THE PROBLEM OF USAGE OF ELEMENTS OF NATURAL RESERVE AND MUSEUM HERITAGE IN TOURISM (ON THE EXAMPLE OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK REGION)

In terms of pandemics, tourism gained a huge loss. However, the background for a qualitatively new restoration of the branch has appeared. One of the actual scientific and practical problems is an estimation of the condition of usage of elements of natural and historical-cultural heritage in tourism in terms of probable growth of domestic tourism during quarantine. In the article was analyzed the potential of natural heritage and museums as elements of the historical-cultural heritage of the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the context of their usage in tourism and dynamics of tourism visits of these objects which testify about the existence of the number of barriers of growth. As of 26.01.2020 region`s natural reserve fund counts of 482 territories and objects of the total area of 218,9 thousand hectares which is 15.7% of the total region`s area. It can be stated that the Ivano-Frankivsk region is a popular tourist destination due to the tourist visits of the territories of the national parks. On the background of national parks visit increase, the problem of the statistic visits data collection and low park`s service commercialization because of an absence of fee collection mechanism on the whole park`s territory. Was observed uneven distribution of tourist flow in national parks. Various institutional affiliations of the natural reserve establishments and the absence of tourism branch specialists in establishments, and the fact that tourism is only one of the different branches of these establishments complicates the organization of tourism activities. The level of national park`s promotion as tourism destinations stays low. None of the nature reserves of the region has a marketing strategy to promote them in the tourism market, so the level of advertising activity of the parks is reduced to printing booklets. Park sites focus the attention of park visitors, mainly on the results of their activities, and little attention is paid to tourist information. Most sites do not have a comprehensive section for tourists with the full range of tourist services and the possibilities of the park to provide them. Excursion activities are one of the main activities of museums as elements of cultural heritage. Every year the museums of Ivano-Frankivsk region are visited by more than 400 thousand people, however, there is a negative dynamics of attendance, the vast majority of visitors (in 2017 – 277, 5 thousand people) are local students, ie not tourists. The decrease in attendance may be due to an increase in the number of non-state and other public museums, which are mainly collections of private collections (more than 210 in the region), as well as the emergence of other tourist attractions of this type. The problems of tourist use of museums as tourist objects of cultural heritage are the low promotional activity of museums, the lack of additional services for tourists and outdated, of little interest to the average tourist exhibitions, the lack of additional hospitality infrastructure. Improving museum expositions, updating existing ones and creating modern expositions – providing material and technical equipment (premises, music, multimedia centers, purchase of modern office equipment) will increase the attractiveness of museums as tourist attractions. Lack of marketing strategies, experience of cooperation with all stakeholders of the tourist process also significantly slow down the development of tourism based on the use of elements of natural and historical and cultural heritage of the studied region. Promotion of museum services in the market of tourist services – creation of an informative catalog about museums, which is periodically updated, distribution of information publications, booklets, holding various events that will promote museums, such as exhibitions, celebrations, coverage of museums in the media, organization of a series films for television, creation of museum websites and targeted advertising, involvement of educational institutions, tourism specialists in the promotion of museums. The measures proposed by the authors for more effective use of elements of natural and historical and cultural heritage in tourism can be successfully applied in other tourist destinations of environmental nature and museum institutions of the country. Keywords: nature reserves, elements of museum heritage, tourism, tourist destinations.

Application of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Models for the Evaluation Cultural Websites: A Framework for Comparative Analysis

Websites in the post COVID-19 era play a very important role as the Internet gains more visitors. A website may significantly contribute to the electronic presence of a cultural organization, such as a museum, but its success should be confirmed by an evaluation experiment. Taking into account the importance of such an experiment, we present in this paper DEWESA, a generalized framework that uses and compares multi-criteria decision-making models for the evaluation of cultural websites. DEWESA presents in detail the steps that have to be followed for applying and comparing multi-criteria decision-making models for cultural websites’ evaluation. The framework is implemented in the current paper for the evaluation of museum websites. In the particular case study, five different models are implemented (SAW, WPM, TOPSIS, VIKOR, and PROMETHEE II) and compared. The comparative analysis is completed by a sensitivity analysis, in which the five multi-criteria decision-making models are compared concerning their robustness.

