Networks and Communication Studies

NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

p. 191-208

Website Development and Evaluation

in the Chinese Tourism Industry

Zi Lu1, Jie Lu2, and Chengqi Zhang

Abstract.— The web-based technologies have become a strategic necessity for tourism organizations. Through
switching to online services, tourism organizations are achieving better positions in the digital-based com-
petitive market. The Chinese tourism industry is investing in the development of a ‘Golden Tourism Project’
which includes tourism E-commerce website development and evaluation as one of main parts. This study
investigates tourism E-commerce website development in China from three perspectives: the tourism website
functionality, the tourism website user and the tourism website provider. Based on a web search and a ques-
tionnaire survey, this paper analyses the distribution and classifications of tourism websites, explores the
functionality of these websites, and assesses user satisfaction for current tourism websites. The results show
that the majority of tourism website providers are regional tourism destination organizations that mainly
provide comprehensive local tourism information and services. The results also show the level of regional eco-
nomic development has a significant impact on the construction of these local tourism websites. It is found
that obtaining information is still the main aim of web users, however, the difficulties are slow Internet
access. Finally, through a web master interview, this paper discusses the main barriers in developing high
quality websites for tourism organizations in China.

Keywords.— E-commerce, Tourism, Websites, Online services, China

Résumé.— “Développement de sites Web et tourisme en Chine”. La maîtrise des technologies de l’Internet
est devenue une nécessité stratégique pour l’industrie touristique. L’auteur étudie les sites web chinois rela-
tifs au tourisme. Il souligne que, parmi les difficultés, la lenteur des transactions est un frein important.

Mots-clés.— E-commerce, Tourisme, Sites Internet, Services en lignes, Chine

INTRODUCTION

The web-based (online) technologies redefine the relationships between

tourists, tourism companies and travel agents. The new relationships allow new
ways of accessing and tapping tourism information and services. With web-based

1. Faculty of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Teacher’s University, ShiJiaZhuang,

050016, Hebei, China
2. Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney. POBox 123,
Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. jielu@it.uts.edu.au
192 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

technologies, a whole new set of challenges and opportunities are made available
for the tourism industry, including travel, accommodation, and tourist destination
organizations. In the last few years, both tourism suppliers and tourism agencies
have started to offer their products and services directly online. They have thus
obtained benefits in reducing service costs, providing more effective service and
attracting customers. Web-based technologies are also facilitating tourists to access
useful and up to date information, search tourist product catalogues, and make
variable bookings.
Tourism E-commerce in developed countries has been studied. For example,
Rita (2000) reported the promotion and management of tourism destinations
through web-based destination marketing system by analysing ten European web-
sites. Cano and Prentice (1998) proposed a communication concept for the design
and management of websites for tourism businesses and presented tourism web-
sites developed in Scotland. Standing and Vasudavan (2000) explored the levels of
planning and strategies used by Australian travel agencies when investigating the
use of the web. Burgess et al. (2001) explored the level of uptake of the web as a
marketing tool by businesses in the regional tourism industry sector in Australia.
The Chinese tourism industry has developed its online services and obtained some
initial experience. China, as a developing country, has a different tourism E-com-
merce development environment, barriers, challenges and requirements that are
indicative of a developing country compared to these of a developed country.
However, there is no research into the classification and evaluation of tourism web-
sites in China. Although in the case of general website assessment, some publica-
tions of results do exist but they do not specifically address tourism websites in
developing countries.
The objectives of this study are to explore the distribution and classification
of tourism websites (online services), evaluate the development of tourism web-
sites and identify existing problems. The main research methods used in the study
include a questionary survey, a web search and a web master interview. The find-
ings of the study are expected to assist Chinese government tourism administrative
departments and tourism website providers to understand current user require-
ments and to support planning for further tourism website development, particu-
larly, to help the implementation of ‘Golden Tourism Project’.
Following the introduction, website evaluation methods and frameworks are
reviewed in Section 2. Section 3 presents the research methods used in the study.
Section 4 explores the distribution, classification and functionality for tourism web-
site development in China. Section 5 assesses user satisfaction, consisting of two cat-
egories : information of contents and ease of use. Principal barriers and challenges
to tourism organizations in the development of online tourism services in China are
discussed in Section 6. Section 7 is the conclusions. This study does not distinguish
websites and E-commerce websites, as the methods for website evaluation can also
be employed for E-commerce website evaluation (Hahn and Kauffman, 2002).
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 193

