Crowdsourcing approach in the model of digital transformation of a tourism enterprise

Arefyev Alexander Sergeevich Director "AS-tourism" LLC 354003, Russia, Krasnodar region, Sochi, Komsomolskaya str., 8, office 2 arefyev.alexand@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

The current stage of development of post-industrial society, which preceded the 2019 pandemic, can be characterized by the formation of the Industry 4.0 model and the service economy, the formation of global supply chains, active international migration of the population, increasing importance of human capital, increasing social inequality, exhaustion of natural resources and tightening the fight for them ^{[6, p. 230]}. New sanitary-epidemiological, environmental and geopolitical challenges have shifted the vector of development of the global economy in general and the travel industry in particular. In conditions of increased uncertainty and public concern about these problems, domestic tourism, especially cultural and ecological tourism, with a focus on the consumption of goods from local producers, is becoming more widespread ^{[8, p. 19; 10]}. According to the data of the Roszapovedcenter of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, in 2022 the number of visits to national parks and reserves in Russia increased to 13.97 million people compared with 5.7 million people in 2008^{[13, p. 5; 42]}. Also, as a result of the universal digitalization of public life through the spread of electronic social networks, the importance of cultural self-identification of the individual increases ^[16]. Each sphere of human activity becomes not only a means of satisfying basic needs, but also an element of self-expression, and tourism is no exception. In the information environment, it should be noted the spread of crowdsourcing and C2C platforms that develop cooperation between stakeholders in the tourism sector and reduce the number of intermediaries between the manufacturer and consumer of goods and services (the phenomenon of deintermediation) ^[20]. The development of the digital economy entails an increase in the availability of certain digitalization and optimization tools (such as chatbots, artificial intelligence, CRM platforms, Internet of Things, blockchain, etc.), which can help enterprises increase digital maturity^{[21, p. 257]}. The concept of "digital maturity" implies the willingness of the subject of economic activity to integrate into a new technological order ^{[28, p. 8]}. Despite the abundance of expert literature on theoretical approaches to the implementation of digital transformation (DT) projects, a detailed description of the practical experience of their application in tourism enterprises is extremely limited ^{[24, 29, 31, 37]}. The purpose of this article is to test a model for the development and implementation of a small business's CT strategy using the example of an Internet service development project Biggeo.ru the Sochi travel company. 

The solution to this problem was based on a model including 9 components proposed by a team of authors in the work "Digital Transformation Strategy: write to execute" ^{[19, pp. 47-54]}:

1. The focus of the review, describes the objects and processes of the company's data center;

2.             The external context in which the company operates;

3. The current state of the company's digital maturity;

4. The target state, which includes strategic goals and a target model;

5.             The natural future of an enterprise if it does not take any action to increase digital maturity;

6. The gap shows how the current state differs from the target one;

7. The solution describes the optimal route to reach the target state;

8. Criteria and constraints allow for the "fine-tuning" of the strategy in accordance with the positions of various stakeholders that may affect the implementation of the Solution component;

9. Stakeholders who may be affected by the CT project.

Despite the fact that the model used was developed for government authorities and government organizations, the approaches outlined in it are universal, well-structured and fully meet the task of increasing the digital maturity of service enterprises. 

The goals of the company's business center, as well as the current socio-economic conditions, determine the scope of various planning horizons and approaches to strategy development. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the company's management to first analyze the "External Context", the "Current state of digital maturity", as well as the "Natural future of the enterprise". The assessment made it possible to begin a detailed study of the elements of the "Focus of consideration" and the "Target state", which should help the company adapt to new relationships with "Stakeholders". This work revealed a component of the "Gap" between the current and target state, followed by the formation of a "Solution". The initial testing of the "Solution" included active interaction with stakeholders in order to determine the "Criteria and Constraints" component. A general approach to building a CT strategy is presented in Figure 1 ^{[28, p. 9]}.  

Figure 1. An approach to building a digital transformation strategy (Compiled by the author)

Thus, this work will confirm the hypothesis about the possibility of applying this model to small businesses in the tourism sector, substantiate the content of the components of the strategy, as well as evaluate the first practical results of its implementation, thereby filling the gap in the scientific and expert literature devoted to this area. 

