DEVELOPMENT OF THE CROSS-BORDER TOURISM, BY THE MEANS OF INTERNET MARKETING, CASE - WHITE ROAD PROJECT.

Abstract

This thesis was aimed to result in relevant and valid conclusions as well as recommendations, concern-ing the cross-border tourism collaboration, through the internet marketing tool in the White Road area. This request of cross-border cooperation extension was based on the possibilities and demand of the tourism development in the region. The foundation of the work was The Karelia ENPI CBC Pro-gramme and White Road project. Thus, the main focus was made on the Internet Marketing issue, as the modern tool to reach the foreign market and develop a tourism network in the regions of Northern Finland and the Republic of Karelia. The first section of this work investigates the theoretical framework, which is Internet Marketing, fol-lowed by the analyses of the current tourism situation in the Republic of Karelia, with an emphasis on 6 regions, namely: Loukhi, Kostomuksha, Kalevala, Segezha, Kem and Belomorsk. Furthermore, the re-search stages are explained in detail, particularly, supply and Internet potential analyses. The outcome of these analyses reveals the current tourism and Internet Marketing potential of the tourism organiza-tions in the RK. The theoretical framework presents several theories that made the work valid and rele-vant, such as 10 Cs of Marketing for the modern economy (Charlesworth, 2007). Conclusive part of the whole work represents the main outcomes of the research and analyses as well as recommendations. In order to create a network of the tourism organizations in the White Road area, the web-pages of the companies in the Republic of Karelia are needed to be improved, in order to reach the foreign market. Moreover, infrastructure has to be raised to the higher level in order to create strong conditions for the tourism cooperation development.