Digital cultural heritage of rural tourism facilities in Poland

Abstract

PurposeAt the turn of 2018 and 2019, a certain era in the history of Polish Internet came to an end. Most of the websites of rural tourism facilities hosted on free servers no longer exist; however, the very phenomenon has significantly distinguished itself in the promotion of rural tourism in Poland. The paper presents archaic websites or rural tourism facilities in Poland as digital cultural heritage assets. Its purpose is to propose attributes potentially indicative of content or phenomenon being part of digital cultural heritage.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 211 websites of rural tourism facilities in Poland, hosted on free servers, were analysed. The study investigated digital artefacts, i.e. only the websites that no longer exist but whose archival copies are found at the Internet Archive (IA).FindingsThe structure of most websites of rural tourism facilities was based on tables. None of the websites were responsive. The graphics of 132 websites (65%) were never changed, with the oldest recorded copies dating back to 2001 and the newest ones to 2018. On many websites, components that are relatively rarely found these days were noted, e.g. “marquee”-type “floating” objects or online surveys.Originality/valueThe phenomenon of using free-of-charge hosting services by rural tourism facilities in Poland in the years 2004–2012 is part of the history of Polish Internet and an example of digital cultural heritage. Archaic websites of rural tourism facilities in Poland are digital artefacts but not all of them have cultural values. In total, three groups of attributes are proposed that can be important for determining whether a website, content or phenomenon can be considered digital cultural heritage assets.