Tourism and online communication: interactivity and social web in official destination websites

Abstract

Websites are an important communication tool in destination branding. This study analyses the relational nature of 87 official destination websites (ODWs) according to two parameters: interactivity, whose link to ODWs has been highlighted in several studies; and, the presence of the social web elements, increasingly necessary to achieve comprehensive, effective online communication, for instance blogs, microblogging platforms or social networks. The authors apply a methodology based on indicators from the Web Quality Index (WQI): a specific website analysis model for the tourism industry. The methodology provides a useful tool for examining and assessing how destination marketing organisations endow their websites with interactivity and connect them to the social media arena. The results show significant shortcomings in the websites for the aspects analysed, especially with regard to indicators linked to interactivity. Furthermore, the study suggests a series of measures that destination marketing organisations could adopt in order to remedy these shortcomings and optimise the relational aspects of their websites.

Public relations in the tourism sector. Interactivity and social features of the official tourism websites of Spanish sun and beach destinations

“…On the second level, user-manager, the results are also consistent with those obtained by Míguez-González & Fernández-Cavia (2015), who allude to the deficient use of tools that enhance the interaction of users with the site managers and recommend the implementation of systems that allow users to vote, rate, etc. In this regard, the results show that the situation has improved slightly in the case of the websites of the autonomous communities, but in the case of the websites of the provinces/islands, and that tools such as online chats are still not implemented in any of the analysed websites.…”

“…In some cases, as in Tenerife, these clubs or communities are built into the website. In other cases, as in Lanzarote, the blog has been created in the free-to-use WordPress platform and is not associated with the domain of the website, contrary to the recommendations of Míguez-González and Fernández-Cavia (2015). In http://www.revistalatinacs.org/072paper/1170/20en.html Página 387 the rest of the indicators, the maximum average score is 0.33 and it corresponds to the least-used tools and features, as it occurs in the websites of the autonomous communities: the possibility to comment on the content and the comments of other users.…”

“…Cho & Cheon (2005) break down the concept of interactivity of the websites into three levels of interaction: user-message, user-manager and user-user. This research focuses on user-manager and user-user interaction, since they are the less developed levels in the official tourism websites (Míguez-González & Fernández-Cavia, 2015;Huertas, Rovira & Fernández-Cavia, 2011). The study also takes into account the third level of interaction (user-user), due to the influence of the opinions of users in the evaluation of products, services and organisations by other users, and on their loyalty (Gruen, Osmonbekov & Czaplewski, 2005).…”

Tourism 2.0 communication in Ecuador. Analysis of public and private companies

“…There are quantitative researches evaluating tourism websites (Fernández-Cavia et al, 2014;Míguez-González & Fernández-Cavia, 2015;Túñez, Altamirano & Valarezo, 2016). But due to the few evaluation models of communication processes 2.0 in social media we developed out own evaluation model, which was called Communication Evaluation Model 2.0 in Tourism Social Media.…”

“…The networks for sharing videos and images, such as YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr and Instagram, are close to being a repository of tourism promotional material, and simultaneously a platform of interactive dissemination of advertisement campaigns. Uses of social media for tourism companies solve, partly, the lack of interactivity of destinations and that, according to Míguez-González and Fernández-Cavia (2015) is a neglected reference point that is worth mentioning.…”