Evaluating the Effectiveness of Destination Marketing Organisations' Websites: Evidence from China

Despite the extensive use of the Internet as a marketing tool by Chinese destination marketing organisations (DMOs), few studies have been conducted to measure the effectiveness of Chinese DMOs' websites. This study attempted to fill the gap by constructing a conceptual website evaluation model consisting of five dimensions of information, communication, transaction, relationship and technical merit. The proposed framework was tested to evaluate the effectiveness of each of the dimensions of 31 Chinese Provincial Tourism Administrations' (PTAs) websites. The results indicated that overall, the PTAs in China were not using their websites effectively. Among the five dimensions, transaction and relationship dimensions were the weakest areas of Chinese PTAs' websites. Great variation exists in the website effectiveness among different provinces. Suggestions and implications were provided and discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Juline E. Mills,et al.  Zero acquaintance benchmarking at travel destination websites: what is the first impression that national tourism organizations try to make? , 2006 .

[2]  Youcheng Wang.  Web‐based destination marketing systems: assessing the critical factors for management and implementation , 2008 .

[3]  Rob Law,et al.  A Study of Airlines’ Online Reservation Services on the Internet , 2000 .

[4]  R. Chu.  What online Hong Kong travelers look for on airline/travel websites? , 2001 .

[5]  Pierre Benckendorff,et al.  Destination marketing on the Internet: a case study of Australian Regional Tourism Authorities. , 2000 .

[6]  Daniel R. Fesenmaier,et al.  Collaborative destination marketing: A case study of Elkhart county, Indiana , 2007 .

[7]  C. Wan,et al.  The web sites of international tourist hotels and tour wholesalers in Taiwan , 2002 .

[8]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  The Effectiveness of Convention and Exhibition Websites A Transatlantic Comparison and Future Scenario , 2005 .

[9]  Taedong Han,et al.  Trade Show Websites: An Examination of Critical Websites' Quality Factors and Content Items , 2008 .

[10]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  Website Evaluation in Tourism and Hospitality , 2004 .

[11]  Stephen Taylor,et al.  Marketing Small Hotels on the World Wide Web , 1999, J. Inf. Technol. Tour..

[12]  Joseph T. O'Leary,et al.  What does the consumer want from a DMO website? A study of US and Canadian tourists' perspectives. , 2007 .

[13]  Young A. Park,et al.  Success Factors for Destination Marketing Web Sites: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis , 2007 .

[14]  P. Kotler,et al.  Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism , 1995 .

[15]  Z. M. Rachman,et al.  The status of New Zealand tour operator Web sites. , 1997 .

[16]  Ana M. Kennedy,et al.  The Adoption and Diffusion of New Industrial Products: A Literature Review , 1983 .

[17]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  Internet Marketing in Tourism in Asia: An Evaluation of the Performance of East Asian National Tourism Organization Websites , 2004 .

[18]  Youcheng Wang.  Examining the Level of Sophistication and Success of Destination Marketing Systems , 2008 .

[19]  Rob Law,et al.  Importance of Hotel Website Dimensions and Attributes: Perceptions of Online Browsers and Online Purchasers , 2006 .

[20]  P. Tierney.  Internet-Based Evaluation of Tourism Web Site Effectiveness: Methodological Issues and Survey Results , 2000 .

[21]  D. Fesenmaier,et al.  Identifying the Success Factors of Web-Based Marketing Strategy: An Investigation of Convention and Visitors Bureaus in the United States , 2006 .

[22]  B. Doolin,et al.  Evaluating the use of the Web for tourism marketing: a case study from New Zealand , 2002 .

[23]  A. Morrison,et al.  A snapshot in time: the marketing of culture in European Union NTO Web sites. , 2001 .

[24]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  Convention and Visitor Bureaus in the USA: A Profile of Bureaus, Bureau Executives, and Budgets , 1997 .

[25]  Ş. Baloğlu,et al.  The website design and Internet site marketing practices of upscale and luxury hotels in Turkey , 2006 .

[26]  P. Cheol.  A content analysis of travel agency web‐sites in Korea , 2002 .

[27]  Richard R. Perdue,et al.  Internet Site Evaluations: The Influence of Behavioral Experience, Existing Images, and Selected Website Characteristics , 2002 .

[28]  Pirkko Walden,et al.  Introducing Web technology in a small peripheral hospitality organization , 2001 .

[29]  Simon Hudson,et al.  A destination case study of marketing tourism online: Banff, Canada , 2002 .

[30]  Nelson K. H. Tang,et al.  The effectiveness of commercial Internet Web sites: a user's perspective , 1998, Internet Res..

[31]  Ulrike Gretzel,et al.  The role of information technology use in American convention and visitors bureaus , 2006 .

[32]  R. Law,et al.  ANALYSING THE INTENTION TO PURCHASE ON HOTEL WEBSITES: A STUDY OF TRAVELLERS TO HONG KONG , 2005 .

[33]  Youcheng Wang,et al.  Conceptualizing and evaluating the functions of destination marketing systems , 2007 .

[34]  C. Zhang,et al.  Website Development and Evaluation in the Chinese Tourism Industry , 2002 .

[35]  Shu Tian Cole,et al.  Content delivery performance of world wide web sites of US tour operators focusing on destinations in China , 2004 .

[36]  Rob Law,et al.  Website Development and Evaluations in Tourism: A Retrospective Analysis , 2006, ENTER.

[37]  Douglas R. Vogel,et al.  Sophistication of Online Tourism Websites in Hong Kong: An Exploratory Study , 2003, AMCIS.

[38]  Karl Wöber.  Evaluation of DMO Web Sites Through Interregional Tourism Portals: a European Cities Tourism Case Example , 2003, ENTER.

[39]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  East versus West: A comparison of online destination marketing in China and the USA , 2004 .

[40]  Meltem Ozturan,et al.  Internet use among travel agencies in Turkey: an exploratory study , 2004 .

[41]  P. McCole,et al.  The role of electronic commerce in creating virtual tourism destination marketing organisations , 2000 .

[42]  Kostas Zafiropoulos,et al.  Tourism agents' attitudes on internet adoption: an analysis from Greece , 2006 .

[43]  Rob Law,et al.  Evaluation of Usability: A Study of Hotel Web Sites in Hong Kong , 2006 .

[44]  U. Gretzel,et al.  Internet Technology Use by American Convention and Visitors Bureaus , 2003 .