Nosratabadi et al. [10] reviewed the work from various thematic areas. An interesting fact can also be seen in the literature analysis after 2007. The context of sustainable development in business models is most often taken up in the work of scientists from the United States and Great Britain as well as in China, with Americans taking up this topic in their research twice as often as the British and almost three times more often than the Chinese.

However, it should be noted that the adaptation of activities and solutions related to sustainable development is not only the direct impact of enterprises on the environment, but also on the immediate business environment (contractors, customers, recipients). Therefore, the implementation of sustainable development elements is often associated with obstacles.

The findings of the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism from 2018 [11] include the objectives of sustainable tourism. Another example relating to business models in tourism is the study of Peric and Wise [12], which is a holistic and in-depth analysis of how sports tourism experiences are delivered by looking at two existing case studies in Istria (Croatia). An important source of sustainable development activities in tourism are the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria [13], which were developed for the implementation of "sustainable tourism" in the tourist company.

#### *2.2. Value for the Customer, Enterprise, and Society*

From the perspective of many approaches to the structure of the business model, the place and role of one of them is extremely significant: the element of value proposition for the customer. This element appears in almost all concepts, regardless of the number of components and the way they are grouped. However, considering that the value proposition is something, without which an enterprise loses the basic sense of functioning, and thus a set of products and services that generate value for a particular customer segment, the universality of its occurrence is understandable.

Customer value is a very broad concept. The cited definition of Osterwalder and Pigneur [1] defines it as a set of products and services that generate value for a particular customer segment as well as the reason why customers prefer the offer of a given company over the offer of its competitors. They also add that it is a value that solves customer problems or meets their needs. However, customer value is often complemented by business value, which is what the enterprise captures as part of its own business. Most often it is profit and other intangible assets.

As part of their business, tourism businesses also generate other values that are not related to what the customer or the enterprise itself gains [14]. This value is the social value of the business, determined by the tendency to pursue social goals in the form of activities and services that go beyond tourism. This may be, for example, therapeutic treatment provided as part of spa tourism or medical services provided as part of medical tourism, or activities that protect the natural environment and indigenous culture through the implementation of sustainable tourism [15]. However, it should be noted that the structure of these three categories of values is likely to change as soon as a certain level of tourist traffic load is reached. Therefore, in the second part of this article, efforts were made to simultaneously examine the value structure generated by the tourist enterprise and determine the level of burden on residents with the presence of tourists.

#### *2.3. Overtourism and How to Measure it*

One of the important problems of modern tourism is overtourism (i.e., the overload of tourist traffic on tourist destinations and the measurement of this load). Tourism space has its limitations resulting from the size of the usable area and its response to tourism traffic [16]. An important problem is determining the permissible volume of traffic, exceeding which could be considered excessive. In relation to cities and large tourist centers that are struggling with the invasion of tourists, indicators of the optimal level of sociopsychological capacity have been proposed [17]. In a very short time, the term overtourism has become a descriptor of the negative impact of tourism and refers to the problem of excess tourists in many cities. The discussion around overtourism has drawn attention to the negative consequences of unlimited tourism growth and also pointed out directions of restrictions and voluntary compromises aimed at effectively preventing growing problems [18].

The literature mentions other issues that are related or similar to overtourism. An example is the publication by Torres Outón [19], Jover, and Diaz-Parra [20], which refers to gentrification and touristification. For the sake of completeness, it is worth adding that the phenomenon of touristification includes processes caused by excessive tourist traffic that contribute to the destruction of the socio-cultural tissue of the city: they break down social networks and neighborhoods and erode local identities that are supplanted by marketing activities targeted at tourists [21]. Regarding the second concept, gentrification is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. Gentrification often shifts a neighborhood's racial/ethnic composition and average household income by developing new, more expensive housing, businesses, and improved resources [22].

It is very difficult to determine the assessment of the social effects of the influx of tourists. The level of tolerance of inhabitants toward the influx of tourists varies depending on local and private interests [23,24]. An important tool is the analysis of the limits of acceptable change (LAC) [25,26]. However, it should be noted that residents' tolerance for social difficulties may be greater due to economic benefits [27].

There are various ways of solving this issue, besides limiting the number of visitors. This may include:

The tool for measuring the residents' response to the occurrence of tourism traffic is the methodology proposed by Doxey [16,31], which has been used for over four decades. The literature also presents other methods of assessing the intensity of tourist traffic (e.g., with the help of the Baretje-Defert, Defert, Charvat and Schneider indicators) as well as accommodation density indicators and the use of accommodation potential and tourist enterprises (in all enterprises) [31–34]. Concepts that include measuring the capacity and tourist absorption of the area [35–37] or analyzing the development of the area through the typology of tourists visiting the area [38,39] are also often used.

However, the simplicity of the Doxey index means that it is still used. An example of this is the research into assessing the attitudes of locals toward tourists and tourism in Dubai, a city of rapid development in the tourism industry in the Middle East [40]. Their research indicates that the tourism industry in this city can continue to grow without becoming antagonistic with the inhabitants. Similar research on the socio-cultural influences of tourism development have been conducted in Hungary's Lake Balaton [41] and the island of Mauritius [42].

Doxey [33,34] assumes that the emergence of negative attitudes of inhabitants toward tourists is the result of exceeding the limits of the *social carrying capacity* (i.e., the ability to accept changes). Describing ongoing changes in the attitudes of inhabitants in four successive levels. The first level is *euphoria*, a phase in which residents experience enthusiasm and joy at the appearance of tourists. Satisfaction with this fact is reciprocal, as tourists enjoy a joyful reception and residents receive income. The second phase is *apathy* (i.e., stabilization of emotions toward tourists). Tourist traffic is becoming something ordinary and a tourist is an obvious element of earning of residents. In the third phase, which is *irritation*, an approximation of the volume of tourist traffic approaches the saturation point with tourists. This generally results in infrastructure development. In the fourth phase, *antagonism*, the tourist is perceived as the source of all that is bad. In place of courtesy, abuse and even fraud are increasingly creeping into relationships with tourists. The last phase, although not named by Doxey, is a permanent change of the area and its inhabitants, and often also the loss of tourist function.

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

The purpose of the article was to identify the values generated by tourist enterprises in the context of the occurrence of a specific level of overtourism using the example of the historic city of Krakow. To achieve this goal, empirical research was conducted among randomly selected inhabitants and entrepreneurs conducting business activities related to tourism in Krakow, Poland (i.e., in one of the cities most visited by tourists in Central Europe).

In 2019, Krakow had 780 thousand inhabitants and its administrative division included four main districts (i.e. Podgórze, Nowa Huta, Old Town, and Krowodrza) [43]. The most interesting areas for tourists is the Old Town, covering the urban layout of the historic old town with the royal castle (Wawel), the former Jewish district of Kazimierz, churches, and numerous museums where mainly hotels, apartments, restaurants, clubs, theatres, etc. are located. This district has the largest tourist crowds and there has been a rapid increase in the short-term tourist rental offers, causing gentrification.

Krakow is one of the most popular Polish tourist destinations. It belonged to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Network in 2013, and the European Capital of Gastronomic Culture in 2019. The proof of the high significance of the problem of overtourism in Krakow is the development of a general Sustainable Tourism Policy Program for 2021–2028, under the patronage of the City of Krakow [44]. In 2019, Krakow was visited by as many as 14 million people, who spent almost PLN 7.5 billion during their stay in Krakow. The GDP generated by the tourist industry in Krakow is over 8% of the city's total GDP [43]. The pace of changes is also indicated by statistical data. The volume of tourist activity in Krakow has doubled in the last decade [45]. Tourism in Krakow generates 29,000 jobs [44,46], and tourist arrivals from abroad to Poland in 2014–2019 increased by one third (from 12.5 to 19.5 million tourists) [47,48].

The research tool used in the study was a research questionnaire made available to 518 respondents including 371 randomly selected residents of Krakow and 147 entrepreneurs operating in Krakow. A permanent feature for all respondents was permanent residence in one of the four main districts of Krakow or tourist activity there. The research questionnaire contained nine questions with an extensive structure. The first part of the questionnaire included questions that first classified the respondent to a specific group of respondents (residents/entrepreneurs), and then to a subgroup. In the case of entrepreneurs, subgroups were created by the criterion used, which was the generic scope of the business (hospitality, gastronomy, other tourist services), while in the case of city residents, the respondents were classified into a subgroup related to local origin and the relationship of professional work with tourism. The second part of the research questionnaire included questions aimed at assessing the impact of tourist traffic in Krakow on the daily lives of city residents and people conducting business activity there as well as the proposal of value in the business models of enterprises operating there.

The analysis of the answers obtained was made using the methodology proposed by Doxey by enabling respondents to choose one of five answers that most accurately determined their attitude to tourists. Table 1 presents the method of determining the level of tourism impact on residents and entrepreneurs, in which specific opinions were assigned an appropriate level of tourism load. The Doxey model was also supplemented with an extreme attitude, which expresses the complete degradation of the tourism (*decline stage*).

**Table 1.** Assigning standardized opinions to individual stages of development in tourist traffic load in the Doxey concept.

However, the respondents were asked to rate the load on a scale of 0–10. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis [49]. The level of the significance of differences between the obtained average values was also studied (Mann–Whitney test was used) [50], taking into account significance

## at the level of α ≤ 0.05. **4. Results of Research**

Empirical research was conducted on a sample of 518 respondents including 371 city residents (71.6%) and 147 entrepreneurs conducting business activity in the analyzed tourist destination (28.4%). Among the entrepreneurs participating in the research, every fifth provided hotel services (19.9%) and 7.8% of the surveyed companies provided catering services. Entrepreneurs providing other tourist

services than those above-mentioned were the dominant group (72.3%). The age structure of the resident respondents indicates the dominance of people over 35 (51.0%). More often than every third respondent (35.6%) was 36–55 years old, while every seventh was more than 55 years old.

More often than every second respondent (56.6%) declared being of Krakow origin. It is also known that the majority of the surveyed residents were active in the field of tourism (51.0%).

#### *4.1. Quantitative Analysis Results*

Quantitative analysis of the tourist traffic load showed that the load expressed on a scale of 0–10 was assessed at the level of optimal load (i.e., oscillating around an average rating of 5 (xAv = 5.49 ± 2.81; Me = 5)). However, this is the average result from the ratings of four individual districts. As expected, the distribution of loads in individual districts is not even. One of the districts showed an optimal load, while the others were either overloaded with tourism (Old Town xAv = 7.43 ± 2.4; Me = 8) or showed an underload of tourists such as in Krowodrza and Nowa Huta, where tourists are still expected there to a larger extent than before (Me = 4).

By not focusing the respondents' attention on the rated district, but on the whole city, a much higher average result (xAv = 7.57 ± 1.97; Me = 8) was obtained than in the case of the average result for the ratings of individual districts (xAv = 5.49 ± 2.81; Me = 5). This means that respondents rated the city's load based on the load perceived in the most tourist-borne district of this destination (Old Town).

Therefore, analyzing the results obtained for the whole city, it can be concluded that Krakow is struggling with an excessive number of tourists, but to a moderate degree. Assuming that the tourist traffic load within the 0–5 limits is also a load not exceeding the level of critical capacity and tourist absorption, it can be stated that the limit of tourist capacity has been exceeded in Krakow. However, it does not seem to be a level that degrades the tourist function of the city, but the level of load is rather moderate or sometimes excessively burdensome for its inhabitants.

