Developing a User-Centered Tool for the Holistic Evaluation of Destination Websites

Many tourists nowadays go online to seek travel information. Lehto, Kim, & Morrison (2006) found that 93% of Internet users searching for travel information visit the destination’s official tourism website. This finding emphasizes the need to evaluate destination websites to ensure their effectiveness as tourism marketing channels. Effective destination websites allow users to obtain relevant information, navigate quickly through textual and graphic elements, and form a positive impression of the destination (Palmer & McCole, 2000). This study proposes an instrument that measures three broad website quality attributes—content, usability, and persuasiveness—to generate a website quality rating called the User-perceived Quality (UPQ) score. The instrument is designed for Internet users, thus it highlights the users’ perspective. A pilot test revealed that the instrument exhibits excellent psychometric properties and good internal consistency. The user evaluation results will aid web developers and destination marketing organizations in redesigning their websites to address reported deficiencies.

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