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He who by reviewing the old can gain knowledge of the new and is fit to be a teacher ——Confucius

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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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Agenda

• Research background• Methods• Findings and discussions• Conclusions and implications• Q & A

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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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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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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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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 (1996-

2009)

• Examination of website development at regional level remains lacking.

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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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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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Databases: EBSCOhost & Science DirecteTourism &

China

tourism & & internet&

China

Online & tourism &

China

eCommerce& tourism &

China

Methods

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Findings and discussions• Methodological procedures of website development

research in ChinaMethodological

procedures Study period Total

(frequency) 2001-2004 (3)

2005-2007 (12)

2008-2010 (11)

2011-2013 (11)

Research Methodology Qualitative methodology 1 6 8 6 21

Quantitative methodology 2 6 3 4 15 Data collection methods

Questionnaire survey 1 6 3 4 14 Interview - - - 1 1

Focus group discussion 1 - - - 1 Content analysis 1 6 7 5 19

Others (experiment and numerical analysis)

- - 1 1 2

W

eb users’

perceptions

Web

site

ch

arac

teri

stic

s

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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.

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.

?

However, few attentions have been given to finding solutions to some identified problems.

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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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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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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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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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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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Thank You!

Q&A?