The origin of respondents from the city or outside the city had no effect on the expressed attitude toward tourists or the assessment of the city's tourist traffic load (*p* > 0.05). The fact of whether the respondent was employed in tourism or outside tourist activities had an impact on the attitude toward tourists (*p* < 0.001), which seems to be understandable, but also had an impact on the assessment of the tourist traffic load in the city (*p* < 0.001).

In the case of differences between the ratings of residents and entrepreneurs conducting their tourist activities in the city, significantly different notes can be seen in all of the analyzed variables. While entrepreneurs showed a lower comfort of doing business in the city than residents (*p* = 0.029), in the case of tourists, entrepreneurs had significantly higher scores than the residents (*p* < 0.001).

As far as the tourist traffic load in the city is concerned, it is worth noting that residents had a significantly higher load than entrepreneurs (*p* < 0.001). Considering the fact that entrepreneurs earn income from tourism, while among the residents, only every second was associated with tourism, the obtained result is understandable.

#### *4.2. Qualitative Analysis Results*

The obtained results regarding the ratio of residents to arriving tourists were verified using the model of changes in attitudes of inhabitants toward tourists, according to the Doxey concept. For this purpose, residents were asked to indicate the attitude that characterized their relationship toward tourists, according to the classification presented earlier in Table 1.

In terms of assessment in individual districts, the answers of the majority of inhabitants in the Krakow districts surveyed indicated the first two phases of the Doxey model (i.e., euphoria and apathy). By almost the same percentage of respondents, which was about 40% (the difference between the percentage of people indicating these two phases generally only reached Δ = 2–5%). The Old Town, being the most burdened with tourists, is unique in this respect, where euphoria is strongly indicated, but, at the same time, had the highest percentage of people who described their attitude as antagonism (13.6%).

However, the overall result obtained was an average assessment, taking into account the ratings of entrepreneurs and residents. An in-depth analysis of the results obtained indicates that these opinions did not coincide. While every third city inhabitant indicated the attitude of euphoria, expressed by the opinion: *I am glad that tourists come here, because it means income for the city, new contacts, jobs, prestige ...* (33.8%), among the entrepreneurs, this attitude was shown by twice as many respondents (71.9%). Among the residents, the attitude of conflict with tourists was expressed by 9.4% of people, while among the entrepreneurs, it was only 2.1%. The structure of the residents' and entrepreneurs' attitudes is presented in Table 2.

**Table 2.** The structure of the residents' and entrepreneurs' attitudes toward tourists in accordance with the Doxey concept.

Source: Based on own study.

#### *4.3. Tourist Tra*ffi*c Load Depending on the Use of the Business Model*

The analysis of the obtained results was also conducted in the direction of identifying differences between entrepreneurs using the business model and those who did not use it. Although the differences between the percentages of entrepreneurs with specific attitudes in both groups of analyzed entrepreneurs were not statistically significant, some differences were clearly noticeable. Entrepreneurs not using the formal business model more often showed euphoria from the presence of tourists (66.04% ⇔ 78.05%), but the attitude of apathy and irritation was more often shown by entrepreneurs using the business model (Table 3).

**Table 3.** Results of average ratings expressed according to the Doxey model.

Source: own work.

#### *4.4. Declared Value Proposition in Business Models*

Entrepreneurs were also asked about the value proposition for customers, the enterprise, and society. These values were declared by both those who used the business model and those who did not know the business models (Table 4).

**Table 4.** Comparison of the attitudes of residents and entrepreneurs of the main districts of Krakow.

Source: own work.

In the case of customer value, more than half of the entrepreneurs (>50%) appreciated values such as:

The key social value indicated by entrepreneurs was conducting preventive measures against excessive tourist traffic loads (reduction of pollution). This is due to the significant air pollution in Krakow.

#### **5. Conclusions**

A comparison of the results obtained between enterprises declaring having and not having a business model indicates a great similarity in terms of the declared value propositions. However, three cases of significant differences between entrepreneurs were noticed.

The first of the differences was observed in the case of enterprise value (in terms of satisfaction with playing an important role in the chain of creating the tourist offer of the city, region, and country). Entrepreneurs with a business model more often declared satisfaction with this role, which was 62.26% of entrepreneurs, compared to 53.66% of entrepreneurs without a business model. It is, therefore, significant evidence that the awareness of the role in the economy of the area goes hand in hand with the awareness of the advantages of having structured business principles.

The next two differences relate to values for society, but this time the results are not clear. Entrepreneurs who do not use the business model (58.54%) see more value from playing an important social role in the city's economy than those who have such a model (39.62%). Over half of entrepreneurs with a business model saw their own role in the city's economy.

However, the introduction of the principles of providing services limiting tourist dysfunctions (disputes, noise, etc.) in an enterprise was more often declared by entrepreneurs who did not use a business model (85.37%), than those who had such a tool (75.47%). This time, the issue of greater awareness of social impact did not accompany the use of the business model in conducting business.

Among other conclusions, it is worth quoting those that resulted from the obvious subjectivity of perception of the phenomenon of the presence of tourists in the city. While residents more often stressed the annoyance of tourism than entrepreneurs, the benefits of tourism in the city were more often appreciated by entrepreneurs. However, it seems reasonable to observe the percentage of entrepreneurs who poorly assessed the presence of tourists in the city and the residents who well assessed the impact of tourists.

One of the very important elements of this research was also noticing the diversity of perceived loads in individual city districts. While a moderate tourist traffic load was observed in the city, the inhabitants and entrepreneurs of individual districts showed different opinions on this subject. While the main tourist district of the city had an excessive load reaching 8 on the scale of quantified load (1 ÷ 10), the other district only had a value of 4 and might mean an ability to take more tourists.

An important solution in the business models of enterprises operating in areas with a significant intensity of tourist traffic should become elements limiting the negative effects of tourist visits, and activities aimed at raising the awareness of guests brought in with their impact on the visited area. Appropriate education of tourists carried out by tourist enterprises may reduce the antagonisms on the part of the inhabitants, and thus extend the ability of entrepreneurs to benefit from tourism. Another important solution may be including the local community in the business models of tourism enterprises among key partners, and, at the same time, conducting activities supporting residents. However, it is not about increasing the financial (including tax) burden on enterprises, but about increasing the intensity of activities protecting inhabitants against tourism dysfunctions as well as strengthening the survival of indigenous cultural elements.

However, the proposed solutions should be sustainable through a permanent place in the business models, and at the same time, should be oriented toward the implementation of sustainable development, making these models sustainable.

An issue that may determine future research is to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between the three values in business models. These are the value proposition for the customer, the values captured by enterprises, and the value proposition for society. It is also important to identify the measurable reasons for restricting tourism activities to avoid the negative consequences of excessive tourist traffic.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.R.S. and Z.K.; methodology, A.R.S. and Z.K.; software, A.R.S. and Z.K.; validation, A.R.S. and Z.K.; formal analysis, A.R.S. and Z.K.; investigation, A.R.S. and Z.K.; resources, A.R.S. and Z.K.; data curation, A.R.S. and Z.K.; writing—original draft preparation, A.R.S. and Z.K.; writing—review and editing, A.R.S.; visualization, A.R.S. and Z.K.; supervision, A.R.S. and Z.K.; project administration, A.R.S.; funding acquisition, A.R.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received funding by the National Science Center in Poland.

**Acknowledgments:** This paper was published as part of the research project 'A business model for health resort enterprises', No. 2017/25/B/HS4/00301 that was supervised and financed by the National Science Center in Poland, and as part of statutory research ROZ 1: BK-235/ROZ-1/2020 (13/010/BK\_20/0042) at the Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Organization and Management.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **References**

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

## *Article* **Economic Impact of the Health Insurance System on Slovak Medical Spas and Mineral Spring Spas**

#### **Ján Derco 1,\*, Piotr Romaniuk <sup>2</sup> and Michal Cehlár <sup>3</sup>**

Received: 15 March 2020; Accepted: 18 April 2020; Published: 21 April 2020

**Abstract:** The article deals with the financing of spa undertakings through the health insurance system. The analysis is based on the financial statements of 28 spa undertakings operating in the Slovak Republic, their contracts with the individual health insurance companies and secondary data sources (accommodation statistics of these undertakings, the number of medical stays paid by clients themselves and of those covered by public health insurance, the spa treatment expenditure of the health insurance companies, the percentage of this expenditure out of the total expenditure spent by the health insurance companies on health care). The still significant percentage of revenues from the health insurance companies out of the total revenues of spa undertakings shows the prevalence of the medical nature of spa care. At the same time, it reflects the current tax measures related to the spa industry and shows that the introduction of a recreation allowance might influence the future development of spa care.

**Keywords:** health insurance; health tourism; medical spas; spa tourism; state support

#### **1. Introduction**

In the 20th century, the ownership of spa undertakings and the manner of financing spa care changed twice in the Slovak Republic. The first fundamental social and economic changes occurred after World War II. It has been noted that "these changes radically changed the quantitative and qualitative parameters of Slovak spas. The traditional picture of spa life as a leisure time and a way of social and cultural enjoyment was ideologically unacceptable for communists. With the rise of state centralization, regulated economy and state-owned health and social services, a significant reduction of the spa network took place" [1]. Act No. 125/1948 on the nationalization of natural healing springs and on the incorporation and management of confiscated property of 1948 was crucial for the fate of Slovak spas. Thus, the State acquired the exclusive right to dispose of the healing springs and the title to the property of the spas. The Act was also the first step towards the inclusion of the spa industry in a unified health system, excluding its economic use and inbound tourism [2]. Finally, the nationalization process resulted in all spa facilities being run by the single operator—the Czechoslovak State Spas [3]. Notably, "after the nationalization of spas and springs in 1948, the ratio between patients sent for treatment by the national insurance company and private spa guests (self-payers) began to change significantly. In 1948, policyholders (state-insured patients) accounted for only about 15% of all spa guests. In 1953, the ratio was already reversed—85% accounted for policyholders and only 15% for private spa guests—self-payers. In 1954, only 244 domestic and 53 foreign clients received treatment at the spas managed by the Main Administration of Specialized Medical Institutes, Spas and Springs at

their own expense. Although the number of beds reserved for self-payers had been growing since 1955, the percentage of spa clients who paid for their stays themselves was less than 2%. In these early years, the importance of spas as recreation and tourism centers was underestimated. New construction began in the 1960s of the 20th century, but not everywhere and not at the same time" [4].

The second significant change of the Slovak spas was their economic transformation during the changed political and social conditions that developed after 1990. According to the original plans, the restructuring of the state-owned Slovak medical spas was intended to create 14 joint-stock companies with 51% state participation, 5% was earmarked for voucher privatization, 5% intended for the municipalities in whose territories the spas were located, 3% for restitutions and 36% for public auction [5]. As the spa industry was considered to be one of the most lucrative and promising economic sectors within the Slovak economy, there was a lot of interest in its privatization. As a result, the original privatization plan was changed [6]. The municipal shareholdings rose to 10% and the shareholding intended to be sold within a public tender was increased to 51%. On the other hand, the shareholding allocated to the National Property Fund of the Slovak Republic decreased to 20–34% (state-owned shareholdings) [5]. The privatization of the spa undertakings was expected to help restore dilapidated buildings, improve services, invest in the renewal of healing springs and bring an influx of foreign clients [6]. For most of the spas, this process took place in the period of 1995–1997 [1]. The way the privatization was carried out [7] was questioned and criticized by the public. Responses to this criticism led to the transformation of the state-owned undertakings into newly formed joint-stock companies whose statutes guaranteed the preservation of the medical character of the spas. For this purpose, the state-owned General Health Insurance Company (Všeobecná zdravotná poist'ov ˇna) retained minority shareholdings in the spa undertakings. The privatization of the Slovak medical spas was accompanied by legislative reforms affecting the Slovak spa industry and spa care [6].

