Sustainable and ICT-enabled development in developing areas: An e-heritage e-commerce service for handicraft marketing

Human-induced threats serve as potential hazards to cultural heritage assets, especially in developing areas where the local community, in general, is a deprived class. Sustainable tourism development is acknowledged as an economic activity to ensure careful management of assets along with local community empowerment and participation. As such, ICT-enabled development is applied in rural development projects to promote sustainable rural livelihood, but success is still limited due to a lack of community involvement and sharing in the economic gains of tourism. With this perspective in mind, the present study focuses on emerging marketing models (e-commerce) that can provide new business ventures for local communities by identifying critical online marketing elements driven by local residents.