Research on the evaluation of museum website utility index based on analytic hierarchy process: a case study of China's national first-class museums

In order to better serve the construction and development of museum websites in developing countries, and based on the user's online experience perspective, an analytic hierarchy process suitable for the construction of a museum website for developing counties utility index evaluation system was used to measure the official websites of 115 national first-class museums in China, and reflect the level of museum website construction and service levels. The results revealed the following: there were obvious differences in the level of a Chinese museum construction sites, showing an overall Rugby-type distribution situation; content completeness and update speed are the most important factors that affect the measurement of the museum website's utility index, which fully reflects the importance of the comprehensiveness, accuracy and timeliness of the website information in the construction of a museum website; the influence is that museum websites are generally weak, with limited spread and power, and fails to form a large positive social influence; the construction problems are mainly concentrated in the two aspects of technology and operation. The display, safety and security technology of the museum website content is relatively backward, and most of the website backgrounds rarely have professionals for daily visitor interaction and operation, and maintenance. The results of the index measured by this system not only allows museum personnel to clearly understand the gaps in the development of museum websites, but also provides more clear requirements for future personnel to design, build and improve the overall usefulness of the website or a single utility index in a targeted manner, which has important guiding significance and practical value.

Museum Website Accessibility Examined Using Automatic Diagnostic Tools

This chapter examines the website accessibility of museums located in Portugal (N = 575), based on the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0), and on the three type of conformance levels (A, AA, and AAA), using two web diagnostic tools: AccessMonitor and TAW (Test de Accessibilidad Web). The results show that the average accessibility of museum websites is 5.80 on a scale from 1 to 10. However, while according to AccessMonitor, there are 14 websites (2.43% of the total) with a level of accessibility of 10 (excellent web accessibility practices); there are also some websites with a global index lower than 3 (classified as bad practice). The results obtained through TAW show that an average of 58.43 problems were identified in each website analyzed. These results highlight that several improvements should be introduced in the websites of Portuguese museums in order to make information available to all people.

University museums of the Silesian Voivodeship (Republic of Poland)

The article considers the scientific basis for the study of the activities of university museums by Polish scientists. The main support for Polish university museums is said to be provided by the Association of University Museums (AUM). The author analyzes its research and popularization activities. The main purpose of the work is to study the history of the formation and development of six university museums of the Silesian Voivodeship in the Republic of Poland: “Museum of Geology of Deposits named after Czeslaw Poborsky at the Faculty of Mining and Geology of the Silesian University of Technology”, “Museum of the Faculty of Geosciences of the University of Silesia”, “Museum of Silesian Organs”, “Center for History and Traditions of the University of Economics in Katowice”, “Museum of Technology of the Silesian University of Technology” and the “Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy in Sosnowiec”. The author also examines their collections and exhibitions. Theoretical research in the field of studying university museums is considered in detail. For the analysis, scientific articles, books, brochures, mass media materials and information on museum websites are used in order to provide a complete picture of the historical and current state of university museums in the region. In the process of writing the article, the author contacted several guardians and university museum staff to clarify the dates and information provided in various sources. The work partially uses their responses received by e-mail, with the indication of information about the source.

The Accessibility of Museum Websites

Tourism accessibility has emerged as a topic to be discussed and studied by both academics and professionals. In this line, museums have started to adapt their offer to their diverse audience, including people with disabilities and people with special needs. In this regard, museum websites, as a powerful information channel to promote visitation, must also be adapted to make its information accessible. Therefore, this chapter aims at exploring accessibility and accessible information of museums' websites using a holistic approach. As a case study, 45 museums in the city of Barcelona are considered and accessibility of tourism websites is assessed by means of content analysis, taking as reference four categories and 36 items that have emerged from previous literature review. Findings reveal that museums websites are still far from being considered accessible, and improvements in several areas are required.