The other changes that affected spa care were (1) the emergence of the health insurance market in the early 1990s and (2) the changeover in the spa care financing from the state to the health insurance companies in 2004. The health insurance system started to operate based on Act No. 7/1993 Coll. on the establishment of the National Insurance Company and on the financing of health, sickness and pension insurance. The Act led to the establishment of a single insurance company on 1 January 1993, which was the holder of compulsory health, sickness and pension insurance. The incompatibility of all three systems led to problems. The lack of finances in the health sector was, inter alia, caused by the fact that the state was not able to fully comply with its obligations to pay insurance for a large economically passive/inactive population. This subsequently created a problem of insufficient financing of health care. Due to these and other reasons, the National Insurance Company ceased to exist, and both the Social Insurance Agency responsible for the sickness and pension insurance system and the state-owned health insurance company (Všeobecná zdravotná poist'ov ˇna) were established on 1 January 1995. Pursuant to Section 49 of Act No. 274/1994 Coll. on the Social Insurance Agency, spa care was covered by a special Social Insurance Agency account into which money was paid by the state. Under Act No. 273/1994 Coll., private health insurance companies could also be established from 1 January 1995. The health insurance market has stabilized gradually; there is currently only one state-owned health insurance company (Všeobecná zdravotná poist'ov ˇna), and there are two private health insurance companies (Dôvera and Union) [6,8]. The Social Insurance Agency significantly reduced the purchase of 'spa vouchers' and the expenditures related to spa care. Therefore, the responsibility to pay for spa care was transferred from the Social Insurance Agency to the health insurance companies in 2004.

"Natural Curative Spas are medical facilities where healthcare is provided to stabilise the state of health, regeneration of health or prevention of diseases and which use natural healing water or weather conditions suitable for treating recognised under Act 538/2005 Coll. to provide health care" [9]. "Spa care indicated for health reasons is fully (category A) or partially (category B) covered by public health insurance. The indications and length of medical stays (21–28 days) are set forth in Act No. 577/2004 on the Scope of Health Care Covered by Public Health Insurance and on Payments for Services related to the Provision of Health Care" [10]. In the case of medical spa stays under Category A, the insurance companies reimburse the costs of accommodation, catering services and spa care. However, clients have the option to pay for a higher standard of these services. The clients only pay a statutorily prescribed charge (€1.70 per night) and a local accommodation tax. In the case of indications of Category B, the insurance companies only reimburse the costs of health care (medical examination including diagnostic services, three treatment procedures per day on average and the administration of medicines in the case of acute diseases or deterioration of the state of health). Accommodation and catering services are chosen and paid by the clients themselves [11]. The financial stability of these undertakings is based on the balance between medical products covered by public health insurance and medical and wellness products reimbursed by patients [10]. Qualifying patient into Category A or B is dependent on the disease being treated, as specified in the Appendix 6 to Act No. 577/2004 on the Scope of Health Care Covered by Public Health Insurance and on Payments for Services related to the Provision of Health Care.

Regulation of prices related to spa care by health insurance companies does not take into account the needs of spa businesses but mainly the needs of insurance companies. In Slovakia [11–15], the Czech Republic [14,16] and Poland [17–23], spa therapy is an integral part of the public health system, but medical facilities providing these services also act as tourist establishments. The uncertainty of financing products with strong medical backgrounds have forced businesses to look for new products to be offered in this sector, the financing of which would not be bound only to public finances. Short stays marketed as wellness, medical wellness or relaxation include activities aimed at improving mental and physical conditions, as these treatments are not specifically used for the treatment of concrete diseases. Its funding is not regulated and prices reflect actual costs [9].

Smith and Puczkó [24] described regional and cultural differences in understandings of European health and wellness tourism in Northern, Western, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. It is difficult to compare medical services provided in the Slovak spas with those of other destinations [25–35]. This is due to the different legislative framework in each country. There is also variance in the level of social or health care coverage. The issues of the spas' orientation towards the target clientele according to the analyzed forms of reimbursement, the dependence of their financing on the health insurance system and the percentage of such financing (plus other factors mentioned in this article) are crucial in any legislative changes and discussion about them. An example of this is the crisis situation in the Czech Republic in 2013 after the adoption of a restrictive indication list, which shortened the length of spa stays for certain diagnoses, reduced re-stays, introduced regulatory fees and canceled the reimbursement of stay costs for certain diagnoses from public health insurance [32,35]. The current legislative framework for this kind of business imposes strict requirements not only on the material and technical equipment and staff of natural medical spas, but also on the use and protection of natural healing springs, their monitoring, recognition of climatic conditions suitable for treatment and their protection, the protection of the spa area and spa environment requirements. Meeting these criteria requires resources to cover costs which are not expended by hotels focused solely on the wellness segment. This aspect should be taken into account when assessing the competitiveness of spa facilities and non-medical facilities. At the same time, however, the issue of financing these undertakings is important not only for the undertakings themselves and for the local economy built on the use of natural healing springs in spa facilities, but also in terms of the aforementioned environmental aspects and a sustainable spa care concept.

The aims of this article are:

3. to analyze correlations between revenues of spas and after-tax profits of spas with the factors determining their infrastructural and financial environment.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

Mainil et al. [36] states that "distinguishing the size of each of the markets in health tourism (i.e., medical, wellness and spa tourism) in the EU is difficult due to the limited and fragmented data available and the wide (and often overlapping) scope of the definitions used by different sources and statistical bureaus". This analysis is based on secondary data sources [37–51]. The data on the amount of financially recognized services paid out of public health insurance to natural medical spas and the percentage of this expenditure out of the total expenditure spent by the health insurance companies on health care are sourced from the Reports on the state of public health insurance for 2005–2018, as published by the Health Care Surveillance Authority [52–65]. The current amount of reimbursements is obtained from the contracts between the individual health insurance companies and the spa undertakings. The accommodation statistics contain data from Monthly Accommodation Facility Activities Reports to be submitted by the accommodation facilities to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. The National Health Information Centre collects client data through Completed Spa Treatment Reports and the Annual Report on Natural Medical Spas.

The data on revenues (from the sale of services and goods) and after-tax profits of 28 natural medical spas operating in the Slovak Republic have been obtained from the public register of financial statements (http://www.registeruz.sk/cruzpublic/domain/accountingentity/simplesearch), which has been publishing the financial statements of companies since 2013. For the purpose of statistical analyses, we applied descriptive statistical methods as well as the Shapiro-Wilk test to verify the normality of distribution of data. Since non-normal distribution had been observed in most cases, the correlation analyses were performed using non-parametric methods, namely Spearman's correlation test [31] and Kendall's tau test. All statistical analyses were performed using Statistic aver. 13.3 software (TIBCO, Palo Alto, CA, USA).

#### **3. Results**

Table 1 provides basic information on the financing of medical spa treatment by public health insurance in Slovakia in the years 2006–2018, along with data on total revenues of the spa companies for the years 2013–2018 and their profits in the same period. From the presented data, we can observe that in 2006–2018, the amount of expenditure of insurance companies on medical spa treatment grew on a year-over-year basis, with the exception of the years 2012, where the amount was comparable to the previous year, and 2014, where a decrease appeared compared to 2013. The growth in nominal expenditure however did not directly translate into the increase of the share of spending on spa treatment in the total expenditure of health insurance companies. In the reporting period, this share accounted for 0.88–1.5% of total expenditure, presenting an upward trend up to 2011, but decreasing in the following years, despite general increase in nominal expenditure. The total revenues of spa companies in a given period generally showed a growing trend, while the share of income gained from insurance companies in their total revenues, after a decrease between 2013 and 2014, generally remained at a similar level, with some slight fluctuations between years. A similar situation tends to appear in terms of spa companies' profits, which do not show a clear trend, although losses only appeared once instead of profits, and profits generally appeared to be visibly higher in 2018 compared to in previous years.

To verify what the possible determinants of spa companies' financial results are, we decided to apply correlation tests comparing companies' revenues and profits with a set of factors potentially determining them. Results are presented in Table 2.

**Table 1.** Services of spa undertakings financially recognized by the health insurance companies (EUR) and their percentage in the total health care expenditures of the health insurance companies in 2006–2018, revenues (from the sale of services and goods) and profits/losses of spa undertakings (EUR) in 2013–2018.

Source: [52–65], The data on revenues (from the sale of services and goods) and after-tax profits of spa undertakings have been obtained from the public register of financial statements (http://www.registeruz.sk/cruzpublic/domain/ accountingentity/simplesearch).

**Table 2.** Spearman's and Kendall's tests comparing companies' after-tax profits and revenues with a set of factors potentially determining them.

Source: processed by P.R.

Both Spearman's and Kendall's tests showed similar results, despite some slight differences in exact values of the correlation coefficient. We found that both revenues and profits are negatively and with a moderate or weak strength correlated with the global number of beds in spa companies, which may be interpreted as a symptom of the restructuring processes taking place in the companies and their efforts to optimize infrastructure. Similarly, a negative correlation appears in the case of the number of foreign visitors to spa companies operating in Slovakia. This correlation generally appears to be weak, although a stronger one has been shown by the Spearman's test in the case of after-tax profits. On the other hand, an interesting fact has been observed in relation to the general number of visitors and the number of domestic visitors to spa companies. In both cases a positive correlation exists, both with regard to revenues and profits. However, for revenues, this correlation is relatively strong and statistically significant when it comes to the numbers given in categories of reimbursed and self-paid stays, while in the case of profits, it appears to be positive but extremely weak. Interestingly, it is stronger, moderate in a general manner, although not statistically significant, for stays self-paid by patients. The dependence on public resources as a main source of income seems to be reflected by the correlation that appears in the case of total public expenditure on health care. Interestingly, this correlation is higher for general expenditure than for the part intended for spa treatment. Moreover, correlation with the factor showing the share of expenditure on spa treatment in general health expenditure appears to be negative and weak at the same time, while the value of the correlation coefficient with Slovak GDP takes the same values as in the case of correlation with general health expenditure.

#### **4. Discussion**

In our study, we observed several interesting facts regarding the operation of spa companies in Slovakia. Correlation analyses may lead to an interpretation that companies in general are becoming more dependent on domestic clients rather than on foreign ones, and that the revenues coming from public health insurance play a crucial and probably a growing role as their source of income. Profitability of the stays remains at a low level, being at the same time visibly higher in the case of self-paid patients. These observations seem to be confirmed by general data regarding development of the spa sector in Slovakia. In 2018, 28 Slovak natural medical spas operated 77 accommodation facilities. The total number of clients reached 311,963, of which 248,413 were domestic and 63,550 foreign clients. Out of this number, 72,702 domestic policyholders and 197 foreign policyholders received medical spa treatment paid for by a health insurance company. Another 73,128 domestic clients and 33,186 foreign clients received medical spa treatment paid by the patients themselves. Spa treatment is most often indicated for a group of musculoskeletal disorders—Vertebrogenic syndrome with transient painful spine disorders, post-traumatic conditions or conditions after musculoskeletal operations (mainly related to the following diagnoses: M40–M54 Spine and back diseases, M17 Gonarthrosis—arthrosis of the knee joint and M16 Coxarthrosis—arthrosis of the hip joint). The next most common reasons for treatment are non-tuberculous respiratory diseases and circulatory system diseases [66]. The remaining clients are accompanying persons (spouse of the client, mother with a child on medical stay, guide for the disabled) or guests who buy non-medical wellness products (such as weekend wellness stays including access to the aqua park, saunas or steam baths, but without a prescription for traditional balneological procedures provided by a specialist).