Development of a digital transformation project strategy for the enterprise

The AS-Tourism LLC enterprise, opened in 2019 and focusing mainly on inbound tourism, was forced to optimize production process management and adjust its development strategy due to the 2019-2021 pandemic and related restrictions. At that time, the current approach in compiling a portfolio of travel products and using sales channels was based mainly on a business card website and partnership with tour operators. The company offered various types of tourism products and services to a wide range of foreign clients, which required a large time resource in working with each potential buyer. This organization of activity, as experience has shown, is extremely vulnerable to external factors and has low productivity. In the long term (even without taking into account epidemiological restrictions), there was a risk of displacement of the enterprise as a result of competition from both local businesses and potential technology startups, which, thanks to the use of new technologies, could level the problem of the language barrier for foreigners to visit the tourist territory independently. Together with Sochi State University, scientific research was conducted on the mechanisms of digital transformation in tourism in order to find a new enterprise model more resistant to epidemiological risks and responding to current trends in the development of the tourism market. The first stage of the study was to identify the needs of stakeholders in digital technologies. The result of this research was the developed architecture of the industry platform, which allows meeting a number of key needs of its participants in improving the efficiency of management of the tourism industry in the region ^[1]. The conducted scientific analysis allowed us to form a holistic view of the current state and prospects for the development of the digital economy of tourism at the regional and national levels, which served as the basis for the subsequent stages of developing a strategy to increase the digital maturity of AS-Tourism LLC. The state of the target digital maturity of the enterprise should ensure a transition in the management of the value chain from the "supplier" model to a more integrated "omnichannel" model^{[30, p. 118]}. This condition will allow the company to establish close interaction with stakeholders, increase consumer awareness and build peer-to-peer relationships with them. The implementation of all the components of this platform undoubtedly requires the participation of a large number of stakeholders and significant financial investments, which is not possible on the current planning horizon. Thus, the main goal of the company's CT strategy is to occupy one of the niches of the digital ecosystem of the tourist market.

The central category of needs that the platform's functionality meets is "increasing the involvement of all stakeholders" in the process of digital transformation of the resort destination. Taking into account the peculiarities of the tourism sector, in particular the complexity of the tourist product, the key link to meet this group of needs is the module for the development of cooperation. This module is aimed at facilitating cooperation between stakeholders, including the joint creation of new travel products and tools for their promotion. The development of the web service functionality serves as the basis for building peer-to-peer relationships with stakeholders and reducing the gap between the current and target state of the enterprise's digital maturity. The collaborative service is the least technologically advanced and demanding in terms of maintenance and security compared to other modules (for example, the module of medical support, rating or trading platform). The choice in favor of this particular direction was justified by the presence of the necessary competence within the enterprise to create such digital tools, which saved it from direct software development costs from a third-party contractor. It is planned to reduce the maintenance costs of the collaborative web service module by limiting the use of audio-visual materials on it. The implementation of this online tool will help to check whether the functionality offered in it meets the needs of stakeholders identified in the previous study. 

After the components "External context", "Current state", "Natural future of the enterprise", "Target state" and "Gap" were identified, the second stage in the preparation of the strategy was the development of a "Solution" based on key competencies and their application to increase the digital maturity of the enterprise. The focus of the review was on the company's capabilities to develop a collaborative Internet service and a roadmap for its implementation into the digital ecosystem of the Krasnodar Territory through meeting the needs of stakeholders. The first task of this stage was to identify the tourism destinations in which such digital tools are most in demand. 

The essence of cooperation is for participants to combine the results of "their intellectual work and other resources in order to create, based on the vision and efforts of specialists from different fields of activity, a common product" from which each participant can benefit^{[4, p. 23]}. The participants in the cooperation go to pool their resources due to the fact that individually they are not able to create a product that is necessary, but not available on the market. Collaborations also allow participants to save resources on solving non-core tasks for their activities. One of the forms of cooperation is crowdsourcing, which also finds its application in tourism ^[26]. The concept is to "mobilize people's resources through information technology in order to solve the problems facing business, the state and society as a whole"^{[20, p. 244]}. An example of a successful implementation of the crowdsourcing approach is the experience of the Izhevsk Museum, in which citizens — descendants of participants in the events - were involved to replenish the collection of evidence about the Izhevsk Uprising. This made it possible to collect an archive of video stories and about 400 new unique documents and photographs^[39]. Another example of using more modern crowdsourcing technologies in tourism is the CrowdRiff web service, which provides an information base of multimedia materials and tools for working with it for use in marketing promotion of tourist products and destinations. The information system is built using artificial intelligence, which collects photos and short videos from social networks, evaluates them, ranks them by quality, topics, format and other characteristics. The service allows users to automatically send requests to authors to obtain the rights to use their multimedia files, as well as add and work with their own material. The main feature of this web service is that it selects multimedia that is not only attractive for viewing, but also contributes to the conversion of the target audience into consumers of a tourist product. The main users of CrowdRiff's digital services are organizations for the marketing promotion of tourist destinations (English DMO). In world practice, there is experience in attracting tourists to create concepts for the development of resorts in the form of crowdsourcing, which undoubtedly has a positive effect on the loyalty of tourists to these places of rest, and also allows for more effective personalization of tourist products and services ^{[33, p. 3; 35]}. Crowdsourcing can also be applied to solve the problems of sustainable economic development through the promotion of alternative types of tourism. These types of tourism, as opposed to mass tourism, combine a wide range of different niche tourism products, which include creative (creative) tourism, scientific tourism, recreational/ecotourism, literary tourism, cinematographic tourism and others ^{[10, p. 33; 14; 22, p. 148]}. Alternative types of tourism experience the greatest difficulties in promoting their services and, as a result, are more open to cooperation, as well as potentially interested in using a digital tool for this purpose ^{[22, p. 148]}. Thus, representatives of these tourism destinations could concentrate their efforts on their main activities, saving resources for the promotion of their services. A review of the literature has shown that, among alternative types of travel, in creative tourism, the element of cooperation between representatives of the local population, business circles and guests plays an essential role^{[7, 15]}. As a result, an online collaborative tool in this area is most in demand and its creation will serve as a starting point in the development of the CT strategy of the AS-Tourism LLC enterprise.