1. WEBSITE EVALUATION FRAMEWORKS AND MODELS

E-commerce website evaluation has been studied and many research frame-
works and models have been proposed, such as Rayman-bacchus and Molina
(2001), Kaukal et al. (2000). These studies used various research approaches, such
as survey, web search (observation), case study and conceptual modelling, to con-
duct research into E-commerce websites assessment models, evaluation frame-
works, cost benefit analysis and customer satisfaction measurement. It has been
found that websites are increasingly being measured not only with the use of com-
puter-to-computer techniques but also with business values and customer satisfac-
tion. In general, website evaluation research results can be categorised into four
classes : (1) application functionality evaluation ; (2) cost benefit analysis ; (3) cus-
tomer (user) satisfaction assessment ; and (4) success factors identification.
The websites functionality evaluation focuses on online service functions pro-
vided by E-commerce websites. Most such evaluation frameworks and models are
from a customer perspective to investigate the extent, scope and comprehensiveness
of the online offering. Some authors such as Elliot (2000) and Lu et al. (2001) address
general functions provided by websites. Elliot (2000) proposed a website functional-
ity evaluation framework which consists of six categories each with five elements
which in principle reflect a growing level of sophistication. The first category is com-
pany information, the second category is about product and service information and
promotion, the third category is transaction processing, the fourth one is customer
services, the next one is ease of use and the last one is innovation in services and
technology. Lu et al. (2001) gave a seven-function evaluation model and used the
seven functions as criteria to classify websites. Another set of studies focus on web-
site development in specific industries. For example, Barnes and Vidgen (2000)
reported an evaluation result of Internet bookshop websites. Through data analysis,
the research examined the validity and reliability of bookshop websites and provid-
ed an interpretation of the results. Standing and Vasudavan (2000) analysed the func-
tionality of the travel agencies’ websites in Australia, and investigate the marketing
models used and the types of information provided by these websites. Literature
review also shows that some research attempts to identify the relationships between
the functionality and customer satisfaction such as Rehesaar (2001). The main pur-
pose of these studies is to identify which E-commerce application function is partic-
ularly important for attracting customers and improving customer satisfaction.
Cost benefit analysis is one of the popular methods to evaluate an informa-
tion system. As an E-commerce application is a kind of information systems, many
researches have attempted to identify main cost benefit factors and conduct cost
benefit analysis for E-commerce applications such as Lu (2001) and Brown (2002).
The core cost factors identified in Lu (2001) include the expense of setting up E-com-
merce, maintaining E-commerce, Internet connection, hardware/software and rapid
technology changes. The core benefit factors include accessing a greater customer
194 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

base, broadening market reach, lowering of entry barrier to new markets, alternative
communication channel, increasing services, enhancing perceived company image
and gaining competitive advantages. There are also some studies addressing the
evaluation of E-commerce investments such Dohety and McAulay (2002) and
Mehler-Bicher (2002). The evaluation for business value of E-commerce is discussed
in literature as well. For example, Lee et al. (1999) proposed a framework for eval-
uating business value of B2B E-commerce. One of the main differences between E-
commerce applications and traditional information systems is that E-commerce
applications can be operated by both internal and external users. E-commerce appli-
cations will thus benefit both suppliers and customers. This issue has attracted atten-
tion too. For example, Poon (1999) explored the E-commerce benefit for partner
firms, competitors, suppliers and customers.
Customer satisfaction (user satisfaction) as an important aspect to evaluate
websites has prompted the research community to explore how to measure and
model it. Customer satisfaction is positively related to the provision of customer
needs (Woodroof and Kasper, 1998). Web-based E-commerce applications are alter-
ing the ways in which businesses operate and interact with customers. In general, an
E-commerce application fits within three classifications : pre-sale phase which focus-
es on attracting customers, online sale phase which makes the E-commerce trust-
worthy and dependable, and after-sale phase which should obtain customer satis-
faction by meeting demand and pleasing customers (Liu and Arnett, 2000). Recent
studies have found that convenient site design and financial security had a signifi-
cant effect on customer assessment for E-commerce applications. Lu and Zhang
(2002) proposed a set of criteria to assess customer satisfaction, including informa-
tion content satisfaction, usability satisfaction, security satisfaction, convenience sat-
isfaction, efficiency satisfaction and flexibility satisfaction. Each of the factors may
imply more detailed criteria. For instance, usability satisfaction involves user satis-
faction in information up-to-date, clear language style and links to appropriate
resources. E-service website format design, facilitated browsing, search engine pro-
vided, accessing speed and customer control of a transaction process are considered
as sub-criteria for convenience satisfaction. However, companies have become
aware that while an E-commerce application can be technically successful, but still
be considered a failure if their customers are dissatisfied with the services (Trepper,
2000). Customer satisfaction has become one of the dominant factors for the success
of an E-commerce application.
Liu and Arnett (2000) proposed a framework to identify website success fac-
tors. Through completing a survey of 1 000 website masters, four factors that are
critical to website success were identified : information and service quality, system
use, playfulness and system design quality. More recently, Al-Mashari and Al-Sanad
(2002) lists a number of critical success factors for E-commerce through analysing
several reported case studies of successful E-commerce applications. Totally 14 suc-
cess factors were identified based on an analysis for the case Dell (www.dell.com).
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 195