The rate of occupancy of permanent beds in the spa undertakings reached 66.3%. The average number of overnights spent by domestic visitors was 9.4 and of those spent by foreign visitors was 7.2. When comparing these data with the data for 2005–2017 [10,37,38], it can be stated that: (1) an increase in the total number of clients occurred; (2) an increase in the number of medical stays of domestic clients covered by public health insurance (in 2018) or of those who paid themselves for their stays (in 2016–2018) occurred, (3) the number of foreign visitors has stabilized since 2009, (4) the traditional exploitation of natural healing springs for treatment, its connection to the public health insurance system and the level of spa treatments resulted in an increasing prevalence of medical stays (according

to data on the total number of clients and the number of clients who received medical spa treatment). In 2006–2018, the amount of financially recognized services performed by spa undertakings grew on a year-over-year basis, with the exception of the years 2012 and 2014. In the reporting period, the percentage of this expenditure out of the total health care expenditure of the health insurance companies accounted for 0.88–1.5%. A noteworthy fact is that the share of expenditure on spa services in the case of Slovak health insurance generally appears to be higher than for in neighbouring Poland, where after implementation of the health insurance in 1999, it remains at relatively stable level of circa 1% [67,68]. Despite this fact, the Association of Slovak Spas proposes that the percentage of spa care expenditures be increased. This proposal seems to be well grounded in data regarding financial operation of spa companies, where the increase of stays and income not necessarily translates into better financial stability and profitability, as shown in our study, especially by the negative correlation between the share of spa treatment expenditure out of general health expenditure for health insurance. It is likely that the revenues and income of spa companies reflect the general condition of the Slovak economy, and thus its influence on health care financing, rather than any changes in policy of insurance companies regarding spa treatment. This observation is similar to that in Poland, where the expenditure are is perceived as being insufficient to sustain financial stability of the spa companies, despite the nominal increase in expenditure [69].

The share of reimbursements from the health insurance companies in 2013–2018 accounted for approximately one third of the revenues of spa undertakings. The losses reported in the spa sector in 2016 were due to the poor economic performance of one spa, which is currently being restructured. The impact of restrictive measures of the health insurance companies on the economy of the individual spa companies is mainly reflected in the amount of reimbursement provided by the health insurance companies per patient (treatment day). The amount of reimbursements by the health insurance companies per treatment day for indication group A ranges between €32.50 and €50.50, and for indication group B it ranges between €20.00 and €24.30. The current situation is a natural consequence of the health insurance companies giving their preference to reimbursements for medicines, outpatient care and institutional care in hospitals. The solution is the currently adopted state support for accommodation facilities, including spa undertakings (in the segments of medical stays not covered by public health insurance, medical stays for indication group B, stays designated as medical wellness or wellness paid by self-payers), investments into the reconstruction and modernization of buildings, better promotion in the countries that are the main source markets (Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Poland, Russia and Austria). For Europe, Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare regulates patients' rights for reimbursement in cross-border health care and has an important impact on the mobility of medical tourists. Four Slovak spa facilities hold the international European quality certificate EuropeSpa med. This certification is of particular importance if the spas wish to provide spa care to foreigners to a larger extent.

The state support for accommodation facilities, including spa undertakings, is based on four instruments. (1) Decreasing the value-added tax [70] on accommodation services from 20% to 10% as of 1 January 2019. (2) At the same time, as of 1 January 2019, an entity employing more than 49 employees is obliged to provide a recreation allowance. Employees, whose employment relationship with the employer lasts for at least 24 consecutive months, may apply for a recreation allowance from the employer. The employer is obliged to pay the employee a recreation allowance in the amount of 55% of the recreation expenses, but not more than €275 per calendar year. Eligible recreation expenses are expenses demonstrably incurred by the employee on tourism services related to accommodation for at least two nights in the Slovak Republic. The employer is obliged to contribute not only to the recreation of the employee, but also to the recreation of the spouse and the child of the employee and other persons living in a common household with the employee, provided that they are on holiday together with the employee. From the employee's point of view, recreation allowances provided to the employee by his/her employer are exempt from income tax, while the employee and employer do not pay any health and social insurance contributions on such allowances. For employers (including natural

persons with income from business and other self-employment activities), recreation allowances are a tax-deductible expense according to Act No. 595/2003 Coll. on Income Tax, which reduces their income tax base. This support could increase the percentage of short-term wellness stays in the following years. (3) Demonstrably paid reimbursements related to spa care incurred in natural medical spas shall, from 1 January 2018, be deemed a non-taxable part of a natural person's tax base. The non-taxable part of the tax base for spa care may include payments for spa treatments provided, including payments for meals and accommodation made by the taxpayer and which are not paid to the natural person from other sources, e.g., paid out of public health insurance or by the employer as a recreation allowance, while the duration of the stay in the spa is not decisive. The non-taxable part of the tax base for spa care may be applied by a natural person as evidenced by proof of payment, but cannot be more than €50 per year for each person for whom the non-taxable part of the tax base is applied (spouse and child). (4) At the same time, more favorable tax treatment is given to reconstruction and modernization works on buildings which are located in the spa area, are used for spa care, and are part of a natural medical spa. From a tax perspective, they are treated as other assets that are depreciated separately from the building (which are currently depreciated over a period of 40 years) and are included in the depreciation group with a depreciation period of 6 years.

The limiting factor of this study is the fact that it does not take into account the impact of governmental instruments furthering domestic and spa tourism. The assessment of medically recognized services submitted by natural medical spas for settlement (and checked in the health insurance information system) may result in more accurate results. At the same time, further research should focus on the cost-benefit analysis of the costs of additional pharmacological treatment and reimbursements to physiotherapeutic rehabilitation clinics and departments in the event that spa treatment expenditure is reduced by health insurance companies. As such, further research is still required in this field.

#### **5. Conclusions**

Financial resources for spa treatment coming from public health insurance generally showed a growing trend in years 2006–2018. Nonetheless, the share of expenditure on spa treatment out of general expenditure on health services, after an increase between the years 2006–2011, did not show any clear trend in the following years, appearing in a scale between 1 and 1.39% in the second part of the investigated period. Public health insurance appears to be the dominant source of income for spa companies operating in Slovakia, having the biggest influence on its revenues. Self-paying patients in turn seem to be more profitable for spa companies. A decreasing role of foreign patients in generating income for spa companies appears in the investigated period. The possibility of attracting foreign visitors seems not to be taken advantage of by the companies in a scale adequate to its potential. Revenues of spa companies in Slovakia show the highest correlation with domestic visitors' medical stays paid by health insurance, as well as with general health expenditures of health insurance companies and GDP of the Slovak Republic. The revenues therefore reflect the general condition of the Slovak economy and its influence on health care financing rather than any changes in policy of insurance companies regarding spa treatment. The level of financing spa treatment by health insurance is being perceived as being too low, which is confirmed by visibly weak correlations between spa companies' after-tax profits and medical stays covered by health insurance, as well as general spending of health insurance funds on spa treatment.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.D. and P.R.; Methodology, J.D. and P.R.; Software, P.R.; Validation, J.D. and P.R.; Formal Analysis, P.R.; Investigation, J.D. and P.R.; Resources, J.D. and P.R.; Data Curation, J.D. and P.R.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, J.D., P.R. and M.C.; Writing—Review and Editing, J.D. and P.R.; Visualization, J.D. and P.R.; Supervision, J.D. and P.R.; Project Administration, M.C.; Funding Acquisition, M.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The article was publishing as a part and with financial support of the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. VEGA 1/0515/18 "The decision-making model of process of evaluating raw material policy of regions".

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **References**

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

## *Article* **Sharing Economy and Lifestyle Changes, as Exemplified by the Tourism Market**

#### **Agnieszka Niezgoda and Klaudyna Kowalska \***

Department of International Economics, Institute of International Business and Economics, Pozna ´n University of Economics and Business, Al. Niepodległo´sci 10, 61-875 Pozna ´n, Poland<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**\*** Correspondence<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
Received: 30 April 2020; Accepted: 29 June 2020; Published: 2 July 2020

**Abstract:** The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between lifestyle changes and willingness to use sharing economy services in tourism, including peer-to-peer accommodation. On the one hand, knowledge of lifestyle changes can help adapt the product offer to the requirements of consumers. On the other hand, products that consumers use can reflect lifestyle changes. The following classification of motivations for sharing economy activity selection resulting from the subjects' lifestyles has been proposed: personal motivations—related to economic advantages; social (conformist) motivations—resulting from the need to fit in with others; and ideological motivation—resulting from the understanding of the processes of natural environment degradation and excessive consumption. In order to gather opinions and to understand behaviors, attitudes, and preferences regarding sharing economy activities (i.e., the sharing of transportation, food, clothes, equipment, and accommodation), the focus group interview method was used (6 groups, 5–8 participants each). Discussions were conducted separately for two populations: young with time (YT) and older rich (OR). The study demonstrates lifestyle changes between the generations. YT actions are the consequence of personal and ideological motivations. OR have lifestyles that result from personal and conformist motivations. Neither population sees a relationship between participating in the sharing economy and caring for the environment and preventing excessive consumption.

**Keywords:** consumer behavior; lifestyle; sharing economy; peer-to-peer accommodation; tourism market

#### **1. Introduction**

The growing importance of the sharing economy is a consequence of many simultaneous changes: the global economic crisis, growing concerns about sustainable consumption, the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), a tendency towards reurbanization, changes in consumers' behaviors, and increasingly widespread initiatives related to social entrepreneurship [1–5]. Despite the lack of empirical evidence, the rise of the sharing economy and the 2008 financial crisis are often linked [5,6]. As a result of the crisis, discussions of sustainable development, including sustainable consumption, have intensified. In recent years, interest in the sharing economy has increased. The new economic situation has led to a reassessment of consumption patterns, including spending habits and the value attached to ownership [6–8], thus making it necessary to rethink the changes in previously existing behaviors resulting from one's lifestyle. The sharing economy has provided useful business models for consumers who engage in anti-consumption lifestyles, because a number of consumers see participation in the sharing economy as an alternative to ownership [9] (pp. 1422–1423).

Lifestyle is considered by many authors as one of the factors in consumer behavior [10–13]. In the tourist market, lifestyle can affect tourists' behaviors and determine the choices they make regarding, e.g., how they travel and what services they use [14–17]. It is natural for people to constantly pursue a higher standard of living [18]. This pursuit can be manifested by the wish to constantly improve one's economic standing, but may involve non-financial aspects of life as well. Consumers create tendencies and are incredibly demanding about what they want and do not want. Tourists as consumers seek products that can adapt to their lifestyle [13]. Knowledge of lifestyle changes can help adapt the product offer to the requirements of consumers. At the same time, products that consumers use can reflect lifestyle changes. The idea of sharing is important, mainly in the context of satisfying unlimited needs under conditions of limited resources. The sharing economy is seen as a way to reach sustainability [19] (p. 19). It may be considered a sustainable business model [20] that will change consumers' relationship to objects and other components of a materialistic lifestyle [5]. Consumers are increasingly aware of environmental, economic, and social issues. Their growing concern for the environment may lead to more rational purchasing decisions [21,22] and prompt them to search for providers with a sustainable business model. Consumers' lifestyles and values are changing, and consumer behavior patterns are changing with them [13,21,23]. This also applies to leisure time and the ways it is managed, including the choice of accommodation during travel [16,23,24]. Changes in lifestyle could reduce the excessive consumption of goods, and promote more responsible consumer behaviors [5] and more sustainable business models.

