Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
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determining the number of hits on search engines Google, MSN and Yahoo using the free link popularity service 
offered by www.linkpopularity.com. Only the technical aspects and link popularity of the websites were measured 
using automated means, other features were assessed by evaluators. 
The website evaluators comprised 10 individuals purposively selected for their knowledge of the tourism 
and/or hospitality industry and their sound web navigation expertise. A paired comparison technique was used for 
the data gathering wherein each evaluator was assigned two websites (Dubai and one of its five main competitors). 
This was preferred to having evaluators rate all six websites. Zikmund (2000) defines paired comparison as a 
measurement technique that consists of presenting the respondent with two objects and asking the respondent to 
choose the preferred object. A single paired comparison was considered to be a more reliable task than evaluating all 
six websites. According to Zikmund (2000), as the number of items increase, the number of comparisons increases 
geometrically; if the number of comparisons is great, respondents may become fatigued and no longer accurately 
complete the evaluation. In order to decide which evaluator would get which website pair, the blind draw method 
was used thus it was ensured that every evaluator had an equal and known probability of receiving a particular pair 
of websites to evaluate. Evaluators were asked to rate the websites by completing BSC questionnaires. In addition to 
rating each website’s features, evaluators ranked the paired websites. Ranking is used to indicate preferred order 
among certain objects or attributes (Zikmund, 2000). Evaluations were completed between 3 and 11 June 2006. 
Ratings from the questionnaires were entered into Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics such as mean and 
standard deviation were computed to present research findings. These data were compiled numerically and 
graphically. The website rankings were used to assess Dubai's competitive position relative to its main competitors. 
It is important to note than ranking data are ordinal data and have to be analyzed as such. The next section discusses 
the research findings.