Are tourism websites useful for travelers? Applying an information audit rubric for Mediterranean tourism destination websites

Abstract

Numerous travel websites have become popular in the past decade. Some destination websites allow travelers to book flights, hotels, restaurant visits, and tours. They also provide a great way for other tourists to leave feedback on the visits they had to specific travel destinations and provide other customers with reliable accounts. In this case, the theory proposes that unique offerings on a website have a greater affect on getting website visitors who are potential tourists to actually visit the website's destination. The findings show that interactive tourism websites that keep up with current technology will translate into attracting the most visitors to that specific city location. This study is unique and valuable as the analysis of the three tourism websites indicates the uniqueness of each of the three specific cities located on the Mediterranean Sea: Valencia, Marseille, and Genoa. This study provides a detailed analysis of each of the three cities’ travel websites and ranks each of the websites to evaluate which is the most reliable and most appealing to today's busy travelers. Valencia's tourism website earns “Best” of the three tourism destination websites. Marseille and Genoa's website do not offer the same caliber of information and lack the detail of Valencia's website. Valencia's website is easy to use, has the most up-to-date technology sources, and is physically the most appealing.

Citation

Fryc, L.M. (2010), "Are tourism websites useful for travelers? Applying an information audit rubric for Mediterranean tourism destination websites", Woodside, A.G. (Ed.) Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and Usefulness Auditing of Destination Websites (Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1871-3173(2010)0000004008