These factors include user-friendly web interface, top management support, main-
taining strong links with customers and suppliers, powering website with strong
search engine, ensuring customer acceptance, and providing up-to-date informa-
tion. From an E-marketing point of view, Rita (2000) indicated that successful web
marketing requires an articulated approach to three critical tasks : website design,
promoting the website and assessing the website marketing effectiveness.

2. RESEARCH METHODS USED IN THIS STUDY

This study involves website function evaluation, customer satisfaction

assessment and website success factor identification. It is completed based on three
data collections : (1) a questionnaire based survey aimed at getting feedbacks from
tourism website users ; (2) a web search for tourism websites which has a registered
name including the word ‘tourism’ (Chinese ‘LUU YOU’), such as ‘Tangshan
Tourism’ and ‘Hebei Tourism Windows’ ; (3) a detailed online website study for
15 selected tourism websites in Hebei province, China.
The questionnaire was designed to include 20 questions that consist of three
parts : (1) user personal information ; (2) user requirements, behaviour and attitude
in visiting tourism websites ; (3) user satisfaction and dissatisfaction for current
tourism website development in China. Basically, user satisfaction is based on two
groups of evaluation criteria : ‘information content’ and ‘ease of use’ (Smith 2001,
Woodroof and Kasper, 1998). Information content is the assessment of information
provided on the website. Ease of use includes website format design, facilitated
browsing, accessing speed and customer control of a transaction process. The two
criteria are used in the study.
The survey was conducted in several typical tourism companies and popu-
lar Internet cafe clubs in Shijiazhang city (capital city of Hebei Province) from 15 to
30 May 2001. The subjects were Internet cafe club members and registered cus-
tomers in selected tourism websites. The Internet cafe club members were experi-
enced Internet users. They had high information requirements and had visited
many tourism websites. They thus could describe more user requirements and give
valuable suggestions for tourism website design. The registered tourism website
customers had long and sustained experience in receiving online tourism services.
They therefore could give a more fair evaluation, and could effectively identify cur-
rent practical problems for online tourism services. Questionnaires were given to
subjects by email or by individual physical handouts. A total of 290 questionnaires
were sent out, and 196 complete responses were obtained. These responses were
recognized as ‘tourism website users’ in the study.
As the second data collection method, a tourism website search was com-
pleted by a research group from 8am to 12pm on 3 November 2001. In total,
2,710 Chinese websites were selected with the word ‘tourism’ from those listed in
the Yahoo and 263.net. A systematic strategy was then used to remove all websites
196 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

that were not relevant to the tourism activities and behaviour of tourists, such as
‘Tourist shoes factory web’. Finally, from the 2,710 websites, 912 tourism websites
were identified for the study. However, some tourism websites were not included
as they did not have the word ‘tourism’ as part of their registered name. From the
912 websites identified, relevant data were collected for the study during 4 to
24 November 2001.
Finally, a total of 15 tourism websites were randomly selected from those
tourism websites registered in Hebei province. The 15 tourism websites belonged
to nine cities (regions) of twelve Hebei province cities. The research group tested
web information and service functionality presented in the 15 websites. The group
also evaluated these websites and contacted several web masters in order to iden-
tify existing problems in tourism website development.