The next task at the initial stage of forming the concept of the solution and the strategy for the implementation of the web service was a detailed study of Russian and foreign experience in the field of creative tourism through a review of specialized literature in order to identify common interests and points of contact between stakeholders of this type of tourism. In this context, an assessment was made of the potential benefits that creative tourism brings to the public, travelers, representatives of the business community, as well as local and federal authorities.

An overview of the world experience and the main components of creative tourism

The formulation of the concept of creative tourism dates back to the early 2000s in the works of such researchers as Florida ^[25], Landry ^[27], Richards and Raymond ^[34]. For the first time, this term was proposed by G. Richards and K. Raymond, meaning travel, as a result of which the creative potential of tourists developed through active training in skills and crafts characteristic of a vacation destination, leaving guests a kind of "intellectual souvenir" ^{[12, 34]}. A key element in this type of travel is the active involvement of guests in the life of the local population. As a result, guests tend to consume goods from local producers and traditional crafts, which has a positive effect on the regional economy and the well-being of local residents ^{[9, p. 82]}. Deepening socio-cultural exchange can reduce the risk of developing "turismophobia" among the local population and the phenomenon of "overturism". According to the study, the frequency of conflicts between guests of the Sochi resort and those residents who are interested in learning (improving) foreign languages is significantly lower ^{[5, p. 118]}.

Unlike mass tourism, alternative tourism in general and creative tourism in particular have a lower burden on the ecology of the region, as it is carried out by small groups of travelers, is less concentrated on visiting the main attractions and reduces the effect of "seasonality" ^{[10, p. 31]}. The role of creative tourism is also undeniable in the tasks of preserving historical and cultural heritage through introducing guests to local culture ^{[10, p. 32]}.

In 2017, at the 22nd session, the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization expanded the definition of cultural tourism to include a large creative component of everyday life. Thus, according to the authors, cultural tourism products include a set of material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional aspects of modern society, which include "arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, literature, music, creative industries and local life, value systems, beliefs and traditions" ^{[32, p. 14]}. Some authors began to consider creative tourism as an interactive form of cultural tourism ^{[15, p. 200; 34]}. Subsequently, creative tourism began to include any trips, the key elements of which are the creative self-expression of participants, as well as immersion in local culture and everyday life ^{[15, p. 200]}. An example of such trips and cooperation in creative tourism are outdoor plein-airs and master classes of artists (outdoor painting), which at the same time can be attributed to hobby tourism. The creative activity of artists involves the study of those objects, surrounding phenomena and spaces that they seek to depict. The artist's work also often arouses active interest from local residents and contributes to the popularization of painting and art in general. Based on the experience of the Association of Plein Air Artists of Russia (AHP), some of these trips can be organized jointly with the host party on a mutually beneficial basis: in exchange for free accommodation (or other services), artists give the organizers some of their works, which can later be used to decorate public spaces of these places, as well as to make souvenirs. Various stakeholders can act as partners of this cooperation: ancient estates, religious centers, parks, industrial or infrastructure facilities, and others^[2]. At the same time, artists cover their trips and work on social networks and, in the case of professional authors, such cooperation can be attributed to mutual marketing promotion (eng. cross-marketing). Often, participants in such events are representatives from various regions of Russia, which helps to strengthen their socio-cultural ties ^{[17, p. 263]}.

The socio-cultural interchange of guests and the local population contributes to the development of the creative environment of resort areas and enhances a favorable emotional response from the traveler ^{[22, p. 147; 33, p. 2]}. Products and services of creative tourism can be an integral part of event tourism. The experience of holding an annual gastronomic festival in Volsk, Saratov region, is noteworthy. The guests of this festival on the banks of the Volga River have the opportunity to get acquainted with the culinary traditions of this region and learn from the locals various recipes for cooking fish soup. The ukhi festival allowed the creation of a local brand, which attracts about 35 thousand people annually ^{[8, p. 20]}. This type of tourism is most consistent with the modern approach of the "economy of impressions" ^{[15, p. 201]}. Another example of this approach is the product of creative tourism of the Kolomna Museum factory of pastilles, which includes theatrical excursions and master classes on the preparation of these sweets ^[40].

