5. History of Public Relations
in the United States it is seen as a specialised profession, whereas in European countries it still lacks on academic research and is therefore rarely considered as an own academic discipline with specialised courses. The world of public relations is very complex and communication management for organisations in general go far beyond boundaries. It is hard to predict the future and to estimate future common trends, but the majority of people has realized the necessity of further developing communication management in order to more easily interact between each other. Public relations is not any more only important for sociology or communications studies, but far more for strategic management perspectives such as issues management, concept management and qualified communication management. Public relations is going back many years and already in earlier times people made use of communication forms, however the term public relations was not used in the sense of today and it appeared to be named differently across Europe. There are many differences between countries and in consequence the term public relations is not only used in many different ways but also understood in different ways. Public relations in Germany, in Austria or in the United States for example cannot be compared as in each country it is performed as an own discipline in another manner (Raupp, 2004, pp. 313-5). Public relations is an own profession and it creates a kind of platform for public debate which in consequence leads to public opinion. Especially at the start of the new millennium, new challenges for public relations occurred. Organisations needed to survive in a world becoming increasingly interdependent. At the start of the 20th century, public relations got linked to societal changes as the public started to take up information intensively and public relations education was spreading throughout the world (Guth/Marsh, 2003, p. 78). The upcoming chapter will go more into detail regarding public relations in the tourism industry, its special tools used and the information and communication technology in small and medium sized tourism businesses.
Marlene MONDL
48