 18 with fairs, 9 with magazines . Other answers are: newspapers , advertising posters
on public transport and posters on buildings. A number of 20 responded with “I don‟t
know”. When asked about the mo dern ways of promotion people gave the following
answers: Facebook (58 answers), articles on the internet (44 answers), Instagram (25
answers), informational websites (22 answers), video clips on Youtube (18 answers). Other
answers are: Twitter, Snapchat ( in general, social networks ), news broadcasting and the
blogs. One thing that really must be said here is the fact that only one person me ntioned the
City App.
After this, the next question was how efficient do they think social media channels
are compared to the traditional ways of promoting the city . From 135 of answers, 54 voted
10, 33 voted 8, 30 voted 9, 6 voted 7, 6 voted 5, 3 voted 6, 3 voted 3. When compared to the
traditional ways of promotion, the average n ote that the modern ways of promotion received
was 8.68. (Figure 14)

Figure14. The efficiency of the social media channels compared to the traditional ways of promoting
the city
The next question was about the site used to promote Oradea. After the analysis of
the answers, I came to the conclusion that only 20%, meaning 27 respondents, knew that the
0 0 3 0 6 3 6 33 30 54
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10On a scale from 1 to 10, how efficient do
you think social media channels are
compared to the traditional ways of
promoting the city?

44
site with the purpose of promoting Oradea is Oradea.travel. In plus, 11%, meaning 15
respondents, of them confu sed the site with the “Visit Oradea ” Facebook page , 7.40%,
meaning 10 respondents, confused the site with the “Oradea suntem noi” Facebook page .
The rest confuse the site with other Facebook pages, such as: “Oradea în imagini”,
“Oradea”, “Oradea mea iubită ” end so on. (Figure 15)

Figure15. The sites for promoting Oradea known by people
When asked if they know special city applications that serve as travel guides, the
score was quite close, but once again the majority did not know: 72 of the respondents
answering with “No”. This means that 53.3% don‟t know anything about the existence of
this kind of applications. The other 46.7% -63 respondents – answ ered affirmatively. Once
again, we can see that the people are not very well informed. (Figure 16)
20%
11%
7% 62% What is the site used to promote
Oradea?
Oradea Travel
“Visit Oradea” Facebook
page
“Oradea suntem noi”
Facebook page
Other Facebook pages

45

Figure16. Special city applications that serve as travel guides known by people
This being said, the next question for respondents was if they have ever heard about
Oradea City App. S urprisingly , 60% of them -81 respondents – answered with “Yes”, the rest
answering negatively. (Figure 17) When asked about if they have downloaded the
application, 100% of people answered negatively. (Figure 18) Going to the City Card ,
77.8% -105 respondents – said that they heard about it, the rest answering with “No” at the
question “ Have you heard of Oradea City Card ?” (Figure 19) Only 2.2% of them -3
respondents – bought the card, the vast majority never buying this card . (Figure 20) In plus,
73.3% -99 respondents – said that they neither know someone who bought the card. (Figure
21) When asked about recommending the card, once again the majority asked with “No”:
57.8% – 78 respondents. (Figure 22)
46,7%
53,3% Do you know special city applications
that serve as travel guides?
Yes- 63 respondents
No- 72 respondents

46

Figure17. People who have heard about the app Figure18. People who downloaded the app

Figure19. People who have heard about the card Figure 20. People who bought the app

Figure21. People who know someone who
bought the card Figure22. People who recommended the card
60% 40% Have you heard
of Oradea City
App?
Yes- 81
No- 54
0%
100% Have you
downloaded City
App?
Yes- 0
No- 135
78% 22% Have you heard
of Oradea City
Card?
Yes- 105
No- 30
2,2%
97,8% Have you bought
a city card from
Oradea?
Yes- 3
No- 132
72% 28% Do you know
someone who
bought the card?
Yes- 36
No- 99
42%
58% Have you ever
recommended
this card?
Yes- 57
No- 78

47
The last question, respondents had to answer was: 13. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how
much do you think the promotion of the city increased as a result of includi ng these Smart
Promotional Means ?” Here the average note that the promotion of the city received is 8.31.
The majority of people answering with 8 – 51 respondents -, with 9 – 46 respondents – and
with 10 -27 respondents. The others answered with 5 – 5 respondents -, with 7 -6
respondents – and with 6 -3 respondents. (Figure 23)

Figure 23. The evolution of the city‟s promotion as a result of including these Smart Promotional
Means

0 0 0 0 12
3 6 51
46
27
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you
think the promotion of the city increased
as a result of including these Smart
Promotional Means?

