The Internet Role in The Perception of High School Students of The Tri-City Agglomeration (Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia), Poland as A Tourist Attraction: A Survey Study

In connection with the development of modern information and communication technologies, the question arises, what is the importance of the Internet as a source of sightseeing information? The development and use of WWW technology is quite well described on the Internet. A specific gap is the identification of the behavior of the generation that is just entering the market. Young people born after 1995 do not know reality without the Internet. Research on their needs, preferences and reactions is still ongoing. Many publications describe this generation as Generation Z. Many characteristics are attributed to them, but only now it is possible to learn about their behavior. Sightseeing information can be provided in many ways. It seems that young people are looking for it mainly on the Internet.

This article is a continuation of the presentation of research aimed at showing the opinion of young people on the use of modern and traditional sources of information in tourism. The main research problems addressed in this study focused on whether young people in the surrounding digital reality will use the tourist information available on the Internet? What tourist information tools on the Internet do they use most often? How often do they acquire sightseeing knowledge from the Internet? Do they use other sources of sightseeing information besides the Internet? The study was conducted using the diagnostic survey method in the form of a direct survey. 824 people aged 16-19, students from the area of the Tri-City agglomeration (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot) were surveyed. On the basis of the study, it can be unequivocally stated that the surveyed group commonly uses Internet sources of tourist information. They do it often – at least once a week. This is their primary source of knowledge while traveling. The fact that the Internet is an integral part of life today is most clearly confirmed, and digitization is of particular importance in the communication of young people.