The Official Website as an Essential E-Governance Tool: A Comparative Analysis of the Romanian Cities’ Websites in 2019 and 2022

Abstract

This paper aims to measure the quality of all Romanian cities’ websites in 2019 and 2022, before and after the disruptive event of COVID-19. Since the official websites are the core instrument of e-governance, the changes in the quality of Romanian cities’ websites reflect the changes in the development of urban e-governance in Romania. The COVID-19 lockdowns and contact restrictions and the moving of most activities into the online environment had the potential to impact the performance of Romanian cities’ websites significantly and catalyze the progress of local e-governance. The quality of Romanian cities’ official websites was measured using an adapted survey instrument proposed by Holzer and Kim and Manoharan, Melitski, and Holzer. The tool covers five critical criteria of website quality or performance: personal data security, usability, content, services, and citizen participation. The research results may seem contrary to expectations: the improvements of websites have been incremental rather than transformational. Although our research provides only a case study, we may assert that the reform of traditional administration remains a step-by-step process. Our study’s main contribution consists in showing that the progress of e-governance is an incremental process even in a situation of emergency that requires the moving of most activities into the online environment.

Importance of the Ramsar Site Labudovo Okno for Sustainable Tourism—Evidence from Vojvodina Province

“…It is essential to recognize the significance of online instruments not only from the perspectives of websites of the national parks, but also from the municipalities or local authorities or the DMOs for communicating with tourists, residents, and even other types of stakeholders. Research in a Romanian context revealed that, at best, websites provide links for locals and tourists, rarely for business owners, and never for specific demographics such as the elderly or young people, with limited options for citizens to complete administrative procedures exclusively online [93]. Other owned tools could be tourism apps created for the promoted area.…”