Crystal Ip

Profiling the Users of Travel Websites for Planning and Online Experience Sharing

This article reports the findings of a study that examined Hong Kong online users who use travel websites for travel planning and online travel experience sharing. The empirical findings from a large-scale domestic survey conducted in 2010 reveal that 32.7% of the respondents had used at least one travel website for travel planning in the past 2 years. In addition, 24.5% of these respondents had shared their travel experience online. On the whole, the travel website users were young, highly educated, and had a high level of personal income. In general, the propensity to share travel experiences decreased with age. In contrast, education level up to college/university level positively influenced the respondents’ willingness to share travel experiences, but the propensity decreased with higher levels of education. This study, although limited in scope, will be of interest to academic researchers and industry practitioners who are seeking to better understand the behavior of travelers using the Internet.

A New Framework on Website Evaluation

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have changed how business is conducted and consumers’ purchase behavior. Online market has showed its importance to both academia and business circles. This paper analyses published website evaluation related studies and found that the existing e-commerce literature simply does not have any commonly agreed-upon standards for evaluating overall website performance. Therefore, this research proposes a novel direction to website evaluation. A new framework has been established which suggests website assessment should be performed in three major aspects: website usefulness (technique), service quality, and physical accessibility. The expected contributions of the proposed model to academics and practitioners are discussed.

An analysis of research on tourism information technology: The case of ENTER proceedings

The International Conference on IT and Travel & Tourism (ENTER), which is organized by the International Federal of Information Technology on Travel & Tourism (IFITT), represents the world’s largest annual academic and applied research conference on IT and tourism. Worldwide attendees from academia, industry, government, and other organizations, who are interested in tourism information technology, could take this opportunity to exchange their ideas and discuss the development trends for the IT in the tourism industry. By doing so, this made the proceedings being one of the most important publication channels of tourism information technology research. This study examines 17 issues (1994–2010) of ENTER conference proceedings to get an overview of research contributions on the application of information and communication technologies to travel and tourism in terms of countries/regions, individual researchers and affiliated institutes.

Hotel Website Performance Evaluation: A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach

Previous studies on hotel website performance have relied on frequency counting, content analysis or user behavioral approaches. These studies cannot accurately calculate hotel website performance in terms of user assessments of dimension/ attribute weighting and performance ratings. The aim of this research is to develop a scientific model that integrates a set of website evaluation dimensions for evaluating websites performance. Unlike previous studies, this research proposes a novel framework for evaluating website performance by using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP). Since human judgments are often uncertain and vague, using fuzzy set theory instead of exact numbers could integrate a decision maker’s uncertainty. This proposed method could rectify this limitation and provide a more accurate overall evaluation result.

Travel Preferences of Overseas Destinations by Mainland Chinese Online Users

Despite the financial crisis in the second half of 2008 together with the global outbreak of Influenza A H1N1 in 2009, Mainland China’s (hereafter known as China) outbound tourism continued to grow steadily. The rapid development of the Chinese economy is the major force propelling the development of sustainable outbound tourism. Other factors, such as a consistent policy about the expansion of outbound destinations and on-going improvement in living standards have provided good motivations for the growth of the Chinese outbound tourism. Therefore, understanding the travel preferences of Chinese travellers is regarded as one of the important issues in tourism businesses worldwide. Along with the rapid development of Internet applications in China, the Internet is a new way for Chinese travellers to search and share travel information. Due to the growing size of Chinese online users, the Internet becomes the most resourceful medium to understand consumers from this huge market. This paper presents the findings of a study that investigates the travel preferences of Chinese online users by collecting data from Elong.com and Ctrip.com, representing the major and the most popular travel websites in China. Research findings are expected to make a meaningful contribution to better understand what Chinese online users like to visit.

Outlying Islands as a Tourist Destination for Local Residents: The Case of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong

Cheung Chau is an outlying island in Hong Kong, which is relatively untouched by the regions rapid economic development. The island provides a dramatic contrast to the cosmopolitan city center, one of the most popular travel destinations in Asia and a major business hub. This makes Cheung Chau a special attraction for local residents seeking to get away from their routine lives. However, no published studies have examined the opinions of residents on sustainable tourism development on Hong Kongs outlying islands and the motivating factors that drive residents to visit those islands. Hence, an exploratory qualitative study was undertaken to develop an understanding of the publics motivation for visiting Cheung Chau. The results of in-depth interviews with 15 residents who had visited the island are presented, along with an examination of the future direction of tourism development in Cheung Chau.

Which Overseas Destinations do Chinese Travelers Like to Visit

While outbound tourism and Internet applications in Mainland China (hereafter known as China) have developed rapidly, understanding the preferred destinations of Chinese travelers is thus crucial. This research investigates the travel preferences of Chinese online travelers by collecting data from Ctrip.com, one of the largest travel websites in China. Research findings show that Australia and Nepal are the most favorable overseas destinations as revealed by Chinese Internet travelers. This research is expected to arouse the influence and impact of electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM) in Chinese online population.