The objective of the article is to analyze the relationship between lifestyle changes and readiness to use peer-to-peer accommodation services, which are part of the sharing economy. In order to achieve this objective, it was first necessary to analyze this relationship in a broader context, by assessing consumers' sense of responsibility for the use of resources, and their engagement in sharing economy activities, involving the sharing of transportation, food, clothes, and equipment. The key issue for the study was the focus on the behavioral aspect of respondents' attitudes. Once the respondents' general attitude towards the sharing economy was known, it was possible to examine their hidden motives resulting from lifestyle changes in the context of travel patterns and accommodation. Therefore, as well as respondents' declarations of whether they performed certain actions, their motivations behind choosing (or not choosing) peer-to-peer accommodation and other sharing economy activities was examined. The paper is based on the authors' own classification of motivations (personal, social, and ideological), with an attempt to verify these motivations based on qualitative research in six focus groups.

The systematic literature review in the article contributes to a clearer understanding of lifestyle changes in the context of the sharing economy. The review was carried out with a view to identifying existing research directions in this field. While an abundant literature covers tourists' motivations for participating in the sharing economy [1,2,23–29], researchers have paid less attention to these tourists' lifestyles [28], and more importantly, to how lifestyle influences their behavior in the context of the sharing economy. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the lifestyle changes associated with behaviors, attitudes, and preferences regarding sharing economy initiatives. In addition, the qualitative study enabled a thorough analysis of hidden motives resulting from the subjects' lifestyle and the gap between lifestyle changes and the use of peer-to-peer accommodation, which, to the best of the authors' knowledge, has not been covered in any previous research. The study reveals differences between generations in terms of: (1) lifestyle and a sense of responsibility for the use of resources; (2) lifestyle and motivations for participating in sharing economy activities, including the sharing of transportation, food, clothes, and equipment; (3) lifestyle and motivations for the specific organization of travel and use of peer-to-peer accommodation. The focus group study offers a better understanding of the role of lifestyle changes in the sharing economy and the popularization of sustainable business models. The results contribute to the literature on peer-to-peer services by including a lifestyle perspective, allow the establishment of an informational background, offer a

starting point for further quantitative research in this field, and provide some guidelines for tourism companies with sustainable business models.

#### **2. Systematic Literature Review—Lifestyle, Sharing Economy and Peer-to-Peer Accommodation**

Lifestyle is a term which is often used in conjunction (or sometimes even replaced) with terms such as "the way, quality and standard of living", "patterns of behavior", "values", and "attitudes". In the literature, one can find various attempts to define this term, as it falls within the scope of interest of scholars from the fields of economics, psychology, sociology, pedagogy, and medicine [10]. As a result, there is no single commonly accepted definition of lifestyle.

Lifestyle includes observable behaviors and non-observable values [10,30]. According to scholars, lifestyle is a method of market segmentation; they have emphasized, however, that it has never been accepted as the dominant method [14]. Lifestyle is intrinsically associated with psychographic methods of market segmentation. In literature, there have been many attempts to determine the lifestyle characteristic for societies in developed countries, so as to make it easier to profile market segments, develop the concept of market position, develop advertisements, etc. Lifestyle comprises behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes—both what people do and what they feel. It is a complex and evolving category, which can include both differences and similarities, due to the multi-directional transmission of cultural values [31]. Although it is hard to find a single, all-encompassing definition of lifestyle, the fact that lifestyle in developed countries undergoes transformations is commonly accepted in literature [13].

From the perspective of this article, it is worth considering whether analyses of lifestyle refer to attitudes and values opposing consumption, and to the sharing economy. Tourism is associated with the way people spend their time and with personal preferences; therefore, one might assume that choices people make concerning tourist services can be the consequence of a specific lifestyle.

#### *2.1. Lifestyle Changes and the Sharing Economy*

Educational campaigns for rational and healthy living contribute to the rationalization of some areas of consumption [32], including the way people satisfy their need to relax, as well as other needs that involve tourist activities. Excessive mass consumption is increasingly rejected in favor of sustainable consumption and de-consumption, i.e., the conscious limitation of consumption to a rational size [4,33–35], which can be observed especially in groups of young, educated individuals who use digital media and technology [3,36]. Furthermore, consumers are becoming more rational, responsible, and aware when it comes to issues related to environment protection [37] and are aiming at sustainable consumption. On the other hand, consumers are exposed to constant pressure related to the artificial stimulation of certain needs, mainly through aggressive advertising, which leads to the so-called Diderot effect, whereby people pursue their ideal of a good life through the purchase of particular consumer goods, purchasing more than one actually needs [38]. Thus, consumers' behavior is becoming clearly inconsistent—they aim at limiting consumption, but at the same time they buy more, because they want to satisfy all their needs [3]. The concept of the sharing economy can be seen as an attempt to reconcile the two perspectives (i.e., simultaneously using products and limiting purchases).

The sharing economy—which is essentially about better management of underused assets—has become one of the leading economic trends in the 2010s. It is an economic and technological idea that can be perceived as an umbrella term for changes occurring within modern technologies and including collaborative consumption [39]. Collaborative consumption endorses sharing the consumption of goods and services through online platforms [39] and can include the following activities: traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping, providing benefits related to accessing products and services rather than owning them [7,39–41].

The growth of the sharing economy in tourism, driven by the global economic crisis, the development of modern technologies, environmental factors (de-consumption, sustainable consumption), and the increased significance of authenticity and sense of community [1–3,7,16,42–44] has led to the emergence of many businesses that enable and coordinate the direct exchange of products and services between individuals (consumers). In tourism, examples of the sharing economy can be found in the following fields [45,46]: (1) accommodation services—in the form of short-term rental of entire houses, flats, or rooms, where both guests and hosts are registered users of a platform, or in the form of home-swapping; (2) transport services—in the form of ride-sharing, as a way of getting from home to a tourist destination (long-distance travel, instead of a train or bus) or moving around as part of the tourist experience (short-distance travel as an alternative to public transport or taxis); (3) catering services—meal-sharing, carried out mainly in private houses in the tourist area; (4) tourist guide services—where the function of a tour guide is performed by residents of a given tourist area. The sharing economy concept is associated with certain behaviors of tourists that may manifest themselves as a result of lifestyle changes across generations. Therefore, the relationship between these constructs should be traced in the literature.

A review of articles on the sharing economy and peer-to-peer accommodation reveals a number of qualitative and quantitative studies directly or indirectly related to the subject of lifestyle. As shown in Table 1, the covered lifestyle contexts included lifestyle in an intercultural context [47]; lifestyle as a driver, result, or part of the sharing economy (or related consumption patterns) [4,5,9,16,48–50]; lifestyle threatened by the sharing economy [51]; description of the lifestyles of sharing economy users [52]; sustainable lifestyle [53]; and lifestyle as a direction in research on the sharing economy [54]. In some papers, no direct link between lifestyle and the sharing economy was found [47,50,52], but most included cases of sharing economy accommodation [9,16,47–49,51,52].

The analysis shows that lifestyle has an impact on the behaviors associated with the sharing economy and peer-to-peer accommodation, but that the relationship can also work in the opposite direction. The various opportunities offered by the sharing economy may influence consumers' behaviors and changes in their lifestyles. Contemporary tourists try to avoid the tourism industry by making long-term lifestyle changes and seek authenticity by interacting with locals. Therefore, tourism is not just an industry, it is also negotiated between private individuals, with or without intermediaries, which calls for a rethinking of the concept of "tourism" [17] (p. 297).

**Table 1.** *Cont.*

Source:

 own

72

#### *2.2. Motivations for Activities Pertaining to the Sharing Economy*

In the sharing economy, the traditional concept of renting or sharing has changed and become more efficient, intelligent, and human-centered [55,56], and this does not mean that users do not buy anything, just that they do not have to buy everything [55] (p.87). Relinquishing the former attachment to ownership and replacing it with temporary access to underused assets can be motivated by many factors. The most common motivations for participating in the sharing economy in tourism are financial ones, including savings and lower transaction costs [1,2,23–27], and non-financial ones, related to care for the environment, social responsibility, enjoyment, and meeting new people [7,23,24,39]. In the existing studies on motivations for using peer-to-peer accommodation, various groups of factors were taken into consideration (see Table 2), but in most, economic and social factors were the strongest.

**Table 2.** Motivation for peer-to-peer accommodation use.

The behavior of some sharing economy consumers is economically motivated, while for others it is driven by social and environmental factors. Decisions related to tourism and leisure are affected by a system of beliefs comprising a certain mindset. Many lifestyle-related factors influence the intention of consumers to use the sharing economy and their eventual behavior (see Figure 1). Therefore, for the purpose of the analysis, the authors categorized motivations in accordance with the represented lifestyle. The selection of sharing economy services can result from the following motivations:

**Figure 1.** The impact of lifestyle on the intention to participate in the sharing economy and to use peer-to-peer accommodation. Source: Authors' own work.

(1) Personal motivations, related to economic advantages and potential financial savings. Tourists choose sharing economy activities because it is more financially reasonable for them and their families, and allows them to visit many interesting places at a lower cost than in the case of regular hotel accommodation or transportation.

(2) Social (conformist) motivations. They result from the need to fit in with others, as well as from acceptance of the shifts and processes taking place in contemporary society, e.g., increasing environmental awareness. These motivations can be the result of pressure from the society, reference groups, public opinion leaders, as well as (or maybe primarily) producers and service providers. Potential consumers are influenced by them due to their own beliefs or the need to conform to the society in which they function. The selection of sharing economy services can result from a wish to follow leaders or from a short-lived trend for traveling "off the beaten path" and interacting with the locals.

(3) Ideological motivations. These motivations result from their awareness of processes such as natural environment degradation and excessive consumption, as well as their genuine desire to prevent these processes out of care for the future. In those motivations one can find the strongest manifestation of increased environmental awareness and opposition to excessive consumption.

Increased social development means that more and more people may want not only to improve their own living conditions, but also to look for authentic experiences, protect the environment, and take care of the future of the Earth, all of which can lead to participation in the sharing economy. Consumers are becoming aware of the relationship between their behavior and other aspects of social and economic life. They discover that their shopping decisions can affect the environment in which they live, thus impacting the quality of both their own life and the life of the entire society and the communities they visit.

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

In the study, both secondary and primary sources of data were used. First, a review of relevant literature on lifestyle, the sharing economy, and peer-to-peer accommodation was conducted (presented above). It included scientific articles indexed in Web of Science databases, published in the last 10 years, since 2010 (last updated: 7 March 2020). The articles were searched according to the following search terms: "sharing economy and lifestyle", "peer-to-peer accommodation and lifestyle", and "Airbnb and lifestyle". A total of 43 results were found. After the removal of duplicates and a preliminary analysis of abstracts, 12 papers were included in the detailed content analysis (Appendix A). The literature review was supplemented by articles related to the subject of the study, but not included in the Web of Science database. The literature review was performed to establish a link between lifestyle and the sharing economy and motivations for peer-to-peer accommodation selection, and to provide a basis for empirical research.

