Digital transformation in heritage tourism management: The case of Kampung Wisata Kauman Yogyakarta

Abstract

Heritage tourism is important from both cultural and socioeconomic standpoints. Despite the ubiquity of the Internet, some heritage sites are, for some reason, yet to take full advantage of it. Kampung Wisata Kauman in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is one of those sites lacking in exposure and recognition, partly due to semi-Traditional management in the past. This paper discusses the digital transformation in heritage tourism management of Kampung Wisata Kauman in Yogyakarta. The study starts with the problem identification as part of requirements analysis conducted with surveys, observations, and interviews, before making use of a prototyping approach with some iterations in developing a web-based tourism information system to be run by Sakawisata, the site administrator of Kampung Wisata Kauman. The resulting digital transformation is reflected in the transition in their business process that is now integrated through the system instead of recorded manually in the past. The results from functionality test through black-box approach confirmed that this system works well to streamline the process of making and managing reservations for tour packages along with all relevant actions such as payment, reschedule, cancelation, and reviews. The usability test also revealed that this system is perceived as easy to use by its users regardless of their roles in the system.