engleski

Information search behaviour - Is there a gap between tourist needs and DMO website performance

The purpose of this paper is to underline the importance of understanding tourist behaviour in the decision-making process in choosing a destination for travel or vacation, as well as the importance of applying the insights gained to the web marketing of tourist destinations. When selecting a travel destination, tourists search for information from a variety of sources. The Internet, an important information source, plays a vital role in this process. The websites of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are a source of information to tourists in the decision-making process of selecting a destination and they are a means of DMO marketing communication with the target market. Hence, special attention must be devoted to contents posted on the websites of DMOs to ensure they meet the requirements of tourists in the decision-making process of destination selection. Considering the marketing concept, marketers, when designing websites, need to take the needs and wants of tourists into account and adjust the contents of their websites accordingly. Importance- Performance Analysis can be carried out to test whether the contents posted on DMOs’ websites match tourist needs. This paper presents the application of Importance-Performance Analysis on the example of the websites of Croatian DMOs.

consumer behaviour, tourism destination marketing, DMO, website

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