International Seminars WeekUniversity of Macerata: Department of Education, Cultural

Heritage and Tourism

Understanding the digital implications of

‘remote rural’ for home-based businesses

Dr Lorna PhilipSenior Lecturer in Human GeographyDepute Head of the School of GeosciencesUniversity of Aberdeen, Scotlandl.philip@abdn.ac.ukhttp://www.abdn.ac.uk/geosciences/departments/geography-environment/profiles/l.philip

Today’s seminar

1. What is rural? Where is rural? Who is rural?

2. Digital rural society, Digital Divides and Digital Tourism in a rural context.

3. Presentation of findings from ongoing research –“Understanding the digital implications of ‘remote rural’ for home-based businesses”

Digital rural society, Digital Divides and Digital Tourism in a rural context.

Digital rural society • ‘Digital society’ - the ubiquity

of digital communications• Digital infrastructure • Digital divides• Digital tourism

• Opportunities • Impacts and implications of

digital divides for service providers and tourists consumers

• Student activities

Digital society• “We live in a knowledge-

based society, where access to information, and the ability to make economic and social transactions, confers distinct advantage. As government, agencies, corporations and individuals increasingly rely on electronic means for the transmission and storage of information, the advantages of access to the Internet rise” (Warren, 2007, p376).

• The Internet has transformed almost every aspect of public, private and working life.

Why is digital connectivity important?For private individuals• Provides access to government

information and services• Facilitates commercial

transactions• Supports various modes of social

interaction• Provides access to formal and

information learning opportunities

• Is a source of information useful to everyday life

• Provides access to entertainment on demand

For businesses• Improves and supports

communications with customers and suppliers and between colleagues and collaborators

• Provides access to new markets and marketing tools

• Supports flexible working practices

• Provides new data management and storage solutions

For governments• Provides a new means of

providing information to the public about facilities, services and benefits

• Supports service restructuring –government services are now provide from traditional, physical premises and via online platforms

A digital rural society?

• Rural areas often experience difficulties associated with:

• Small, often dispersed populations• Ageing populations and sometimes chronic depopulation• Low wage economies• Economic structures that would benefit from diversification• Challenges associated with distance from large population,

commercial and public service centres • Narrow and uneven channels of information flow

• Digital social and economic services and applications can help to overcome these difficulties and provide new opportunities for rural communities.

The ubiquity of digital telecommunications

Households with Internet access, 1998 to 2016, Great Britain

Source: UK Office for National Statistics, 2016. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2016#more-than-8-out-of-10-adults-in-great-britain-use-the-internet-daily-or-almost-daily

Internet access varies across Europe

Internet access of households, 2010 and 2015 (% of all households)

Source: Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2016 available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Internet_access_of_households,_2010_and_2015_(%25_of_all_households)_YB16.png

Devices used to access the Internet, 2016, Great Britain

Source: UK Office for National Statistics, 2016. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2016

NEXT GENERATON USERdefined in the 2011 Oxford Internet Survey as people who access the Internet from multiple locations and via multiple devices.On average, households in the UK own four different types of internet-enabled device, with 89% of households having at least one internet-enabled device in their household.

Internet activities by year, 2007, 2015 and 2016, Great Britain

Source: UK Office for National Statistics, 2016. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2016

In the UK, the most common Internet activities, unchanged since 2007, are sending and reading emails, followed by finding information about goods and services.

Internet use ‘on the go’ by device 2013 to 2016 Great Britain

Source: UK Office for National Statistics, 2016. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/bulletins/internetaccesshouseholdsandindividuals/2016

Barriers to digital inclusion Personal attributes• ‘don’t need it’• lack of computing / IT

skills• age (but much less

important than a decade ago)

• equipment costs• access costs

Place attributes • physical limitations of

Internet infrastructure• uneven provision of

Internet infrastructureScottish households with home internet access by net annual household income in 2015

Source: Scotland’s People Annual Report 2016

Digital infrastructure • Narrow band (dial up)• Broadband over DSL / ADSL• Fibre to the cabinet/ home• Cable• Satellite• Wireless mesh• Mobile (3G and 4G) networks

Territorial digital divides

Telecommunications infrastructure is spatially uneven which affects:• Personal and business

use from fixed locations• Internet speed• Reliability• Choice of service

provider• Ability to be online ‘on

the move’• Ability to be a ‘next

generation’ Internet user

Overall geographical pattern• Urban and accessible

rural areas are the best serviced

• Remote rural areas are poorly served

= urban-rural digital divide

Selected attributes of broadband infrastructure by urban, shallow rural and deep rural areas, England, Scotland and Wales

Source: Analysis of Ofcom's December 2013 postcode infrastructure data – see Philip et al (forthcoming, Journal of Rural Studies). Data available at http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/

England Scotland Wales

UrbanShallow

RuralDeep Rural

UrbanShallow

RuralDeep Rural

UrbanShallow

RuralDeep Rural

Total number of unit postcodes 1,117,290 382,200 30,998 98,368 42,210 24,255 54,484 24,532 21,314

Postcodes with valid* data (%) 71.65% 62.22% 51.78% 77.50% 66.50% 62.70% 73.16% 62.70% 54.04%

% of Postcodes with Lines <2Mbit/s

37.88% 51.25% 45.31% 28% 46.50% 41.30% 45.17% 54.97% 52.25%

Postcodes where NextGeneration Broadbandconnections are available

86.43% 23.73% 9% 72.00% 9.10% 1.70% 65.05% 18.14% 1.18%

Average speed (Mbit/s) 18.8 8.9 7.4 18 8.3 7.9 15.1 8.0 6.4

Maximum speed (Mbit/s) 25.9 13.4 10.5 24 12.1 11.1 22.1 12.7 9.27

In Scotland, average rural broadband speeds are (much) lower than average urban speeds

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Source: Philip, Cottrill and Farrington, 2015

Remote rural areas have the lowest broadband speeds

Digital divides: territorial coverage of superfast broadband

Source: Ofcom, 2013 dataThe % of residential and non-residential premises where either Virgin Media cable, Openreach Fibre-To-The-Cabinet or Digital Region networks are available.

