05-07-2013, 11:58 AM
Effective Tourism Web Sites, Part 1: Literature Review and Features Survey
Effective Tourism.pdf (Size: 1,009.83 KB / Downloads: 136)
Abstract:
To date little research has been done on effective tourism web sites focusing on content. Part 1
of this study bridges the gap by unveiling what tourists, the tourism industry and tourism
academics perceive as an effective tourism web site and what features, in terms of content,
they perceive important in an effective tourism web site. The study has focused mainly on
content because it was believed that content would be the key determinant of effective web
sites. Two major activities in the study were a Web Based Survey and a Review of tourism
web sites. The Web Based Survey sought to determine the perception of tourists/prospective
tourists, the tourism industry and tourism academics of what constitutes an effective tourism
web site and their perception of the importance of selected tourism web site features. The
Review provides a snapshot of the current situation of best tourism web sites in New Zealand
and the World, and is discussed in Part 2.
Introduction
Potentially, all current travel and tourism transactions can be performed on-line on the
Internet. The opportunity presented by the industry, now the biggest in the world (WTTC,
1998), is huge. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) reported in World Economic
Impact in 1998 that Travel and Tourism – encompassing transport, accommodation, catering,
recreation and services for travelers – is expected to grow to US$ 10.0 trillion of economic
activity and 328 million jobs by 2010. In 1998, Travel and Tourism industry contributed
about 8.2% to worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and this is expected to increase to
8.7% by 2010 (WTTC, 1998).
Some players in the tourism industry, as well as newcomers, have achieved considerable
success in taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the interactive web technology.
Preview travel (www.previewtravel.com), for example, attracts 6 million visitors a year to its web
site (Krochmal, 1998) and posted annual gross bookings of $80.4 million in 1997 (Guglielmo,
1998). Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) books about $5 million in reservations per week and
registers 250,000 new users a month; while Microsoft Expedia travel service (www.msn.com)
gets two million visitors every month and its revenue is about $24 million a month
(Krochmal, 1998).
Research Framework
Both the Web Based Survey and the tourism web site Review instruments were developed
based on Ho’s (1997) Purpose-Value Evaluation Framework. The framework was slightly
modified in this study after two focus group discussions, interviews with three tourism
academics, and a small-scale Review of tourism web sites. The instrument consists of a 4 by
3 category matrix and 59 tourism web site features. The matrix contains purpose: promotion
of products and services, provision of data and information, and processing of business
transactions; and value: general, timely, customized, and sensational. Figure 1 shows the
framework.
Research Methodology
A list of web site features was identified based on a small-scale review of tourism web sites,
Ho’s (1997) example of web site features, Martin’s (1997) example of travel web site
“context”, thirty two features in Murphy et al’s (1996a) review of Hotel web sites, and forty
three features used in the review of New Zealand tour operator web sites by Rachman and
Richins (1997). The features were then categorised into the purpose-value evaluation
framework. The framework and the features were discussed in two focus group sessions with
students from the Tourism Department of the University of Waikato, New Zealand. In these
discussions, some features were eliminated from the list and others were added.
In addition, interviews with three tourism academics from the University of Waikato, New
Zealand were conducted to complement the features previously discussed and the findings of
the study. The interviews used unstructured open questions. The questions were directed to
determine the academics’ perceptions of what constitutes an effective tourism web site and
what features are required for effective tourism web sites.
Restructuring within the Tourism Industry
The tourism industry has already reported dramatic changes in its structure over the last few
years. The customers desire more frequent but shorter travel. Last minute reservations, global
advice, service quality, market transparency and a certain self-service mentality are required.
Modern travelers have begun to gather recreational “micro-services” on their own and form a
customized holiday package (Rachman and Richins, 1997). The advances in the information,
computer, and telecommunication technologies that led the inception of the “cybertrend” also
triggered the restructuring within the tourism industry. Steiner and Dufour (1998) note that the
significant changes in the Internet-based Tourism Information Systems have lead to a
reorganization of the industry chain and changed the way key players in the tourism industry
offer, gather and use information. With Internet technology, accessibility of information has
moved from only professional travel agents in the 70s and 80s to end users in the 90s
(Buechy, 1998; Chen and Sheldon, 1997). Internet also enables direct sales from supplier to
customer, which has forced the repositioning of the traditional intermediaries (Eastman,
1998).
Tourism Web Content
Research on the effectiveness of tourism web sites from the content perspective is still scarce
(Chen and Sheldon, 1997; Ho, 1997; Murphy, et al, 1996a, 1996b; Rachman and Richins,
1997). Chen and Sheldon (1997) identified the challenges in the design of a destination
information system, examined design options, and proposed system architecture that exploit
current technological advances in heterogeneous distributed databases, intelligent multimedia
communication, and global electronic commerce. One of the challenges identified was the
provision of comprehensive information content from multiple data sources. Ho (1997)
proposed a framework to evaluate web sites from a customer’s perspective of value added and
investigated 1800 sites around the world. Ho’s study was not specific to tourism but to
commercial web sites in general.
Conclusions
This report has reviewed the literature and current trends for tourism, with a specific focus on
tourism web sites. The findings of a Web Based Survey comprising responses to open and
closed questions has been discussed. The responses to the open questions determine the
expectation of the tourism academia, members of the tourism industry, and tourists/
prospective tourists as to what they consider constitutes an effective web site; and their
perception of which tourism web site features they considered most important. The responses
to the closed questions determine the overall response; the top 15 quartile features; the most
important categories in the purpose-value framework; and the different opinions between
academia, the tourism industry, and tourists.