The empirical part of the study was devoted to the relationship between lifestyle changes and willingness to use sharing economy services, with an emphasis on accommodation. The aim was to answer the question: which motivations resulting from the respondents' lifestyle affect their willingness to use peer-to-peer accommodation? In order to achieve this, it was first necessary to analyze this relationship in a broader context, i.e., by assessing respondents' sense of responsibility for the use of resources, importance of sustainability in individual actions, and motives for engaging in sharing economy activities such as transportation, food, and equipment sharing, or clothes swapping. In order to gather opinions and to understand behaviors, attitudes, and preferences regarding the use of sharing economy services, the focus group interview method was used. This method is particularly helpful for an exploratory investigation of new phenomena [57]. The study was carried out in 6 groups, with 5–8 participants each.

The most important factors differentiating motivations for choosing particular accommodation types are age, educational level, and household income [18]. Therefore, the study was carried out in two relevant populations, with 3 groups per population. One population consisted of young people—students, with low incomes, relatively abundant free time, and no life responsibilities (young with time, YT). Previous studies reported that young people in Poland are educated in the spirit of environmental awareness and concern for the natural environment. A moderate stability of behavior and inclination towards de-consumption was observed in this population [58]. The other population consisted of subjects with higher incomes, aged between 40 and 50, with a wealth of life experience, who demonstrate their genuine attitudes through autonomous, financially unlimited shopping decisions (older rich, OR). One might assume that the latter group manifests their lifestyle preferences through their shopping decisions.

Group discussions were carried out separately for the two populations (3 groups per population), which made it possible to seek differences and similarities between the behaviors of respondents who differed in terms of age and financial status. The key issue for the study was the focus on the behavioral aspect of respondents' attitudes. Therefore, as well as their declarations about whether they performed certain actions, the authors examined respondents' motivations behind choosing (or not choosing) sharing economy activities.

In the first part of the group discussions, general questions were asked in order to determine respondents' lifestyles and their openness towards the sharing economy. Understanding the general attitude of the respondents made it possible to examine hidden motives resulting from lifestyle changes in the context of tourism. Then, the discussion focused on the motivations for selecting sharing economy services (the sharing of transportation, food, clothes, equipment, accommodation), resulting from the subjects' lifestyles. Group discussions were not structured in nature, and the role of the moderator was simply to direct the conversation. The interviews were carried out in June 2019, then transcribed and coded; this was followed by a synthesis of the collected material.

#### **4. Results of the Empirical Study**

#### *4.1. Global Waste of Resources*

Since the sharing economy is essentially based on concern for the proper utilization of assets, the first part of the study was devoted to the subject of global waste of resources. All studied groups in the YT population pointed out that food waste is a very serious problem. It was also noted that this problem is present at all levels—in single households, local communities, and entire countries. In one of the groups, a direct remark concerning hotels was made—it was pointed out that "throwing away food in hotels" is a great problem. The YT population clearly indicated that the most important motivation to limit waste is concern for other, poorer countries. This indicated an ideological motivation. Regarding food waste, some respondents said it should be avoided as it is uneconomical for households (personal motivations).

In the OR group, the problem of wasting resources was only mentioned in the context of an increased amount of rubbish, particularly plastics. Motivation to prevent the waste of resources was not observed in any of the OR groups. In the YT population, the problem of the growing amount of rubbish was considered one of the most burning issues in the contemporary world. In two groups, the problem of plastics was mentioned. Smog and environmental pollution were listed as other serious threats. In the OR population, the problem of smog in Poland was also pointed out. Both YT and OR respondents indicated personal motivations as a reason to counteract these problems.  Both studied populations (YT and OR) agreed that the problem of rubbish is severe, and that sorting is essential. However, the YT population was willing to stop buying expensive products in fancy packaging, while the OR population could not give up this luxury. To sum up, the YT population indicated more environmental threats, e.g., large-scale farming, littering in forests, and excessive logging. In unstructured interviews, OR subjects did not point out these problems. This suggests that the lifestyle of the YT population results from pro-environmental changes. This part of the study was fundamental for the subsequent analysis of lifestyle changes.

#### *4.2. Engaging in the Sharing Economy—Transportation, Food, Clothes, and Equipment*

A discussion was initiated regarding the possibilities for engaging in the sharing economy. Young people from the YT group were willing to use shared urban means of transport (bicycles, scooters). Respondents said that it is "cheaper" and "more convenient". In other words, personal motivations prevailed. In the OR population, respondents were not interested in using such means of transport in their place of residence. Most subjects lived in single-family houses in the suburbs and used private cars for transport. One person pointed out that such means of transport are more attractive and fun, and that he used them on holidays. This is confirmed by studies which found that people demonstrate so-called chameleon behavior—during one trip, a tourist can play many roles, e.g., choosing very cheap accommodation and expensive means of transport, saving money on food, and at the same time buying very expensive clothing [59]. Only the YT population admitted to using the Uber service, and only in the YT population was it said that this is good for the environment. Therefore, ideological motivations were present.

In the analysis of lifestyle changes, the attitude towards "healthy eating" was an important issue. The results regarding this topic are quite astonishing. In all OR groups, the subjects emphasized the need to lead a healthy lifestyle. All women recommended "healthy eating", and their motivations were of a personal and conformist character. In the younger YT group, there were no clear declarations that "healthy eating is better"—quite the opposite. Several people emphasized that "everyone is free to choose and eat what they want", and even made statements like "I like junk food a lot". The wealthier OR respondents said they read labels out of concern for their own health (personal motivation), while the YT groups admitted to paying no attention to such information.

Another subject discussed was the so-called "breakfast markets", an alternative to preparing meals at home, which may be considered part of the sharing economy. The YT groups demonstrated willingness to try out this option "out of curiosity". The OR groups elaborated on this subject. Respondents thought that such initiatives were "extremely attractive for tourists". One person participated in the organization of such an event for charity, and was proud they had a chance to help others. Therefore, one might observe ideological motivations associated with concern for others.

Another topic of discussion was clothes swapping. In the OR group, it was pointed out that this is a way to "get rid of clothes"—the respondents did not undertake similar actions to help others or the environment. The YT groups presented an entirely different attitude—they admitted to participating in such swaps or buying clothes in second-hand shops. The following motivations were listed: saving money, a desire to have original clothing, and doing something for the environment (economic, personal, and ideological motivations). Respondents in one of the YT groups pointed out a serious problem of the excessive production of clothing by chain stores. In the OR group, the discussion of the problem of buying new clothing led to the conclusion that "one should follow trends", i.e., conformist attitudes were manifested. None of the OR respondents admitted to wearing second-hand clothes, as opposed to the young YT subjects.

Lifestyle changes can also be observed in attitudes towards wearing natural fur and leather goods. Wealthy OR respondents noticed the problem associated with fur-bearing animals, but emphasized that they "would not give up wearing leather shoes and bags". The YT groups clearly stated that wearing leather goods contradicts the modern lifestyle.

The analysis of the sharing economy also included the rental of various pieces of equipment or appliances. Responses in the two populations differed. The OR population did not see the need to use other people's equipment—they actually made it very clear that their status was related to buying things. Furthermore, as a result of conformist motivations, they demonstrated consumerist attitudes, e.g., replacing kitchen appliances, cars or pieces of furniture regardless of their condition—just to show off their status and be fashionable. There was also a discussion of "how good you look when you buy a new boat". In two YT groups, different attitudes were manifested. Several subjects made arguments that renting equipment is a good and useful habit, and that their families cultivated such a habit with their neighbors, with no cash involved. There was even an opinion that "in the countryside, you would

buy one machine for three farms, and you use it in turn". However, in this group, some also manifested concern and a lack of trust when lending one's own equipment to others, which seems quite surprising in the case of young people. Differences between small towns and large cities were pointed out: in the latter, the level of trust is considerably lower, as people do not know one another. Such an attitude can also result from Polish historical heritage, which has led to a significant decrease in the level of social trust. What Poles experienced caused a certain social and cultural trauma (probably passed from generation to generation), which undoubtedly led to the emergence of the "crisis syndrome" and lack of trust [60].

#### *4.3. Travel Patterns, Peer-to-Peer Accommodation*

The above problems were fundamental for the analysis of lifestyle changes. The next part of the study mainly focused on the influence of these changes on the way people travel, including the choice of peer-to-peer accommodation. In all OR groups, the respondents admitted to using the Airbnb platform. They emphasized that they choose places with a high standard of services. The respondents used this service, as it is more economical and provides an option to stay with a larger group of friends or acquaintances. The subjects pointed out that access to kitchen facilities is important, because they can make "healthy food" any time they want. This reinforces the view that wealthier people follow certain diets, and that they are motivated by personal benefits. In this population, the subjects expressed criticism towards large hotels, unattractive for wealthier people who traveled a lot. There is also a need to stand out, resulting from trends and the influence of social groups. It is not "cool" to travel to popular holiday destinations. It can be concluded that the selection of peer-to-peer accommodation results from personal and conformist motivations. In the OR group, using shared accommodation was not mentioned as an activity leading to the protection of resources. Respondents from the YT population made similar observations regarding the use of such services: "It is not about the environment; it is about money. It is budget-friendly". Therefore, in this population, personal motivations prevailed. Other important benefits of using Airbnb or Couchsurfing were also observed in this group: "We can live in one flat with a local person, we can learn more and have a free tour guide".

The discussion indicated that YT respondents are more open to new experiences and trying out new solutions. In one group, staying at a luxurious "all-inclusive" hotel was mentioned as something new. For people who are used to organizing trips on their own, staying at such hotels is attractive. According to the subjects "you do not have to follow the trends". It is an example of the lack of a conformist approach. The topic of cleaning house, both at home and on holidays, was also discussed. None of the populations had any problem with using professional cleaning services. In the OR group, criticism of absolute reliance on professionals was expressed. Wealthy people noticed that it impaired the independence of their own, almost adult children. It was pointed out that even on holidays, it is "not good" if the children do not have a habit of cleaning up after themselves, and that they should be included in daily chores. According to the respondents, peer-to-peer accommodation can "teach you real life". In the YT groups there were opinions voiced that "hiring cleaning staff is nothing unusual". There were economic motivations: a respondent claimed that "if I make more money per hour in my job than I pay the cleaning person, it makes more sense economically".

The discussion of changes in attitudes towards tourist trips was concluded with a question about which is better: a package holiday or an independently organized trip. In the groups of wealthy subjects, it was pointed out that typical package holidays are not "trendy". Only one person praised such holidays, but this was because it had been a new experience for them. Other people wanted to be perceived as "travelers", and organizing one's travels independently was seen as manifestation of this status. Detailed questions demonstrated that travel, for the OR groups, was not entirely independent. In three groups, local guides were booked; in one, an agency was used for organizing accommodation, and in another for booking transport.

In the YT population, all groups of respondents said that trips organized independently and individually are "definitely" preferable. The following advantages were mentioned: "we are not dependent on anybody", "we can adjust the budget to our possibilities", "we can plan everything on our own", and "we decide how much time we want to spend there". In these groups, it was also noted, though, that package holidays may at times be more attractive in terms of pricing and offer. The main motivation for organizing one's holidays individually was conformist for the OR population, and personal for the YT population. No ideological motivations were present in the discussion.

