This study evaluates the web sites of international tourist hotels and tour wholesalers in Taiwan. The evaluation system consists of three general user criteria: user interface, variety of information and online reservation. Results show that 50 percent of the total sample of hotels and tour wholesalers have already established web sites. Among these “user interface” was rated highest among the three categories. “Variety of information” received the lowest rating. More tourist hotels provide on-line reservation systems than do tour wholesalers. Results also indicate that the use of the Internet in Taiwan's tourism/hospitality industry is primarily for advertising, not marketing. In conclusion, it is suggested that, in regard to Internet marketing, tourist hotels and tour wholesalers work closely with information industries.
In recent years, the development of the Internet has increased dramatically and many countries in the world have made efforts to improve their Internet services. Poel and Leunis (1999) believe that the Internet is an important channel of distribution for consumers. According to recent studies, the Internet is the most effective when used as an advertising and marketing tool (Hoof, Hubert, Collins, Combrink, & Verbeeten, 1995; Kasavana, Knuston, & Polonowski, 1997; Walle, 1996). It can be contended that the Internet is changing the daily lives of individuals, companies and organizations and the way they seek information. In addition, the validity of the Internet as an advertising and marketing tool has been proven (Kasavana et al., 1997).
In Burke (1997), the author found that a web site's content has a significant effect on advertising and marketing and that new systems for interacting with the Internet are becoming increasingly user-friendly, thus broadening the user base. The tourism/hospitality industry is beginning to use the Internet as part of its marketing effort (Connolly, Olsen, & Moore, 1998). In Taiwan, professional interest in using the Internet as a marketing tool is also increasing in the tourism/hospitality industry (Yang & Wan, 2000; Yung, 1997/1998).
Although a number of research studies regarding web sites relating to the tourism/hospitality industry have been conducted worldwide (Countryman, 1999; Park & Sohn, 2000), few have been found that deal specifically with Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the web sites of tourist hotels and tour wholesalers in Taiwan using content analysis. Three evaluation criteria, user interface, variety of information and the presence or absence of an on-line reservation system were used and the contents of web sites were compared between hotels and tour wholesalers. The results of this study provide industry professionals with information with which they can build well-constructed and effective web sites.
Although the number of people using the Internet in Taiwan has now surpassed four million, amazingly only 50 percent of this country’s international tourist hotels and tour wholesalers have established web sites. Among the three criteria in this study used for analyzing the content of web sites, the ‘‘user interface’’ category was rated good for both hotels and tour wholesalers. The ‘‘variety of information’’ category was rated fair for both hotels and tour wholesalers. In regard to the category ‘‘online reservations system’’ more hotels have web sites providing this function than do tour wholesalers.
This is to be expected since a hotel’s services are much simpler than are those of a tour wholesaler. Online reservations are most commonly made through e-mail, fax, and telephone correspondence. Very few web sites provide a credit card payment system when making online reservations, indicating that many people in Taiwan are reluctant to make credit card transactions online. The present study uses the value-added model for analyzing the web sites of hotels and tour wholesalers. The implication of this study is the need for the tourist industry to have well-designed web sites, in order to enhance the consumer business online.