Argyll & Bute Glasgow City

Average sync speed (Mbit/s

6.4 17.2

Percentage getting less than 2Mbit/s

12.8% 8.%

Superfast broadband availability

0.1% 66.5%

Broadband take up

67.3% 64.8%

Urban-Rural digital divides are pervasive across the UK

Regional variations in coverage of 3G mobile services

The % of premises at which all operators have 3G coverage (outdoor reception).

Source of maps: Ofcom available at http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-services/

No 3G mobile = no mobile internet.

c.50% of the Scottish land mass has no 3G signal from any operator.

Digital divides – a constraint for many rural communities

The digital society offers a multitude of benefits and opportunities, but many rural communities are unable to take advantage of these because the Internet infrastructure is not extensive enough/ fast enough / reliable enough.

What are the possible implications of an urban-rural digital divide for the tourism sector?

Digital tourism

Sources: Top - https://www.text100.com/2012/11/29/travelers-technology-preferences-revealed-in-text100-digital-index-travel-tourism/Bottom - http://www.slideshare.net/dmgeventsasia/to-the-new-day-1

Digital tourism has been defined as “the digital support of the tourist experience before, during and after the tourist activity” (Benyon et al, 2014)

Digital tourism involves different actors• consumers (tourists)• tourism authorities and destination organisations • tourist businesses (e.g. accommodation providers) and/or

businesses reliant on trade from tourists (e.g. restaurants, gift shops)

Source of images: Think Digital Travel

Source of images: Think Digital Travel

• Digital tourism works if actors are• Users of digital devices • Digitally connected/ have a reliable Internet connection

that supports reasonably upload and download speeds

• Those who do not use the Internet are excluded from participating in digital tourism activities

• Those who live in areas with poor digital infrastructure can find it impossible to fully exploit the opportunities digital tourism offers.

Actors in digital tourism and digital divides 1

Tourist authorities and destination organisations• Marketing• A ‘one stop shop’ online

presence linking visitor attractions, tourist businesses, travel information etc.

Specialist IT staff within organisations can create and maintain digital presence

Actors in digital tourism and digital divides 2Tourist businesses• Advertise their presence and what

they offer• Interact with customers • Handle bookings and reservations

and payments

• Small tourist businesses need to ensure they have the skills required to maintain a digital presence

• What happens when a tourist business operates from an area with poor digital connectivity?

Actors in digital tourism and digital divides 3

Consumers / Tourists• Search and book holidays• Source information about visitor attractions pre and

during a holiday• Post recommendations, photographs etc. online• Keep in touch with home when on holiday

• What happens when a potential visitor has difficulties finding out about a destination or making a booking because of poor connectivity in the destination community?

• Will a repeat visit be made to an area where the tourist can’t use their mobile phone to be online on holiday?

Paradoxes - discourses of rural, rural tourism and digital divides

• Many tourists expect rural destinations to meet their ideas of a ‘rural idyll’ – unspoilt, away from modernity, quaint, quiet …

• Those who holiday in rural areas often want to ‘get away from it all’ and will accept that rural infrastructure is not the same as that found in urban areas

but the public expect to be digitally connected all the time!

Turning a negative into a positive - digital divides vs digital detox?Poor digital connectivity has been turned into an asset by some tourist authorities and tourism businesses – digital detox holidays / unplugged tourism

But is this just an excuse for rural areas being left behind when digital infrastructure is upgraded? Economic implications?

Student activities

• Is there an urban-rural digital divide in Italy?

• Are rural tourism businesses and/ or visitor attractions exploiting digital tourism opportunities effectively? If not, why?

• Would digital detox holidays be attractive to Italians?

References

• Benyon D, Quigley A, O’Keefe B and Riva G (2014) Presence and digital tourism AI and Society 29(4) 521-529

• Dutton, W. H. and Blank, G., 2011. Next Generation Users: The Internet In Britain. Oxford Internet Survey 2011 Report. Available at http://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/reports/

• Philip L, Cottrill, C, Farrington J, Williams F and Ashmore F (forthcoming) The digital divide: patterns, policy and scenarios for connecting the ‘final few’ in rural communities across Great Britain Journal of Rural Studies

• Philip LJ, Cottrill C and Farrington J. ‘Two-speed’ Scotland: patterns and implications of the digital divide in contemporary Scotland Scottish Geographical Journal 131(3-4) pp 148-170 DOI: 10.1080/14702541.2015.1067327.

• Warren, M. (2007) The digital vicious cycle: Links between social disadvantage and digital exclusion in rural areas, Telecommunications Policy 31 pp374-388