e-tourism

Tourism is a complex product. Many suppliers and stakeholders are involved in supply chain. For the customers, it cannot be tested it beforehand. There is a distance between the time of purchase and the place when it is utilised. Therefore information is intensively required at the point of planning travel before purchase. Tourism products are dominated by information. Information technologies have accelerated changes in tourism of consumer behaviour and industrial structure. The internet is used not only for information gathering but also for comparisons with the destination and its products. Potential customers have better access to information resources through the internet than by traditional means. As a consequence, the value of information is decided by the consumer’s perception and experience. On the one hand, information technologies have offered tourism organizations global reach. Destinations can be visible and comparable worldwide through internet permanently. Websites are a significant marketing tool for reaching the bigger market.
However it has brought an increase in global competition. The internet has provided opportunities for business growth and threats to the destination management. Currently, organizations who could offer value to the right customer segments and are capable of e-tourism management would achieve tourism objectives successfully. Austria, one of the leading international tourism countries, is ahead in tourism destination management. Austrian tourism industry is attentive to changes of consumers’ demands and building B2C online relationships in marketing strategy. This thesis is a comparative study of Austria and Hokkaido of Japan in e-tourism by means of measuring the competence of tourism organizations through industrial analysis, website evaluation in qualitative and quantitative approaches and systematic benchmarking, and investigating the correlation of e-tourism management and tourism growth of the destination.
Accordingly, conclusions will suggest some recommendations to be applied by destination management organizations in Hokkaido.