48

CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS

After the analysis of the information found in the bibliographic documentation
phase and the interpretation of both the partners‟ questionnaire and the random people‟s
questionnaire, several conclusions and recommendations can be made.
Conclusions
Each method used in this study lead me to develop several conclusions. Thus, one of
the conclusions I reached after the method of survey is the fact that most of the partners are
dissatisfied and disappointed with the way the city card works. They think it is almost
useless, not providing benefit to anyone, since the number of cardholders that visit them is
very small. The majority affirm that the people that have the mission to promote and to
organize the way the card functions only expect things from them, not givin g anything in
return. This being said, a very large number of employee s of the restaurants, hotels and
tourist sites that are involved in the partnership don‟t know the way the city card works. I
even encountered situations when the local staff didn‟t know they were partners or situations
when the staff knew about the partnership, but they didn‟t know the discount they should
give to the cardholders . This thing is a very strong proof that the communication between
the staff that is in charge of promoting the card and the partners doesn‟t exist, neither
between the stakeholders. Thus, when asked about the reasons Oradea has evolved as a
tourist destination, every partner has attributed this thing to t he various modernization
works, not to the impl ementation of modern ways of promotion.

49
Another conclusion is the fact that most of the local people have no idea about the
existence of the city card. Thus, the promotion of the card seems not to be a priority of the
Tourism Promotion Association o f Oradea or it is a priority, but not one accomplished. This
is also the case of the Oradea City App. Therefore, when I asked the people if they heard
about the card or the app, if they downloaded or buy one of them , if they knew someone
who did or if they have ever recommended one of them, most of the answers I received were
negative. But the most alarming thing, in my opinion, is the fact that no one has downloaded
the app, since the app appears to be very useful both for tourists and for local people. In a
period when everyone is surrounded by different apps that have the purpose of helping us in
our daily activities, no one of the questionnaires‟ respondents has the Oradea City App – not
to forget that this app provides information on the routes of the va rious bus or tram lines or
public parking system in the city , information about the events taking place in the city and
other useful information for the user.
Coming back to the card and app, the thing that stands out is the fact that the Visit
Oradea F acebook page has a section called “Services”. Here, the page provides vague
information about the city card and the Oradea city guide. But, one thing that I observed
during the study is the fact that the page doesn‟t share any kind of information about the
Oradea City Card or about the application, thing that would be very useful, since people
don‟t know very much about the app and the card.
Regarding the site that is used in order to promote Oradea as a travel destination,
namely Oradea.travel, I can say the same thing: its promotion is desirable . Here must be
mentioned again the number o f respondents that knew about it: 27 from a total number of
135, a clearly small number. However, the Facebook pages that seem to promote better
Oradea are: first of all, “Visit Oradea”, which is the official page and others such as:
“Oradea suntem noi”, “Oradea în imagini”, “Oradea”, “Oradea mea iubită ”. Thus, the soc ial
media proves to have an important role in the promotion of the city, especially through
Facebook pages, but also through Instagram.
In conclusion, because it provides different smart applications such as Oradea City
Report application, MobilePay and Oradea City App, because it uses the city card that is
activated when it is validated in the tram, because it has the Oradea.travel site, because it