Active study of tourist territories through immersion in local culture and way of life allows us to satisfy a person's need for self-development and self-expression ^{[22, p. 147]}. A modern tourist seeks to benefit from staying in a new place and find opportunities to increase his social status and social capital, which changes the very nature of consumption of a tourist product ^{[15, p. 200; 23]}. A survey by the Ipsos research center conducted in March 2024 among 3004 adult residents of cities with a population of more than 100,000 people showed that the main factors when choosing a creative tourism destination are (for all ages): broadening horizons 63%, unique emotions 58%, environmental friendliness 39%, self-development 38%, "try something new" 35%. Among people aged 18-25, the percentage of those who would like to try themselves in traditional crafts is significantly higher (35% vs. 29% among all ages) and participate in art workshops of contemporary art (18% vs. 10% among all ages) ^[38]. Despite the fact that traditional sightseeing and beach tourism is the most popular destination among tourists, 16% of all persons from the sample over the age of 18 and 21% among travelers aged 18-25 are ready to use the products and services of creative tourism. The most common practice is to include creative tourism products in the overall portfolio of resort companies, along with classic sightseeing and entertainment services. For example, one of the leaders of the tourism industry, the Mriya Resort & SPA resort (located in Crimea) offers its guests the opportunity to gain experience in wine production, based on the worldwide fame of the region in the field of wine making. Guests of the resort can plant a vine, participate in its care, harvesting and production of the final product. This type of service disposes vacationers to become regular visitors to this place ^[44].

As a result of its development, tourism activities (especially creative tourism) have become an integral part of the creative economy and public authorities are paying more and more attention to it^[12]. In Western practice, the concept of "creative class" and "creative environment" are actively used in the development of strategies for attracting representatives of the creative economy to individual cities ^{[33, p. 3]}. The creative class participates in the creation of a recognizable tourist brand of the territory, which has a beneficial effect on all areas of the regional economy ^{[7, p. 2153]}. A clear example of the impact that the activities of representatives of creative professions can have on the tourist activity of the region is the statistics of the pilgrimage route "The Way of Santiago de Compostelo", connecting the south of France and the north of Spain. In the late 1970s, the number of pilgrims was measured in tens of people per year, and after the publication of the book "Diary of a Magician" by the mystical writer Paulo Coelho in 1987, the tourist flow began to increase rapidly and reached 178,912 people in 2021^[41]. Another example of this influence is tourism in the Romanian region of Transylvania, which is closely linked to the historical image of "Count Dracula", which became widely known through the work and research work of Bram Stoker, Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally. This experience clearly shows that literature, along with other types of creativity, can have a significant impact on the ability of territories to attract tourists. The Russian publishing house "This is my Land" participates in the mythologization of tourist territories and routes through the release of a series of literary guidebooks that collect urban legends from local residents of different cities of Russia. The stories selected according to the results of competitions and included in collections are used in the manufacture of souvenirs based on legends, in the compilation of excursions, audiobooks, films, questionnaires, street art and other products. As of March 2024, the publishing house has published 33 collections ^[42].

Thus, there is no doubt that the cultural heritage, as the fruit of the creative activity of a society, reflects its identity, largely determines the attractiveness of the territory for living and forms a competitive tourist potential, the disclosure of which is helped by creative industries ^[18]. In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 09/20/2021 No. 2613-r, the "Concept for the development of creative industries and mechanisms for their state support in large and largest urban agglomerations until 2030" was adopted in the Russian Federation. The drafters of this concept defined creative industries as "areas of activity in which companies, organizations, associations and individual entrepreneurs, in the process of creative and cultural activity, disposing of intellectual property, produce goods and services with economic value, including ensuring the formation of a harmoniously developed personality and the growth of the quality of life of Russian society." As can be seen from the definition, creative tourism fully meets the criteria of the concept of creative industry. 

