67. e-Government and Tourism

The chapter discusses the overlapping area between e-Government and tourism. It addresses the complex transition of governments from being completely offline to integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs). Their efforts range from improving the efficiency of their usual practices to changing their procedures (and approaches) in accordance with new media affordances. To do so, the chapter presents a map of six main e-Government relationships illustrated with examples from the tourism domain. These relationships are government-to-government (G2G); government-to-businesses (G2B); government-to-citizens (G2C); government-to-nonprofits (G2N); government-to-own-employees (G2E); and government-to-visitors (G2V). Furthermore, two cases are presented in depth to provide a better understanding of the complexity of e-Government support for tourism. Case one shows how an e-Government service (provision of public municipal Wi-Fi) can benefit tourism, while case two gives an overview of how governments include e-tourism-related interventions in their tourism management strategies. The chapter highlights the importance of the tourism sector for e-Government-related policies and practices, a relevance that is likely to grow in the future.