A Cross-Cultural Web Usability Analysis of Asian Countries’ Official Tourism Websites

Authors

  • Jaslin Md. Dahlan Universiti Teknologi MARA Johor
  • Awang Rozaimie Awang-Shuib Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21512/tw.v12i2.673

Keywords:

website usability, travel, tourism, content analysis

Abstract

Demands for tourism websites from worldwide providers is now surging. It is a quality measurement of advertising, information providing and persuasive marketing all in one. The evaluation of website’s usability illuminates the specific strengths and weaknesses of each websites studied. A selection of 39 Asian countries was studied. A criterion for selection was for the country to have an official tourism website hosted and managed by a government agency. This non-commercial study is to ensure the reliability of information. A walkthrough content analysis method was used for the evaluation. The month-long evaluation experiments the seven elements of webs’ features and functions with 44 attributes. Results were varied with highest and lowest scores were tabulated and discussed. Tourism websites that scored the highest overall and categorical sections obviously placed tourism as their main industry of the economy. The study is limited by the availability of the websites during the evaluation period. No re-evaluation on another date was done, as to avoid biasness.

Dimensions

Plum Analytics

Author Biographies

Jaslin Md. Dahlan, Universiti Teknologi MARA Johor

Faculty of Business Management

Awang Rozaimie Awang-Shuib, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak

Faculty of Business Management

References

Doolin, B., Burgress, L. and Cooper, J. (2002). Evaluating the Use of the Web for Tourism Marketing: A Case Study from New Zealand. Tourism Management, 23, 557 – 561.

Huang, W., Le, T., Li, X. and Gandha, S. (2007). Categorizing Web Features and Functions to Evaluate Commercial Web Sites. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 106 (4), 523 – 539.

Kaplanidou, K. and Vogt, C. (2004). Destination Marketing Organization Websites (DMOs) Evaluation and Design: What You Need to Know. Accessed from http://www.travelmichigannews.org/Research.htm.

PATA (2008). Pacific Asia Travel Association Annual Tourism Monitor.

Perdue, R. (2001). Internet Site Evaluations: The Influence of Behavioral Experience, Existing Images and Selected Website Characteristics. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 11(2/3), 21-27.

Singh, N., Baack, D. W; Kundu, S. K; Hurtado, C. (2008). U.S. Hispanic Consumer E-Commerce Preferences: Expectations and Attitudes Toward Web Content. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 162-175.

Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). (2007). Travelers Use of the Internet.

Wang, X. and Liu, J. (2007). Usability Evaluation of B2C Website, Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCom) 2007, 3837-3840.

Downloads

Published

2011-09-30

How to Cite

Dahlan, J. M., & Awang-Shuib, A. R. (2011). A Cross-Cultural Web Usability Analysis of Asian Countries’ Official Tourism Websites. Journal The Winners, 12(2), 142-153. https://doi.org/10.21512/tw.v12i2.673
Abstract 546  .
PDF downloaded 506  .