#### **5. Discussion and Conclusions**

Decisions of how to use tourist services can result from specific lifestyles and lifestyle changes. For the purpose of the article, the authors divided motivations for the selection of accommodation services and other collaborative consumption activities into personal, conformist, and ideological. The study was conducted in two populations of respondents: (1) young, with a lot of free time and limited income, and (2) wealthy, aged between 40 and 50, with rich life experience; and demonstrated lifestyle changes between the generations. The findings are as follows: (1) Subjects from the YT population are more aware of environmental threats and are more concerned about the environment. Their actions result not only from personal motivations (financial savings) but also ideological ones. The YT subjects are also interested in participating in sharing economy activities: they are more willing to use shared means of transport, participate in clothing swaps, and rent equipment and appliances than the OR subjects. (2) The OR population leads a lifestyle that is mainly based on personal (often conformist) motivations, which result from the influence of social groups. They aim at staying healthy and lead a so-called "healthy lifestyle". Subjects from the YT population do not express too much interest in healthy eating and reading labels, while the subjects from the OR group do. (3) All groups of respondents prefer independent travel, but for different reasons. Young people seek interaction with the local community, while older and wealthier people who have already traveled a lot want to show off as "travelers", not "tourists". Their decisions are also affected by social judgment. (4) When it comes to using peer-to-peer accommodation, YT respondents are more open to new experiences and trying out new solutions. OR respondents are driven to use these types of services because of personal economic benefits and convenience. (5) Neither population recognizes a relationship between participating in the sharing economy on the one hand, and caring for the environment and preventing excessive consumption on the other. The final classification of motivations in both groups is presented in Table 3.

Several conclusions can be drawn based on these findings:

**Table 3.** Respondents' motivations for sharing economy activities.

Source: Author's own work. Abbreviations: YT, young with time; OR, older rich.

The authors are aware that the selected research method does not produce representative results and entire populations may not be assessed based on the data acquired in this manner. Nonetheless, the subject of consumers' behaviors required a qualitative data collection method to explain the discussed topic in more detail (e.g., to establish an informational background, propose ideas, detect needs, formulate hypotheses, etc.). Due to the broad scope of the problem and the preliminary character of the analysis, the study was strictly exploratory.

The study was conducted in two populations of respondents, differing in terms of their age and income. One must take into account that sociological analyses also suggest other qualities that may be used to differentiate segments of buyers. It was shown that the studied YT and OR populations are significantly different in terms of the presented lifestyles and motivations for participating in activities pertaining to the sharing economy, including the organization of holidays and choosing accommodation. Quantitative studies should be carried out in the future to verify whether the presented motivations are consistent with the observations made in the studied populations. Another potential research subject would be the analysis of why young Poles tend to be distrustful, especially since previous studies listed young people as the most eager to use sharing economy services (also in tourism) [2,62–64].

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.N. and K.K.; Methodology, A.N. and K.K.; Supervision, A.N. and K.K.; Visualization, A.N. and K.K.; Writing—original draft, A.N. and K.K.; Writing—review and editing, A.N. and K.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **Appendix A**

List of papers included in the systematic literature review (Web of Science)

#### **References**

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

## *Article* **The Development of Mobile Tourism in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area of Poland**

#### **Mateusz Naramski \* and Krzysztof Herman**

Department of Organization and Management, Institute of Economy and Informatics, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**\*** Correspondence<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Tel.: +48-32-277-7336

Received: 14 November 2019; Accepted: 10 December 2019; Published: 19 December 2019

**Abstract:** Smart tourism is a concept that is becoming more and more popular worldwide in modern tourism. It is a tourism orientated part of the smart city concept, which can also be treated as a specific type of business model. Support and presence of tourist attractions for smartphone users through various apps is one of the first technological stages in the process of adapting this concept in a touristic region. Therefore, the paper's aim was to observe and measure the development of touristic sites' presence in mobile applications, in a developing touristic region. In order to do so, we compared data obtained from mobile applications in the years 2015 and 2019. The selected apps contain databases of touristic sites and allow tourists to search for attractions, hotels and restaurants. The comparison showed quantitative changes in the number of those types of objects found by mobile apps in the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, picturing the development and use of those apps in this given region.

**Keywords:** m-tourism; mobile applications; sustainability in tourism; smart tourism; sustainable business models

#### **1. Introduction**

Modern day tourism has been growing rapidly all over the world. This is due to the increase in income and quality of global society life [1]. In addition, the number of modern technologies that are used to support tourism and tourist attractions is growing. Especially interesting are mobile applications that include records regarding tourist infrastructure in a region. In most cases, those apps can be co-created by tourists and the entries are based on their experiences.

Mobile applications can be seen as the easiest technological solutions to adopt, which can improve tourism in a region. There are many already existing services that contain databases of touristic points of interest. Therefore, a region that transforms into a tourist destination does not need to develop its own platform, but rather start by marking its presence in those databases. Those allow visitors to search for attractions, hotels and restaurants. This makes tourists aware of their surroundings in a given area. As we later discuss, most of such applications not only allow users to search for touristic objects, but they can also be reviewed. This changes the classical model of a touristic product and puts the consumers into the role of co-producers. Those reviews are perceived as a powerful source of impact on other tourists, who orientate themselves based on such reviews, and see them as the most reliable source of information. Adopting mobile tourism (m-tourism) is also one of the main pillars of the smart tourism concept, which has become more and more popular. As a result, tourists expect certain destinations to support a proper technological infrastructure and also be able to use mobile solutions, not only for searching attractions but also for booking hotels, finding restaurants, sharing experiences and reviews. Destinations that adapt to those demands are more likely to be chosen by the part of potential tourists who only rely on such internet-based solutions for trip planning or by those who will prefer such destinations over those that did not adapt to the smart tourism concept. This implies that

m-tourism presence and support become a necessity in almost every touristic region, especially in the developing ones that aspire to become a well-recognized and desired destination (especially by tourists out of a given country, who discovered it by themselves and had no opportunity to get recommendations from the local community that is familiar with it). The Upper Silesian metropolitan area in Poland is a good example of such a region. Since the 1990s, the once known for heavy industry area, has started to transform into a post-industrial region. This has left the region with a lot of heritage, both in the form of cultural and industrial monuments. Many former mines, factories, and other facilities have become museums, restaurants, galleries and other tourist attractions, where cultural heritage is presented and preserved, making it also a sustainability issue.

The idea of sustainable development emphasizes finding a use for material and non-material values that are socially important and would be lost if no other action was taken [2]. Heritage tourism fits well into this category since it allows artifacts, old technology and culture to be saved from the past, which would otherwise perish because there are no other applications for it that would generate sufficient income to sustain it [3]. Therefore, the process of transformation from a former industrial facility to a touristic site that conserves heritage is a sustainability issue and can be well explained through the perspective of business models [2]. Such an approach can be applied to single entities from various branches of tourism [4,5], but also to a set of touristic sites that try to improve in their efforts to reach sustainable development, through cooperation and trust-building [6]. In the widest perspective, part of the sustainable development goals of a touristic region could be achieved through a business model applied to whole cities or metropolis. Such an approach can be found in the concept of smart tourism, which utilizes technology to reach its goals and is the tourism-orientated part of the smart city concept (with falls into the category of sustainable business models) [7,8].

In Upper Silesia, there are two industrial heritage sites that have been inscribed on the World Heritage Site's list by UNESCO—with one of them quite recently in 2017 [9]. This illustrates well that the Upper Silesian transformation into a worldwide known and recognizable touristic destination is still in process and makes a good case for studying how smart technology use develops and is applied to support such transformation, illustrating the early stages of the smart tourism concept application.

Therefore, the paper's aim was to observe and measure how the presence of touristic sites from the Silesian region develops in mobile applications. In our work, we focus on 14 mobile applications that are used to find tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants. It is based on research that was conducted in 2015 [10], and now we compare the result of that research with data collected in 2019. The paper is divided into two sections. In the first one, we focus on a literature review on digital technology use in tourism, smart tourism concepts and business models in tourism. In the second part, we examine the functionality of selected mobile applications and we compare the results with previous ones. The area we refer to in our research is the Silesian Voivodeship in the southern part of Poland.

#### **2. Literature Review**

#### *2.1. The Role of Modern Technology in Sustainable Tourism*

Tourism is one of the most significant world markets. The UNWTO report [11] indicates that in 2017, international tourist arrivals increased by 6% in comparison to the previous year. As a result, it can be seen that tourism is constantly evolving. Development is visible in all fields of tourism. It is especially evident in the area of digital technologies. Mobile apps, interactive museums, virtual and augmented reality are only a few examples of modern technology that emerged in recent years. To understand what modern technology really is, it is important to discuss both terms.

Technology may be defined as a composition of two primary components—the physical one, which contains products, technics, and processes, and the second one, which is information that contains the know-how, marketing, and quality control [12]. The term "modern" is commonly understood as everything that nowadays is in use and is also frequently associated with any electronic elements. This point of view is confirmed by the Cambridge Dictionary (available online). In connection with those

definitions, modern technology can be understood as a set of components (joined together physically and by information) that are used nowadays and can be used interchangeably with digital technologies.

Modern technologies have found an application in all life areas in the modern world. It is easy to find examples in medicine, enginery, psychology or military science. Digital technologies are used in tourism as well. As an example, one can name the reservation system. The popularity of the CRS (computer reservation system) has been growing since the 1990s. Its basic function is to store information about all available service providers and to transfer such data between users. In comparison with traditional models of reservation, CRS significantly increases the rate of service sales by eliminating the physical distance between the producer and the consumer [13]. To name another example, the tour-guide system is a commonly known one. It is used in many tourist attractions and frequently is associated with recordings. Digital technologies have increased their functionality. The technology was expanded by touchscreens, video projections, the Internet and even GPS systems. For this reason, the guide end-user system provides few capabilities such as access to extended information, the possibility to send and receive messages or access to interactive services [14].

A new way of using "commonly known" technology is Smart CCTV (closed-circuit television). This technology significantly extends the functionality of CCTV and, in addition to the security function, enables to recognize the behavior of tourists and, as a consequence, better planning of tourism space [15,16]. Another idea is the beacon technology which is used to deliver extended information about exhibits by short-range signal transmitters [17]. In the context of modern technologies in tourism, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are frequently pointed out. These two technologies offer some benefits to human experience. The major advantages of VR are personalization, interactivity, and full immersion which have a significant influence on explaining the main phenomena [18]. AR, although it works differently (do not create reality, only adds some virtual objects to available space), has a similar effect to explaining the main phenomena.

An example of technology that suggests itself in the described context are mobile applications. Mobile technologies are correlated with the growing use of smart phones, that have been popularized and made known by Apple's iPhone. Their App Store, soon followed by the Google Play Store, started in 2008 [19]. In 2011, it was one of the fastest-growing media outlets in the history of consumer technology [20]. Since that time, the mobile market has considerably increased and today it can no longer be seen as a curiosity, but as a major part of life and business. Take the Gartner report [21] for instance: mobile apps are projected to have the most impact on business success by 2020. Without doubt, smartphones and mobile applications are an important part of everyday life also in tourist activity. In Poland, above 58% of smartphone users have been using them to book hotels, planes or make car reservations [22]. One of the most popular mobile platforms: *Trip Advisor* has over 490 billion users every month. On the basis of the above data, it is possible to predict that the market of smartphones and mobile applications will grow and it is necessary to examine its dynamics. Moreover, those technologies are directly connected with the idea of smart tourism.

A study published in 2018 focused on how tourists' risk perception affects their use of mobile devices, and the results suggest that there is no single digital tourist profile. Risk perception by tourists who use mobile devices is an important sustainability factor, because it is shaping their experience, through its influence on tourist behavior and satisfaction with a service. Tourist destinations should include a smart tourism policy in their efforts to promote a destination and it is suggested to include the perception of risk. The referred research shows that there is a dependence between mobile device dependence and its usefulness, but also that privacy risk has a major negative impact on the tourist experience (yet it does not affect future use of mobile devices and their perceived utilitarian value) [23]. This is crucial since the tourist experience is believed to be the essence of modern tourism [24], and it is also considered to become increasingly impactful on value co-creation [25].

