The Importance of Digitalization for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Sites in Albania

Abstract

The global economy growth is depending more on the development of service sectors and the digital technologies. Tourism as one of the most important service sectors, is driving cultural heritagelobal economy because it employs people and guarantees more revenues for local communities by using resources involved. Anyway, the use of resources has led to the need for sustainable development, since the future of next generations depends on the finite resources. Tourism is one of the industries that have embraced the sustainable development philosophy since it can be managed to be more careful about the resources, without compromising revenues. The most important elements for visitors and as such, for tourism development in a country are its resources in cultural and natural heritage. There is a close relationship between tourism and heritage. Cultural heritage can attract tourists to a site, and for this reason tourism can be also seen as the industry, which may be more interested in protecting this heritage. Digital technologies are sustaining the tourism industry in all its value chain, by bettering processes, by introducing innovative products, by bettering destinations marketing etc. But what is more important the digital technologies can contribute to manage the tourism sites in a sustainable way. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of digitalization of cultural heritage in developing a sustainable cultural heritage tourism. Since cultural heritage tourism is one of the most important niche market in tourism, as ascertained by WTO, heritage sites need to be managed sustainably and this could be done by using digital technologies. The illustration of Albania as a case study will show the process and steps to be followed to benefit adequately from the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in heritage sites. The methodology is following the two steps: literature review and case study illustration, which will try to identify the right use of digital technologies that would help in achieving sustainability in heritage sites. Albania as the case study in question, is one of the latest destinations that has emerged in the Balkans only in the last decade. The tourism sector is growing and is being seen as one of the most important sectors for Albanian economy. Albania is differentiating its brand mainly by its natural and cultural heritage. There are different types of protected areas as part of natural heritage, while there is a list of cultural objects, museums, castles, festivals etc. as part of cultural heritage. The tourism flow in these sites is growing. On the other hand, tourism activities of different subsectors in Albania, are being more and more sustained by digital technologies. We have examples of using applications for reservations in accommodation business, social media for tourism sites and different digital technologies used by tour operators and marketing organization. The latest initiative is the digitalization of cultural heritage by the Ministry of culture. But the role of digital technologies is still weak in sustainable development in digital sites. The recommendations are focused in strengthening this role in types of heritage sites.