3. FUNCTIONALITY AND CLASSIFICATION OF TOURISM WEBSITES IN CHINA

3.1. Tourism website development

Websites in China has enjoyed rapid development in last few years. On 30 June
2002, the number of websites has been more than 2,900,000, and the number of
Internet users has been 45,800,000 in China (CNNIC, 2002). The Chinese government
plans to have B2C’s revenue of 80 billion RMB (10 billion US$) by 2005, an increase
of 200 %, and B2B’s revenue 800 billion RMB (100 billion US$), an increase of 50 %.
China has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world,
attracting a large number of visitors. In 2001, China received 333,200,000 tourists
and was listed in the top five tourist destinations in the world (Australia Daily,
2002). Both international and local tourists can get information and services
through accessing the web. According to results presented in CNNIC (2001), 12.5 %
of Internet users indicated that one of the main purposes of accessing the Internet
is to get tourism (and travel) related information in China. In order to enhance
China’s participation in the global tourism marketplace, the Chinese government
has proposed a series of development strategies to encourage tourism businesses
to move their services online. Currently, the Chinese government is investing in the
tourism industry towards developing a ‘Golden Tourism Project’. One of the main
aims of this project is to evaluate online tourism services. A strong feeling amongst
tourism companies is that they cannot be perceived as market leaders if they do not
have a web presence. They thus are making efforts to move more business activi-
ties online to best meet customer requirements for online services. They believe
that online services are attracting customers and guiding their tourism activities.

3.2. Tourism websites distribution

The research results shown in this section are mainly based on the web
search completed in the study. Figure I shows the distribution of the 912 selected
tourism websites in China. It can be found that tourism websites were distributed
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 197

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Figure I.– Distribution of tourism websites in 31 provinces of China.

in all 31 provinces of China. (Taiwan and Hong Kong are not included for this
study.) The diffusion of tourism information has played an important role in trans-
forming neutral resource advantages to marketing advantages. It also can be found
from Figure I that the level of regional economic development has a significant
impact on the construction of local websites. From the 912 selected websites, 67 %
are distributed in Southeastern coastal of provinces as these regions have higher
levels of economic development. Five coastal provinces (Beijing, Shanghai,
Shandong, Guangdong, and Zhejiang) have more than 50 tourism websites.
In order to explore the significance of tourism website development, the
study also analyses the relationships between the level of local economic develop-
ment, (particularly tourism economic development), the number of websites, and
the number of web users from the data of CNNIC (2001). The results (Figure II) show
that local tourism economic development is relevant to the average consumption

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Figure II.– The relationships between regional distribution of web users, tourism websites average
consumption level, and tourism income/GDP.
198 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

level and tourism income/GDP. The correlation coefficient between the distribution
of users and tourism income is 0.88695. The distribution of users and average con-
sumption level is 0.89156, and the distribution of tourism websites and tourism
income is 0.94705.

3.3. Tourism website classifications

There are different approaches to classify tourism websites (Woodroof and
Kasper, 1998). This study classifies the 912 websites by two approaches : the type
of website provider and the type of online services. Based on China’s situation, the
type of website provider is identified as government tourism administrative depart-
ment, tourism agent, accommodations, tourist destination (attraction) organiza-
tions, personal and IT network company. The type of online services include sin-
gle-type services by tourism supplier (such as a hotel website ‘24-hotel.com.cn’),
intermediary services (such as a tourism agency website), and regional compre-
hensive websites (such as HuaXia tourism website ‘www.ctn.com.cn’ and Hebei
tourism windows ‘www.hebeiwindows.com.cn’).
Figure III lists the statistical results of each type of website provider. The result
indicates about 64.58 % of tourism websites were built by tourism destination organ-
izations, 16.56 % by accommodation and only 8.55 % by travel agents. Figure IV
shows the second classification. About 53.83 % websites were regional comprehen-
sive websites which offered a wide range of region-based online services, and about
10.37 % provided single-type services. Combining the two classification results, it is
found that the majority of tourism website providers are regional tourism destination
organizations that mainly provide comprehensive regional tourism information and
online services. An example of such an organization is ‘Tianguishan Tourism’.
‘Tianguishan’ is a tourism destination. The ‘Tianguishan Tourism’ is the registered
name of the Tianguishan Tourism Company website. This website provides a wide
range of services to different types of tourists, including attractions, accommodations
and events in the Tianguishan area.

