1. He who by reviewing the old can gain
knowledge of the new and is fit to be a teacher
——Confucius
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2. Website Development in Tourism and
Hospitality: The Case of China
Liang WANG, Rob Law
School of Hotel & Tourism Management,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
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3. Agenda
•
•
•
•
•
Research background
Methods
Findings and discussions
Conclusions and implications
Q&A
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4. Research Background
• The rapid growth of the commercialized
Information
and
Communication
Technologies (ICTs) has revolutionized many
industries.
• Since the late 1980s, such technologies have
been introduced to business applications in
tourism and hospitality (Buhalis& Law, 2008;
Ip, Law, & Lee, 2011) and have converted the
industry structures and business practices
ever since.
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5. Research Background
• Among different ICTs activities, website
development has been attracting a lot of
attentions as a commercial website functions
as the central platform on which transactions
are completed (Angehrm, 1997).
– Establishment of online presence
• Customers rely on websites to access
product and service information (Law & Bai,
2006)
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6. Research Background
• The development of ICTs has not only had an
impact on the tourism and hospitality industries
as well as customers, but also on academe.
• Reviewing relevant research articles from time to
time can enable scholars as well as practitioners
to be aware of research trends and knowledge
advancement (Xiao & Smith, 2006b).
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7. Research Background
• Such an attempt could be found in the field of
website development in the tourism and
hospitality industries.
– Hashim, Murphy, and Law (2007): website design
frameworks (1990s to 2006).
– Law et al. (2010): website evaluation approaches
(1996-2009).
– Ip et al. (2011): website evaluation studies (19962009)
• Examination of website development at regional
level remains lacking.
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8. Research Background
• However, few review articles have discussed website
development at the regional level, not even in China, the
world’s third most popular tourism destination (gbtimes,
2013).
– At a geographically regional level, the local economic
development has a compelling impact upon website
construction (Lu & Lu, 2004).
– Website success is context dependent (Schaupp, Belanger, &
Fan, 2009) and cultural differences need to be taken into
consideration as it may influence perceptions of website
quality (Vladimirov, 2012).
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9. Research Background
• Research objective:
– To examine the research status of studies concerning websites
development in the context of China, in terms of research topics,
research methods, as well as conclusions & theoretical
implications
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10. Methods
tourism & &
internet&
China
Databases:
eTourism & EBSCOhost & Science Direct
China
Online &
tourism &
China
eCommerce
& tourism &
China
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11. Methods
• After careful screening, 37 suitable articles were
retrieved for analysis.
• Content Analysis
• Several standards could be spotted in prior studies.
– Law and Bai (2006): theoretical analysis and empirical
studies.
– Ip et al. (2011): quantitative and qualitative research
categories.
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12. Methods
• This current study follows research by Lu and Lu
(2004) and the reasons are as follows.
– Consideration of sophistication and complexity level of a
website.
– Advocation of a dynamic framework of website development.
– Shorter time-period interval.
• Zhong et al. (2013)
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13. Methods
• As such, the authors originally divided the study
period into six sub-periods:
–
–
–
–
–
–
(i) 1996-1997;
(ii) 1998-2000;
(iii) 2001-2004;
(iv) 2005-2007;
(v) 2008-2010;
(vi) 2011-2013
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14. Methods
• As such, the authors originally divided the study
period into six sub-periods:
– (i) 1996-1997;
---------------------------
– (ii) 1998-2000;
--------------------------–
–
–
–
(iii) 2001-2004 (3);
(iv) 2005-2007 (12);
(v) 2008-2010 (11);
(vi) 2011-2013 (11).
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15. Findings and discussions
• Xiao and Smith (2006)
– Themes and objectives of website development research
in China
– Methodological procedures of website development
research in China
– Conclusions and theoretical implications of website
development research in China
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16. Findings and discussions
• Themes and objectives of website development
research in China
– Generally speaking, destination marketing via websites and
website evaluation are the frequently studied areas.
– Impacts from ICTs upon to tourism and hospitality industries
are dynamic and graduated (Buhalis, 2003).
• In the early stage, literature of organization-centric elements (e.g.
content and design) dominants.
• Then, Internet users’ perceptions of websites (e.g. hotels or tourism
destinations).
• Later, initiatives of customers themselves as well as the third party
websites (e.g. online traveller reviews and building destination image on
others’ websites).
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17. Findings and discussions
• Methodological procedures of website development
research in China
Website
characteristics
Methodological
procedures
Research Methodology
Qualitative methodology
Quantitative methodology
Data collection methods
Questionnaire survey
Interview
Focus group discussion
Content analysis
Others (experiment and
numerical analysis)
20012004 (3)
Study period
200520082007 (12)
2010 (11)
20112013 (11)
Total
(frequency)
1
2
6
6
8
3
6
4
21
15
1
1
1
-
6
6
-
3
7
1
4
1
5
1
14
1
1
19
2
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18. Findings and discussions
• Conclusions and theoretical implications of website
development research in China
– Generally speaking, the trend identified is in consistence of
research themes and objectives listed in those studies,
indicating rigor of research findings.
However, few attentions have
been given to finding solutions to
some identified problems.
Tourism destinations and hotels’
own website across either cultures
or star ratings were examined.
?
Adding more values to the websites
as well as involving customers
More
customer-oriented
and
more
intermediaries websites. However, few
attentions have been given to finding
solutions to some identified problems.
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19. Findings and discussions
• Conclusions and theoretical implications of website
development research in China
– Generally speaking, the trend identified is in consistence of
research themes and objectives listed in those studies,
indicating rigor of research findings.
– Main conclusions (partial)
• Chinese hotel websites did provide basic information
• Chinese provincial Tourism Adminstration (PTAs) were not using their
websites effectively
• DMO websites in China had medium problems in term of website
usability features
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20. Findings and discussions
• Conclusions and theoretical implications of website
development research in China
– Theoretical implications (partial)
• However, few attentions have been given to finding solutions to
some identified problems.
– Tourism destinations and hotels’ own website across either
cultures or star ratings were examined.
– Adding more values to the websites as well as involving
customers
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21. Conclusions and implications
• In conclusion, it is encouraging to note that scholars
have showed great interests in website development in
tourism and hospitality in China.
– Findings indicate that researchers mainly examined website
evaluation as well as online users’ perceptions of website.
– In addition, they adopted content analysis and questionnaire
survey for data collection.
– In their conclusions and suggestions for future studies,
inconsistency was found as few preceding studies were used
to guide more recent ones.
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22. Conclusions and implications
• More endeavours are called for.
• Limited techniques lead to more efforts in utilizing more
up-to-date analysis methods like log-file analysis.
• Provision of guidance in the form of developing a
research agenda which prioritizes useful research.
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23. Conclusions and implications
• This research also has some limitations which
could be considered in future research.
– For example, Zhong et al. (2010) has conducted a review
research of information and communication technologies
in China by analysing theses and articles published in
Chinese. Some comparative study could be conducted to
check if any differences existed between Chinese
researchers and their overseas counterparts in examining
the topic of website development.
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24. Thank You!
Q&A
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