On November 18, 2021 in frames of the All-Russian Forum “IT-Dialogue 2021” there was organized a round table “Current trends in the development of the tourism industry on the territory of the King’s Road”, project “King’s Road Renascence: new dimension and digital tools” (KS11135 King’s Renascence).
The round table was devoted to the process of “King’s Renascence” project implementation, as well as to the overview of the possibilities of interaction between IT and tourism industries. Project partners, representatives of travel companies, authorities and higher educational institutions of Russia and Finland were invited as participants of the event.
Yekaterina Solovieva, Head of the Monitoring and Public Opinion Sector of the Committee on IT and Communications, made a welcoming speech. Miya Aitokari, Executive Director of the King’s Road Association (Finland), spoke about the Finnish side of the route, outlining the historical value and modern statistics of the region’s attendance.
Ekaterina Gorelkina, South-East Finland University of Applied Sciences – project Lead partner, made a presentation on the main goals and objectives of “King’s Renascence” project. Ekaterina also talked about the digital platform, which is being developed by the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland).
Maria Kuzko, Executive Director of Non-commercial Partnership “European-Russian InnoPartnership”, and Olga Konovalova, Assistant Professor of Peter the Great Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University, spoke about the current progress of the project implementation.
During the second part of the round table, digitalization opportunities in tourism industry were reviewed. Dmitry Bikman, CEO of the “Turmashina” LLC, presented current trends in tourism business, described new preferences and interests of stakeholders. Johanna Heinonen, University of Eastern Finland, made the final presentation on the possibilities of using information technologies in tourism.
At the end of the event, an active discussion took place, where the participants talked about areas for further international cooperation in raising awareness of the King’s Road route with the use of digital technologies.