Creative activity (creativity), which aims to create new ideas, products, processes or solutions, is inherently an inexhaustible economic resource ^{[15, p. 201]}. In addition to the fields of activity based on the use of historical and cultural heritage, art and applied creative industries (architecture, industrial design, fashion industry, etc.), the creative economy also includes software development, data processing, virtual and augmented reality, blogging, media, etc. Thus, this area of activity is the main driving force behind the growth of the digital economy and the welfare of the state in modern conditions. The increased needs of tourists for information technologies and attractive travel content require more active involvement in the digital economy of tourism not only manufacturers of tourist products, but also representatives of creative industries and creative professions (artists, composers, writers, programmers, bloggers, etc.)^{[15, p. 203]}. For example, the creative work of landscape artists has a beneficial effect on increasing the recognition of tourist sites, while writers and local historians are able to reveal their cultural and historical component in a new way and create fascinating information content while visiting these places.  It is also common practice for theater and music studios to participate in the animation of the objects of the show, immersive/theatrical excursions and other entertainment, in which residents and guests of the resort become active participants. All this undoubtedly encourages tourists to become familiar with local culture and everyday life through the consumption of creative tourism services. As a result, intellectual property and creative work are being transformed into an economic asset of value to the stakeholders of the tourist destination. Combining in cooperation the results of the creative activities of representatives of pictorial art, writers and historians of local lore into a common tourist information resource that can give greater value and fame to their work, while simultaneously helping to promote tourist destinations and the activities of representatives of creative tourism, is the main idea of the pilot project of a cross-marketing web service Biggeo.ru . The innovativeness of this product lies in a crowdsourcing approach to promote a tourist destination combined with a new format for presenting cultural goods, which takes the form of joint creativity (co-creation) of a community of authors. 

The target model of the CT, therefore, includes: interaction with stakeholders in the form of a crowdsourcing project through a digital tool; ensuring the involvement of stakeholders through the possibility of implementing their products and services through a digital tool; changing the organizational structure to adapt the enterprise to a new form of relations with stakeholders. 

Based on the analysis, the company has developed a roadmap for the CT project, which consists of the following key stages:

1. Development of a minimally viable product or MVP (English: Minimal Viable Product);

2. Development of the collaborative web service community (joint projects with partners, holding/participating in promotions and thematic contests, etc.);

3. Collecting feedback and adjusting the architecture of the final product;

4.             Elaboration of the financial part of the project corresponding to the architecture of the final product;

5.             Implementation of the final product and scaling of the project.

The first results of the implementation of the roadmap of the CT project

In conditions of limited financial capabilities of the enterprise, as well as to reduce possible risks, it is generally accepted practice to prototype new products to quickly obtain the first data on the relevance and viability of the project. Prototyping is especially important in innovative digital tools when simple marketing research cannot be reliable enough to assess the usefulness of a product for the end user. This also allows you to attract the first users to participate in the management of the project at its early stage of development in accordance with the UDD approach (English User-Driven Development). 

With this in mind, the first version of the service was implemented in February 2023 Biggeo.ru ("Big Earth"). The main task at this stage was to test the hypothesis about the ability of a collaborative web service to attract interested parties to participate in a crowdsourcing project. The required number of participants, as a key performance indicator (KPI) to confirm the hypothesis, was conditionally determined at 100 people. The web service is a historical and artistic guide in which the works of artists and writers are presented on an interactive geographical map with reference to the area (see Figure 2). The crowdsourcing approach of this online service implies the opportunity for each artist to contribute to increasing awareness and promoting the places where he has visited and which inspired him to write paintings. The functionality also includes the creation of personal profiles, where professional experience, creative projects and services of participants, such as workshops and art tourism products, can be indicated. Users will thus be able to get acquainted with the work of the rest of the community and, in case of mutual interest, develop creative cooperation.

Figure 2. Representation of artists' works on an interactive site map Biggeo.ru (Compiled by the author)

Attracting the first participating partners and clarifying the functionality of the web service was carried out throughout the entire stage of the prototype implementation through personal meetings and interviews with representatives of creative associations of artists, writers and local historians, as well as heads of travel companies. In addition to recommendations on the functionality and manageability of the web service, creative associations expressed the need to regulate the admission of artists to the function of publishing works on the site from the moment of their registration. This is necessary to maintain a sufficient level of artistic value and attractiveness of the public part of the service, while simultaneously maintaining interest from the community of artists. Thus, the project provides for a two-level selection of works added by artists to the site: the first level is carried out by the heads of creative associations and groups in which artists participate; the second level of selection is carried out by the community by voting, which helps to select the best works for their placement on the main page. The main page of the site is a kind of showcase for artists, writers and creative associations that are partners of the project. On the general guide map, the advantage of presenting a separate tourist destination is given to local authors. Such a system of organizing results is especially important for large crowdsourcing projects. 

