Tourism e-services and Jewish heritage: a case study of Prague

Our paper describes the new potential for tourism e-services (smartphone apps and enhanced Internet platforms) for promoting the intangible cultural heritage in European destinations using the example of Prague’s Jewish heritage. Although quite a few tourism e-services are present in the tourism market in Prague, their full potential has not been exhausted.

The paper shows that one of the ways how the intangible cultural heritage in European destinations can be promoted is through employing the apps for smartphones and tablets involving local myths and legends constituting the backbone of local cultural and religious traditions.

Our research is based on the empirical results of the three stages of our own questionnaire survey conducted in Prague in May–August 2013 for assessing the revealed preferences of Prague’s residents and tourists for such apps and novel IT solutions.

Our results demonstrate that a potential app should feature a narrative, a possibility to upload additional information, as well as interactive online maps. The app should be offered at both App Store and Android Market Play free of charge with embedded in-app purchases that might reach up to 3 EUR in additional payments.

The paper tackles a top-notch field of electronic tourism (or e-tourism) that embeds the mobile technologies and the intangible cultural heritage approach. The results and outcomes might be useful not only for IT developers specialising in digital tourism but also for local stakeholders and residents.