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2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition
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the quality of a tourism product prior to arrival at the destination for the tourism experience. These unique
characteristics of the tourism product lead the would-be tourist to seek information about a destination from its
brochures and other media in order to evaluate the destination prior to making a travel purchase decision.
According to on-going research and analysis conducted by the European Travel Commission, the Internet
has dramatically changed the information gathering behavior of the modern-era traveler. The Internet, with a wealth
of information, images and multimedia provides the appropriate stimuli to facilitate the purchase of travel products
and services (Baggio, 2003). Its use for gathering destination information and purchasing tourism products and
services is expected to continue increasing as Internet penetration rates continually increase (WTO, 2001). About
95% of Web users have used the Internet to gather travel related information and about 93% indicate that they
visited tourism websites when planning their vacations (WTO, 2005). This readily accessible information on
destinations coupled with increasingly sophisticated search engines to find and analyze the information (Destination
marketing, 2006) has greatly increased global competition among tourism destinations. A destination’s competitive
advantage is therefore increasingly linked to, and driven by, its innovative use of Internet technology. Consequently
the role of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) is changing and web marketing by DMOs has become
essential to increase inbound international visitors to their destinations. As per the World Tourism Organization’s
2020 Vision, an increasing number of DMOs are developing and using websites as a means of promotion with 60
per cent of all DMOs currently using or intending to use the Internet for marketing in the near future (WTO, 2005).
Web-based technology has redefined the relationship between tourism organizations and tourists. Kotler,
Bowen and Markens (2003) suggest that a portal site for marketing destinations provide information on core areas:
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How to get there (e.g., air travel);
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Getting around (e.g., car rental);
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Places to stay (e.g., hotel accommodation); and
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Things to do (e.g., places to see, dining, shopping, shows and events).
But what makes a destination website an effective marketing and business tool? The relationship between a
consumer’s willingness to browse a website and the business results derived by the organization from the
consumer’s site visit (look vs. book) has been identified in a number of studies (Corigliano & Baggio, 2006). The
performance of destination websites is critical. Websites must deliver customer satisfaction online in order to
increase tourism business for the destination. However, tourism websites have been criticized. Many organizations’
have simply viewed the medium as an alternative source for displaying printed advertising material rather than
developing content to fully utilize the medium thereby providing returns in terms of increasing the number of
tourists or improving the destination’s image (Stockdale & Borovicka, 2005). Travelers increasingly begin with the
Internet to gain information about destinations prior to making their travel decisions. Since destinations compete for
visitors via their virtual or online presence, an effective e-commerce strategy is imperative to achieve competitive
advantage in the growing tourism market (Baggio, 2004). Consequently, investment in websites by destination
management organizations (DMOs) has increased substantially and online marketing activities comprise an
important part of the operational programs of many DMOs. Website evaluations are needed to assess website
performance against that of competitors and industry peers thereby enabling continuous improvement of one's own
website (Morrison, Taylor & Douglas, 2004). Competitive benchmarking is a well accepted process for competitor
analysis that enables an organization to compare the quality of its goods or services against those of its direct
competitors (Competitive benchmarking, 2006). Given its perceived appropriateness, this study used a competitive
benchmarking process to evaluate the website of Dubai against the websites of five competitor destinations. Next
approaches for website evaluation are discussed.
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