50
uses Facebook pages and Instagram to be promoted, all with the purpose of promoting the
city, Oradea is a s mart city. But, in terms of tourism, Oradea is at the beginning of the road ,
a road that seems to be long but worth it , since Oradea has a great tourism potential that
must be capitalized. Even if the profit doesn‟t seem to come soon, the stakeholders must
work together, first of all, to promote the city and only after the accomplishment of this
thing –when the tourist flow that buy the city card increase – the partners can thin k about
their own benefit as a consequence of the partnership.
Proposals
I would like to come up with a set of recommendations in support of the usage of
smart technologies in the field of tourism in Oradea. My solutions aim at helping to promote
better Oradea as a smart tourism destination and this thing can be done only by capitaliz ing
the local tourism heritage to a higher level.
The first thing I want to propose for a bette r communication between the Tourism
Promotion Association o f Oradea and the partners is a competition between them. First of all
I recommend competition between the selling points. The winner will be the partner that
sells, first of all the minimum number of required cards and, secondly, the biggest number of
cards in a defined period. The staff from that selling point will receive as a prize city cards
for each member of the family, only with one more condition: each person that receives the
card must post an advertise with the card on their Facebook page and tag also the Visit
Oradea page. Thus, in this way, the card will be also promoted on social media.
Another competition can be made between the partners. This will consist of
competing with each other, but for the competition to be fair each restaurant will compete
with other restaurants , the hotels with hotels , the pubs with pub s end so on. The p rize of the
winner will be a number of free cards . These cards can be used in order to attract more
clients , meaning that they can give them for free. Or, they can also use them for themselves.
In plus, i f the co mpetition takes places every year or every two years , the winner can appear
on the card. Thus, every cardholder will be informed about the existence of these hotels,
restaurants and so on. In this way, each partner will be motivated to attract clients with city
cards because by winning they can appear on the card.

51
Another proposal is to use the different online social media and social networking
service s, such as Facebook and Instagram more efficiently . Namely, it is not sufficient to
have a section with services, not to mention that the Oradea Application doesn‟t appear here.
This being said, I propose, firstly, to complete the “Services” section and, secondly, to share
very often on the social media about these services.
Regarding the Oradea City Card, one thing that lacks is the possibility of writing
reviews. So, I suggest the implementation of a platform for the one that bought the card. The
platform will be a place where only the cardholders will be able to give grades to the card
and write reviews. In this way, when the client will buy the card, the staff from the selling
point will invite him, by giving him an ID and a password, to enter the platform. The grades
and the reviews will be seen by all the people that visi t the site www.oradeacitycard.ro .
Fortunately, in the case of the Oradea City App the possibility to write reviews exists. But,
from what I have read, the users complain about the fact that the app is not updated.
Therefore, I suggest a more frequent updat e.
Remaining on the same subject –the Oradea City App – I propose another kind of
competition. Namely: by using the social media, there will be spread the news that, by
downloading the app you enter directly in a raffle and there will be 1 or more winners. For
example, for every 100 competitors there will be one winner. The winner can receive a city
card or, as I mentioned above, a service or a good provided by a partner willing to be a
sponsor . Once again, the winner wi ll receive the prize only if it fulfills another condition : to
post an announcement on different social networking service s of the Oradea City App and,
for example, if they share on Facebook they should tag the Visit Oradea Facebook page.
Regarding poor communication , I suggest an information meeting , where all partners
will be informed about the way the card works. This proposal comes as a consequence of the
fact that during the study I talk to employees of the partners that have had no idea what
discoun t they should give to a cardholder. The meeting would be made with representatives
of all stakeholders and after the meeting every representative should inform the staff from
the local he represented about the subject matter. In plus, at the end of the mee ting, each
partner will receive a paper with the discussed things. At this meeting, the partners will be

52
also invited to give advices and to say what should be changed or improved for a better
organization and communication.
Another proposal is to make a competition between random people. The competition
will be promoted on social media and it will ask people to come with solutions for a better
promotion of the Oradea City App and of the Oradea City Card. The best solution wil l be
rewarded with a free meal at one of the restaurants that are involved in the partnership or
with other services provided by the others partners willing to offer for free these kind s of
services or goods.

53

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