Representatives of travel agencies offering mass tourism products have not seen significant financial benefits for themselves in creative tourism today, except for using it for marketing purposes. In this regard, it is planned to develop commercial proposals for sponsorship and promotional tours of creative tourism for these categories of stakeholders. The heads of creative tourism enterprises, as well as representatives of creative professions, generally appreciated the concept of the project very positively and are ready to use it to promote their services. The idea of cooperation between the project participants in the artistic representation of creative tourism enterprises on the web service and the development of souvenirs for them was also expressed. The main partners of the project are the Association of Plein-air Artists of Russia (AHP), the creative associations "Artist", "Creative View", as well as the online gallery 7 Peaks and the art gallery A.A.S. AHP organizes outdoor painting sessions in places of historical, cultural or aesthetic value, in which both professional artists and amateurs participate. The AS-Tourism enterprise began cooperation with the Association in June 2023, providing software and information support to its individual projects, which contributed to the filling of the guide gallery. The project Biggeo.ru He participated in two annual online marathons of the Association "Plein Air Heat" and "Plein Air Autumn", according to the results of which the winning participants received prizes from partners. At the end of their plein air sessions, the participating artists posted images of these places and their works on social networks, as well as added them to the appropriate section of the gallery Biggeo.ru . The All-Russian online marathon "Plein Air Autumn", which was attended by artists from 12 cities, included the choice of the "Plein Air Capital" (between Moscow and St. Petersburg) and the winner among the other cities by the total number of uploaded Biggeo.ru works of art. Artists from 19 cities announced their participation in the next marathon to choose the most active cities in the plein air movement - "Plein Air Spring 2024". Another example of cooperation in the development of cultural tourism offers is the exhibition project "Plastic in wood", initiated by the web service Biggeo.ru . The A.A. Art Gallery participated in the project.From" the Sochi artist-wood sculptor A.A.Sobol, the Sochi Concert and Philharmonic Association, the creative space of the THREAD and the ballet school "Mon ballet". A literary and musical evening on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, at which the author's works were presented by young pupils of the Sochi theater and ballet schools, was also timed to coincide with the Year of the Family in Russia. The exhibition "Plastic in Wood" was held in the foyer of the Sochi Winter Theater and was supported by the City Administration through its media coverage. The A.A.S. Gallery, as well as AS-Tourism LLC, experienced difficulties as a result of the shutdown of activities and the subsequent drop in the flow of visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-marketing cooperation allowed to increase the number of visitors to the A.A.S. gallery and the exhibition halls of the Winter Theater, and also gave an additional opportunity to members of creative teams who participated in the opening of the exhibition project to show their skills ^[2]. AS-Tourism LLC acted as the coordinator of the exhibition, as well as participated in its promotion and implemented digital copies of exhibition objects on the web service Biggeo.ru . Another example of non-commercial cooperation for the purpose of promoting the project is the digitization and presentation on the website of the collection of landscape paintings of the Sochi Geographical Society (CGS), which includes several dozen works by famous artists whose work is associated with the Caucasus. Artistic sketching of natural places while traveling is one of the traditions of the geographical society. At the same time, the display of works on a geographical map also plays an educational role and fully meets the objectives of this cooperation. The CSO regularly organizes scientific and educational expeditions that allow everyone to explore the nature and history of the Caucasus together with the scientific staff of the geographical society.

The growth of the project's audience in 2023. it mainly corresponded to the period of the online marathons of the AHP "Plein Air Heat" and "Plein Air Autumn". The age distribution of the site's audience based on a sample of 1,000 visitors is shown in the graph (see Figure 3). During this time, 312 artists (professionals and amateurs) have registered on the site, which confirmed the main hypothesis of the first stage of the implementation of the CT strategy.

Figure 3. Age distribution of the site's audience Biggeo.ru . Source: Yandex.Metrica (Compiled by the author). 

The company's digital competencies made it possible to develop a prototype of a web service with minimal financial costs, and the work on the project was carried out by an initiative group. The main expenses were related to renting a remote server and rewarding participants of plein-air marathons and other partner projects to promote the development of the online service community. The first results of the strategy implementation made it possible to collect various qualitative and quantitative data about the project, which will be used in its refinement and economic planning when scaling the final product.

Further development of the project is aimed at expanding the functionality of the web service, as well as attracting professional artists, creative associations and enterprises offering creative tourism products. In this regard, the creation of digital copies of art objects in the form of an online gallery for their marketing promotion with the possibility of sale is one of the key directions for the development of an employee web service. Providing authors with tools to sell their works and related information services, thus, should become additional areas of activity of the AS-Tourism LLC enterprise in the project of its digital transformation.

The main direction in the development of the web service community is the adaptation of the organizational structure of the enterprise to enable more active involvement of authors in project management, as well as to obtain material benefits from its activities. This component of the company's CT strategy is most consistent with the logic of the crowdsourcing approach to motivate its participants ^{[3, p. 47]}. The implementation of the first stage of the roadmap made it possible to compile a summary table of the strengths and weaknesses of the project, as well as the opportunities and threats that exist in the external environment (see Table 1).

