The present business enterprises largely adopt e-commerce to achieve different business goals, and for this reason, the process of maintaining a high quality and effective website is vital for a business to strengthen its customer relationships and to excel in business transactions. In the context of travel and tourism, the information intensive and customer oriented nature of the industry appears to be particularly suitable for the adoption of e-commerce. Many studies have been reported about tourism enterprises utilizing the Internet for information search, business transactions, and relationship building. This paper reviews the published articles on website development and evaluations in ENTER Conference Proceedings from 2000 to 2005 and the journal Information Technology & Tourism from 2000 to 2004. Findings of the study indicate that not only the importance of analyzing information on websites has long been recognized, but also various approaches have been initiated to evaluate tourism website development. The paper concludes with business implications and future research opportunities.

Website Development and Evaluations in Tourism: A Retrospective Analysis

Within the context of globalisation, cultural identity has been emphasized by nationstates to differentiate themselves from others in global tourism markets. To be successfully positioned in the competitive global marketplace, a destination must create, as its key component, a favourable and appealing perception or image. As the Internet has become the predominant channel for tourism marketing, the establishment of successful online destination images is urgently needed. Destination images and positive online experiences have been found to correlate with the decision-making and behavioural intentions of tourists. In the physical world, travelling is a direct experience enabling tourists to observe and feel the exotic atmospheres of different places. Virtual experience, the verisimilitude of direct experience, has been recognised as an effective approach in tourism marketing. Its impact on user attitudes towards a destination can be enhanced via advanced website features. Telepresence, an experience of being metaphorically transported to another place, and a sense of presence in mediated environments, may facilitate the creation of a better online experience, due to its capability of intensifying user experience in virtual environments. Researchers have indicated that telepresence has positive effects on users’ attitudes toward websites. However, no empirical study has been carried out to examine the effectiveness of telepresence on tourism websites. Panoramic photography has been developed and utilised in the tourism area for many years, based on its feature of creating an interactive virtual experience. Using Taiwan as a case study, this research investigates the effects of interactivity and vividness, the major determinants of telepresence, on users’ attitudes toward the website. Panoramic photography is employed as a key feature of the website, and there is a focus on Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) theory as the guiding principle of the experiment. Two websites with different levels of interactivity and vividness are developed for the experiment (http://www.culturaltaiwan.com/high/index.php; http://www.culturaltaiwan.com/low/index.php). Users are then tested in a postexperiment questionnaire, assessing the value of attractiveness, informativeness, enjoyment, and telepresence. The results indicate that significant differences were only found in enjoyment value, which conflicts with the assertion of previous studies. It is suggested that the notion of experimental reality should be taken into consideration and that NDM may provide a useful model for application in tourism web marketing.

https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/512be290-f41a-4e16-a2bf-c0daddb08803/1/Yu-Hui Tu Thesis.pdf

Evaluating the effectiveness of telepresence in cultural tourism websites: panoramic virtual tours for the promotion of tourism and cultural identity in Taiwan

Baby boomers turning grey: European profiles

This study employs an integrated approach based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine online experience by combining design features and social factors. It also explores the interrelationships between online experience and smartphone users’ destination image. A pretest was conducted to examine the internal construct structure through exploratory factor analysis. In the main field test, a survey company distributed online questionnaires to recruited smartphone users. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to confirm reliability and validity, and a structural equation modeling test with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to identify the relationships among the constructs. The results suggest that perceived usefulness and ease of use are important factors that enhanced users’ online experience with smartphone applications. Positive relationships exist between users' online experiences and cognitive and affective image. Furthermore, both of these factors positively contribute to overall destination image. This study contributes to the extant literature by identifying the momentous impact of mobile technology on destination image formation, and a new perspective of extending the TAM by measuring users’ online experience of smartphone applications is provided for the future studies. Marketing implications and limitations are discussed.

A TAM-based approach to explore the effect of online experience on destination image: A smartphone user's perspective

This paper aims to illustrate the relevant role that the Internet plays as a tool for marketing tourism destinations online by focusing on a study of the web site of Spain’s National Tourism Organisation, TURESPANA. The research covers three main areas, firstly, the collaborative model TURESPANA in promoting Spain through its own network of web sites coupled with those of the Spanish Tourist Offices abroad. Secondly, by means of a case-study, the paper sets out the need to combine different sources of information to research web-user’s profiles in order to prevent misleading conclusions. Finally, the study ends with a report on current and future developments to improve the efficiency of the TURESPANA web site with the hope this experience could guide further improvements in the sector of Information Technology and Tourism.

Internet As A Destination Marketing Tool: A Case Study (Spanish National Tourism Organisation)

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Internet As A Destination Marketing Tool: A Case Study (Spanish National Tourism Organisation)