Nowadays, the use of mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, etc., is so broadly spread that they have become a standard resource, also used by tourists to search for experiences, places and attractions. This behavior influences both the way information reaches tourists and the way they are acting during a holiday [26,27]. A modern tourist business should be aware of this and respond through its management to the elements that shape tourist behavior regarding this medium, not only by single actions but by incorporating it into its business model [23].

In modern tourism, the use of technology and mobile phones in particular, puts tourists into the role of co-producers of tourist experiences [28–30]. Tourist destinations that emphasize on introducing smart tourism are dependent on technology, making the attractions available and appealing to tourists trough this media, but also allowing them to co-shape the product by reviewing it, sharing opinions, recommendations, etc.

Those shared opinions, recommendations, ratings, etc., have also another meaning for a tourist destination. All tourist areas, no matter the size (from villages, cities, regions or countries) are (or at least should be) monitoring and constantly improving the destinations' image and attractiveness [31]. This topic was in the scope of researchers for decades [32]. The sources of factors that affect the formation and change of a tourist destination image can be divided into three groups: organic (originating and transmitted by individuals), induced (coming from the entities that promote a region) or autonomous (not related to the previous two) [33,34].

The first group contains all activities of word of mouth marketing, like sharing information with friends, family, and work colleagues, and is best known under its informal name: grapevine. In modern days, this form of creating opinions about destinations is therefore, also building or ruining its image, and becomes expanded by technology. User-generated content that includes opinions or recommendations that are shared over social media, websites, services, apps, etc., is an electronic form of word of mouth marketing (eWoM) [35]. Thanks to the constant development of technology and increasing meaning, and use and application of electronic media by tourists, the eWoM has undergone many changes in the course of the last 10 years from online guides and blogs to portals and mobile apps, that are now the most widely used medium for online tourist reviews [36]. Those can be used by researchers, as E. Marine-Roig has shown [35], to examine a well-known tourist destinations' image, that emerges from online reviews. The same data can be useful for local administration, promoters of a tourist region and entrepreneurs, in terms of gathering feedback about their single product or about the whole destination in general and its image.

This implies that in order to meet the requirements of modern tourists, a region that aspirates to develop an advanced tourist function should undertake actions that will ensure its presence in those widely used social apps and services. After this is achieved, the feedback from online tourist reviews offers a plenteous source of information that is easily accessible (compared to conducting reviews, surveys, etc.), and can be used for creating sustainable development plans which can incorporate solutions for current, environmental, civil, juridical and touristic problems found in a region.

Online reviews in tourism and hospitality are perceived as a significant factor that nowadays strongly impacts the decision-making process of a consumer [25,37–40]. Those sources are even considered to be seen by customers as more reliable and believable than information coming from third party and product vendors [41–43]. As mentioned before, this puts the customers in the role of co-creators of a tourist experience but also makes those reviews valuable information sources for the service provides [44,45]. Therefore, one can say that the role of online reviews and ICT's (Information and Communication Technologies) in tourism are bilateral and conjunctive; on the one hand, they are an information source for potential tourists that make decisions based on that information, and on the other hand, during and after the consumption of a touristic product, they are used for sharing experiences, opinions, and recommendations [46]. Due to the above, ICT is frequently an inseparable element of business models in tourism enterprises.

#### *2.2. Business Models in Tourism*

Business models are a popular issue among researchers. The phrase "business model" as keywords in ScienceDirect returns over 350,000 research articles. This popularity is due to a few factors. The first one is the practical dimension. A good created business model is frequently indicated as one of the most important factors of success in business [47]. The second factor is cognitive value. Analyzing existing business models allows to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, and it also allows to identify trends in business and indicate success factors. The third is the number of tools for creating the business model.

Such great interest in the issues of business models is also caused by the disagreement regarding the definition of the business model. It is understood differently, depending on the researcher's scientific discipline. The literature review allows us to assume that the business models are understood in two ways. The first one is a synthetic description of the company's operation. J. Magretta is one of the scholars who follows this approach and who explains the business model as a story that explains how enterprises work [48]. The second way is to understand the business model as a tool to create value for customers. It is mentioned by D. Teece, who describes the business model as a tool to design the mechanism of creating, describing and capturing value for customers [49]. Regardless of the approach to the characteristics of business models, numerous researchers agree that it consists of several components. Researches conducted by M. Morris et al. [50] and Shafer et al. [51] refer to this. The first team analyzed 19 perspectives on business model components. As a result, these researchers prepared six questions that describe a business model, and based on the answers, six major components of a business model could be created: factors related to offering (how the value is created), market factors, internal capability factors, competitive strategy factors, economic factors, and growth/exit factor. The second team analyzed 12 definitions of business models and specified 42 different components (unique building blocks or elements) that make a business model. In that research, they organized all ideas into four categories based on their similarity: strategic choices, create value, value network, and capture value.

One of the most popular conceptions is the business model CANVAS. The idea was developed and disseminated by A. Osterwalder and Y. Pigneur [52]. They include a framework based on nine elements: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, and cost structure. These nine elements are widely used as a tool to create new business models and describe existing ones. Another example is the Cube business model. It consists of seven blocks: value proposition, users and customers, value chain, competences, networks, relations and value formula [53]. Another example is the proposal of M. Johnson et al. [54]. It contains four elements of a "Successful Business Model": value proposition for the client, profit formula, key resources, and key processes. Literature analysis shows significant differences in the components of business models. However, one element is common. It is the value that the company offers to its clients.

Business models described in the context of providing tourist services often refer to modern technologies. E. Cranmer et al. [55] point out the possibility of creating value by using augmented reality (AR). This technology gives the opportunity to present collections to which access is difficult (e.g., delicate exhibits). Researchers also describe the possibility of sharing such a tool by many entities, whereby the belonging of many museums to a common network allows them to create virtual exhibitions, extending the presented heritage with exhibits or collections owned by other units. Thanks to AR, exhibits can be better protected and made available to tourists and other entities in the form of models without the risk of damage. Therefore, digital technologies enable the creation of a joint virtual exhibition, extending the heritage presented by exhibits or owned collections by values owned by other units. In the opinion of C. Ciurea and F. G. Filip [56], virtual exhibitions are also an excellent opportunity to correlate museum collections located in various cultural units such as museums, libraries, archives, and galleries. The combination of these units, although only virtual, causes a real increase in the number of visitors and in the revenue stream.

N. Langvould and I. Daunoraviþinjtơ [57], in a publication on factors that influence the success of a business model in the hospitality service industry, show that technology is one of the most important factors because it can reduce the cost of business. In addition, technology has a strong relationship with other factors, which include internal and external marketing, relationship management, innovation, value proposition, and employee competencies.

The fundamental importance of modern technologies in creating business models was noted by M. Diacon and A. Dutu [58]. Those researchers claim that the development of new technologies has become a way to achieve success because it offers the possibility of expanding distribution channels, shortens the time of booking processing and creates a network of organizations involved in maintaining the value chain.

F. Mantaguti and E. Mingotto [59] show that knowledge is important in business models. Especially, it applies to knowledge generated by stakeholders, such as public institutions, local governments, business partners and even volunteers. Organizations using such knowledge effectively can become flexible enterprises, where entrepreneurs and their employees are in some sense creative agents, for whom customer relations are a priority. Modern technologies are used to gather and process knowledge because of their generality.

Modern technologies, their development and the attractiveness of their use, have caused business models to evolve. One of the directions of this development is the Smart Tourism concept.

#### *2.3. Smart Tourism*

Smart tourism is quite a new idea. The basis of it can be found in Web 2.0 conception. The term has been widely used to describe the role of technologies for modern tourists. Tourists are no longer passive but active [60]. They co-create tourist services through the opinions they leave on the Internet. In connection with this, a lot of companies have been obligated to change their products or even their business models. The idea of co-creating services seems tempting also for managers of tourist attractions. The era of m-tourism 2.0 has begun. This conception, described by Beça [60], enables users to get access to extended information that may help enrich their experience, provide their own opinions and get feedback or update some information in the future. This holistic approach is the basis of the smart tourism idea. Smart tourism may be defined as the integrated efforts of entities in destination to collect, aggregate and use data that could be transformed into on-site experiences and business value-propositions [61]. It seems reasonable to assume that it is the future of tourism. Big data, as a total experience of tourists, tourism attractions, government, tourist companies or even residents, could be used to create better touristic products.

The topic of sustainability in tourism roots back to the 1960s, when global tourism entered a rapid growth [62], and it was a response to negative effects in regions overblown by tourists, like inflation, increasing crime rate, rising housing prices, negative influence on local society (especially children) and higher number of strangers in previously sheltered neighborhoods [63]. The primal sustainable solutions for establishing sustainability in tourism reached out to the (back then) most influential methods, but technology was left out and not perceived as a key aspect in this matter [63]. As already mentioned before, over the last decades, things have changed dramatically, and now the use of modern technology is an inevitable part of tourism, which should be used for the benefits of sustainable development. D. Kim and S. Kim [64] researched the role of technology in achieving sustainable tourism by conducting a complex review of papers, news, mobile apps, and patents. The conclusion drawn from their research shows that the impact of mobile technology on sustainability is hard to measure directly, but can be deduced quantitively from frameworks already established in literature, since the environmental effects of tourism and cultural heritage, as well as ICT's role in creating smart city communities, are all subjects of sustainable tourism discussions [65–68]. Mobile applications enhance the social capital by offering resources for tourist to tourist relations and the instant communication that can take place through them can be used by the transactors to share value and build cultural capital. Those among others positively affect sustainability. Furthermore, ICTs can be used to obtain big data, and perform large scale measurements and analysis, sometimes even in real-time. This allows them to track environmental impacts, support decision making and accelerate the introduction of new policies.

In the area of business models in tourism, special attention is paid to innovations in value propositions in business models, such as the use of new technologies. They significantly extend the value that companies can offer to their customers. Noteworthy is the recently popular concept of Smart Tourism [61], which is based on transforming huge amounts of data obtained through an application (usually mobile) into a value proposition for the client. In tourism, VR technology is increasingly being used, which makes it possible to get to know a space that is inaccessible to a client. This is emphasized by E. Crammer [55], who points out that, on the one hand, it may diversify the offer of a venture, and on the other hand, it contributes to increasing the competitiveness of that venture and increases its profits.

Smart tourism is a subset of the smart city concept in which the main idea is to connect people, business processes and systems, government and other entities together, with the main goal of improving the life quality of all citizens [7]. In other words, a smart city concept is essentially a business model of a city that is oriented at reaching specific goals with the use of innovative systems and processes. Smart city concepts focus on ICTs, platforms that allow engaging stakeholders, data generation and analysis coming from big data and open data sources [8]. This concept also focuses on human capital and information management [68–72]. This meaning, it is oriented at using employees' skills to produce desired outcomes. Smart tourism is the outcome of applying a smart city concept in a tourist destination, so that some of the developed solutions can enhance tourist experience, by automating some of the processes or improving their efficiency [73,74]. Therefore, smart tourism provides an interface between the visitor and the destination, allowing them to meet their needs [7]. Moreover, smart tourism requires the use of innovative solutions, that cover all main areas of sustainability (environmental, sociocultural, economic) while spreading cultural heritage to tourists [7,69].