Table 1. SWOT analysis of the project

Assessment of the transformational effect of the project

 Implemented prototype of a digital service Biggeo.ru It is one of the stages of the company's DTC roadmap, which prepares it for changes aimed at radically improving the efficiency of production and management processes. Despite the fact that this web service project already represents a certain value for users, it is more fair to assess the transformational effect of the strategy based on the characteristics of the final product and its value proposition for the end user (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Value proposition Biggeo.ru (Compiled by the author)

The authors of the model "Digital Transformation Strategy: write to execute" propose 3 levels of conditions for assessing the transformational effect of the project: basic, qualification and advanced. According to these criteria, the Bolshayazemlya project (Biggeo.ru ) satisfies all the basic conditions:

1.             A platform solution is being created;

2. Access to standard functions is differentiated between user groups based on their roles (regular visitors, authors, responsible creative associations, etc.);

3.             All participants act openly and transparently;

4. Digital technologies are used for pre-defined, specific tasks;

5. The target subject area is clearly identified, users and stakeholders are identified;

6.             The project complies with the current legislation.

 In terms of qualification conditions, the project under development can be attributed to the Digital transformation of the first and second types, because it simultaneously offers typical functions to an unlimited number of users (promotion of the results of creativity of authors and products of creative tourism), and can also be adapted to solve the production tasks of partners (for example, conducting online marathons of AHP). Among the extended evaluation conditions, the criteria "Extensibility" and "Specialization" should be noted. The architecture of the web service provides for the possibility of quickly increasing its components by adding other forms of creativity to the gallery (literary essays, poetry, musical works, etc.), which in turn can significantly increase the community of the web service. In addition, the project has no restrictions on the geography of implementation. At the same time, the narrow specialization of the service remains as a catalog of the results of the creative work of the authors associated with tourist destinations and products. Thus, the project under consideration can be fully characterized as transformational.

Conclusions

 The article presents the main provisions of the CT model of a small business enterprise in the tourism sector, which allow us to reveal the essence of the crowdsourcing approach on which it is based. The first results of the implementation of the project roadmap showed the effectiveness of the methodology "Digital Transformation Strategy: write to execute" in achieving the goal of increasing the digital maturity of the company. The data obtained allowed us to confirm the hypothesis about the demand for an online tool that was developed within the framework of this project and aimed at promoting cooperation between stakeholders to increase the attractiveness and recognition of tourist sites. The collaborative web service allowed the company to begin building peer-to-peer relationships with stakeholders through joint work on an information resource, which radically transforms the management of the value chain.

The current position of the enterprise in the market, the nature of the "Solution" and the properties of the tourism sector of the economy have determined the importance of the components "Stakeholders", as well as "Criteria and limitations" in the final strategy of the Central Bank. The same conditions have determined the planning horizon, which corresponds to the "radical" strategy, as the existing competencies of the enterprise are being adapted to new digital solutions.

The authors of the methodology claim that the necessary criterion for evaluating a project as transformational is the creation or development of the functionality of a platform solution. Despite the fact that the project considered in the article involves the creation of a tourist platform, this criterion seems to be debatable to the author of the article. It can be assumed that, when developing a methodology for the public sector of the economy, the authors evaluated primarily the transformational effect that the project has on the external environment of the responsible institution. It is quite obvious that with this approach, the Central Bank will be perceived as the prerogative of large corporations and authorities. Nevertheless, small and medium-sized enterprises, which have been able to achieve a radical increase in their efficiency due to new forms of relationships with stakeholders, as well as the widespread integration of data collection and management systems (even using existing platforms), can have a significant impact on the relevant sectors of the economy through a cumulative effect. Coordinating institutions such as the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the NTI Platform undoubtedly play a key role in this dynamic. 

The next stage of the roadmap is to scale the Solution, which will require detailed economic and technical forecasting and planning. This work will be able to rely on the first qualitative and quantitative results obtained in the prototyping process. One of the key issues of the CT strategy that the company has to solve is to attract financing for the further development of the project.  Crowdfunding is a common practice in financing socially useful projects. The obvious advantage in choosing this financing strategy is the availability of a minimal product and a community of stakeholders. 

In accordance with the objectives of the government program "The concept of the development of creative industries and mechanisms for their state support in large and largest urban agglomerations until 2030", the project contributes to increasing the tourist attractiveness of the territories of the subjects of the Russian Federation by giving greater value and recognition to the results of creative, intellectual activities that are directly related to natural, climatic, socio-cultural, historical, architectural and other tourist resources. Also, with the growth of audience coverage and the development of cooperation with stakeholders, the innovative activity of the enterprise can have a beneficial effect on the tourism and, as a result, the investment potential of individual regions, on the recognition of domestic brands and the creation of a positive image of the country abroad. The barrier to the development of creative industries, which the authors of the concept point out, is "significant distances and the dispersion of people with the necessary creative, research, engineering and entrepreneurial competencies," which prevents the creation of holistic business projects. A collaborative web service allows you to reduce the negative impact of this barrier and help in the formation of teams with all the necessary competencies. 

