Digital technologies and national cultures: the use of online collaborative economy platforms by tourists travelling to the Czech Republic

The aim of this thesis is to identify the correlation between the use of digital technologies represented by online collaborative economy platforms and the consumer behaviour of tourists from different national cultures coming to the Czech Republic using Hofstede's concept of cultural dimensions. Using data analysis and semi-structured interviews, the research focused on whether there are differences in the use of online collaborative economy platforms by national cultures according to Hofstede's cultural dimensions and, if so, how they can be described. The data analysis explores differences in consumer behaviour by looking at the share of overnight stays through online collaborative economy platforms in the total number of overnight stays of tourists from country groups created for the thesis and divided according to the cultural dimensions of individualism vs. collectivism and uncertainty avoidance, which were identified as the most relevant for research on travel planning and implementation in tourism. The research results show that online collaborative economy platforms are most used by individualistic cultures and uncertainty avoidance does not figure as a significant factor in this ranking. Despite the significant development of digital technologies, their use still varies across national cultures, although in some cases changes can be observed towards similar trends in the use of online collaborative economy platforms and the blurring of cultural differences.