Place-based digital experiences (PDU)

In the past decades, we have witnessed great changes in the tourism industry as an effect of the general digitalisation process. Tourism actors are now online, which changes the conditions for how the industry communicates with visitors, how marketing, itineraries and bookings take place, and not least how visitors experience the destination.

The rapid digital development creates challenges as well as opportunities. There is a need to problematize the development by studying its effects, challenges, advantages and disadvantages. The tourism industry can set the agenda and take control of the technical development. There is a great development potential in making digitalised information available through digital narration as well as connecting the tourism industry to other social actors with digital expertise. Collaboration between various actors such as researchers and entrepreneurs in IT, communication and design is needed. This project centres on a challenge that all actors – entrepreneurs, tourism companies, support systems, municipalities and regions – have failed to address. We involve actors on the basis of place and its potentials, that is, place in time and space. We let the place and its actors lead the development, instead of technology.

The overriding project goal is to stimulate new knowledge, interaction, generation of ideas and synergy effects between academia and industry through development and innovation processes. Together with tourism and ICT companies, we plan to increase innovation capacity in the companies on a national and international market.

The aim of the project is to support new ideas and contribute to a development and innovation process leading to product development and methodological progress on how to establish place-based digital experiences.

Project funders: EU's regional fund, Region Värmland and Karlstad University
Project period: 2018-2020
Researchers: Lotta Braunerhielm (project manager), Laila Gibson, Linda Ryan Bengtsson och André Jansson