The web service is thus involved in achieving the following goals of the concept:

1. the introduction of "modern digital technologies for the creation (production) and distribution of goods and services by domestic creative industries";

2. "creation of new goods and services with high added value due to the use of the results of creative, intellectual activity, increasing the capitalization of intangible assets of Russian business";

3. "preservation of historical, cultural heritage, identity, traditional recipes, including local cultural context and raw materials, revival and development of folk arts and crafts, their delocalization and scaling, reproduction in modern goods and services";

4. "ensuring the growth of the circulation of tourists and representatives of creative industries between the territories." 

Taking into account the formed goals and objectives of the collaborative web service, the CT project can transform the activities of AS-tourism LLC into social entrepreneurship. Thus, according to paragraph 4.e) of Article 24.1 of Federal Law No. 209-FZ of 07/24/2007 (as amended on 12.12.2023) "On the development of small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Russian Federation", an enterprise that "carries out activities aimed at achieving socially useful goals and contributing to solving social problems of society" refers to a social entrepreneurship entity (in particular, "cultural and educational activities"). 

It is also important that the products and services of the creative segment of tourism are also widely in demand by representatives of the local population. This significantly expands the number of potential consumers of the company's services, reduces the seasonality of travel products and dependence on external adverse factors, which corresponds to the initial tasks of increasing the digital maturity of the company. Successful project experience Biggeo.ru He showed the willingness of certain categories of stakeholders of the resort destination to use tools for the development of creative cooperation. An additional factor for choosing creative tourism in the CT project is that this area of tourism is mainly interested in young and middle-aged people who are more receptive to innovation and have good skills in using digital technologies. The low percentage of the 18-24 age group of the site's audience (1.93%) can be explained by the lack of active advertising of the web service at this stage of its development, which consists in filling it with content and attracting the first participants. The overall age distribution thus corresponds to the audience of the partners. During the implementation of the project, it was revealed that there is already an experience in the Internet space of implementing something similar to Biggeo.ru A French developer's web service Place-to-paint.com . The project has similar functionality for the community of artists, but unlike the Russian project, it is not openly positioned in the field of creative tourism and does not select / moderate the works of authors uploaded to the site. The developed web service has more in common with the CrowdRiff marketing promotion tool, but, in comparison with it, it has a pronounced focus on the creative self-expression of participants, on the development of cooperation between stakeholders, as well as a wider range of forms of creativity. 

In the digital transformation project, one of the primary tasks is to determine the company's growth potential, taking into account the new marketing positioning in the market in the current socio-economic conditions. The universal digitalization and development of the Internet, as well as the reduction in the cost of international transportation, have led to increased accessibility of recreation areas, as well as the degree of awareness among tourists about them, which in turn has spurred increased competition in both domestic and international markets. Increased competition necessitates a more inventive marketing promotion that expresses the identity of the local culture of the region. At the same time, the development of navigation tools, maps, booking and payment systems has pushed tourists to independently search for routes and destinations. The development of tourist C2C platforms such as Blablacar, Airbnb, Coachsurfing, Tripster, etc. has ensured more active interaction between tourists and the local population. It is quite obvious that against the background of an increase in purely economic relations between the interested parties, their interest in socio-cultural exchange will also grow, which, in turn, will increase the awareness of guests and their susceptibility to the social problems of the resort, the preservation of ecology and the identity of the region. Deepening cultural ties between guests and the local population improves the perception of tourism and the attitude of city residents towards tourists, has a beneficial effect on the quality of services and generates even greater economic activity. The development of cooperation in the creative environment and cultural life of the city can provide the necessary resource to achieve these goals. All this determines the interest of local authorities, business and society in such Internet projects, as well as in the technologies that make them possible. In this regard, the development of cultural tourism is able to ensure a stable demand for the services of representatives of the creative industries involved in the development and implementation of appropriate software and hardware. Nevertheless, as Russian and international experience shows, digital transformation projects in the service sector rarely show a rapid economic effect that can be objectively assessed. In this matter, it is necessary to take into account the long-term goals and indirect effects of inclusion in the ESG agenda, which can have a beneficial effect on the competitiveness of the enterprise ^[45]. The rationale for the expediency of such projects for companies lies in the need to build closer relationships with stakeholders in order to quickly and adequately respond to their rapidly changing needs, as well as to modern economic challenges, which are characterized by increased complexity and uncertainty. Economic and mathematical methods for evaluating CT projects in the tourism industry require separate, detailed consideration, which is beyond the scope of this article. The current favorable socio-economic conditions in the field of creative tourism and the first results of the implementation of the CT project will undoubtedly provide significant support for long-term financial planning at the subsequent stages of the implementation of the roadmap for increasing the digital maturity of the enterprise.