3.4. Tourism website functionality analysis

Based on Lu et al. (2001), an online tourism service can be characterized
under seven functions : (1) general tourism service information publicity ; (2) adver-
tising tourism product/service (E-catalogue is a good example, it allows tourists to
browse and search online) ; (3) advertising tourism product/service with price infor-
mation ; (4) email enquiry for tourism information and service ; (5) online booking
for tourism product and service ; (6) on-line payment ; and (7) tourism website reg-
istration with user ID. Each website may offer one or more functions. Each function
consists of a number of sub-factors. Table I shows the functions provided by the 912
websites. It was found that there were 587 (64 %) websites presenting scenic infor-
mation. About 15 % of websites provided tourism news, and 10 % offered special
local products and souvenir information. About 26 % of websites provided email
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 199

Classification by provider type

IT Network company, 0.11

Personal, 0.3

Tourism destination
Provider

organization, 64.58

Accommodation, 16.56

Travel agents, 8.55

Series 1

Government tourism department, 9.87

%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Figure III.– Classification for tourism websites by provider types.

Classification by service type

Others, 9.38

Regional comprehensive
service, 53.83
Service

Intermediary service, 26,42

Series 1

Single-type service, 10.37

%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Figure IV.– Classifications for tourism websites by service types.

addresses to allow customers to make enquiries about products and services. Only
4 % provided brochures, maps and other associated tourism information. This is a
weak aspect when compared with developed countries.
The third function is similar to the second one, but it has a more effective
way of attracting potential customers to buy tourism products and services as it pro-
vides prices. However, for some businesses, it is difficult to present product/serv-
ice prices on the web, for example, for tour guide and language translators.
200 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

Table I.– Distribution of functions of tourism websites in China.

Main functions General Sub factors Factors No. of websites %

Publicity : providing basic Web Presentation Information of attractions 587 64.34
presence and publishing Tourism news 139 15.24
information about the company Policies 74 8.11
Tourism notice 94 10.31
Number of visitors 156 17.10
Sharing Visitor’s book 156 17.11
Language translation 97 10.63
Supporting Online query 238 26.09
Online survey 110 12.06
Building friendship 315 34.54
Finding missing people 8 0.88
Maps 39 4.27
Tourism research 77 8.44
Call for advertisement 37 4.05
Investment service 18 1.97
Online vacancy advertisement 35 3.83
Others 4 0.44
Advertising Product/Service : Tourism activity 40 4.38
publishing information about Special local products and souvenir 96 10.52
products and services without Market information 54 5.92
prices Personal tourism articles 127 13.92
Tourism guide 74 8.11
Tourism line 221 24.23
Advertising Product/Service Transport price 297 32.56
with Price Information : Hotel price 309 33.88
providing price information Tourism package price 216 23.68
Tourism activity price 64 7.02
Souvenir price 58 6.36
Entrance ticket price 106 11.62
Email Enquiry and Interaction : Providing contact email 378 41.44
providing email addresses to Online exchanging experience 165 18.09
allow customers to make Online complain 81 8.88
enquiries about the web page, Online forum 36 3.94
products and services Information feedback 259 28.39
Email Booking : allow customers Online ordering and booking (with an offline payment) 233 25.54
to make bookings via email but Online shopping (with an offline payment) 79 8.66
the payment is still carried out
using a conventional method
On-line Payment : allowing online Online ordering/booking and payment 11 1.21
payment with credit cards Online shopping 8 0.88
Registration with ID : use Member application (form) 317 34.76
registration schemes to provide Website registration 21 2.30
customers with an account ID Special service for registered member 11 1.21
for direct purchase
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 201

25 % of the websites offered online bookings, including room bookings and

ticket bookings, but only 1.21 % accepted online payment. This meant that compa-
nies allowed customers to make a booking by e-mail, but payment was still carried
out by conventional methods. Because of security problems, credit cards are not
popular in China.
Many tourism companies (34 %) were using the web to build customer rela-
tionships by having customers register directly, and then getting information from
customers to create customer profiles that can be used in new tourism product
development. Some tourism companies in China have started to build information
partnerships for providing cooperation between tourism companies and tourism
agents for better service to customers. In particular, in order to improve online serv-
ice quality, some companies are creating a specialized information system accord-
ing to the profile of users. Figure V shows the statistic results of 15 functions which
were offered by more than 15 % of websites.

4. USER EVALUATION FOR TOURISM WEBSITES

4.1. User identification for tourism website success factors

The results presented in this section are mainly based on the questionnaire
survey. The questionnaire presents the question ‘what is the most important factor
for a tourism website success ?’. About 32.5 % of responses indicated that the most
important factor was ‘providing a large amount of up to date and attractive infor-
mation’, followed by ‘high access speed’, ‘good interactive/interchange functions’
and ‘refinement/exquisite page design’. The result shown in Table II means that

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Figure V.– The number and percentage of 15 functions offered by selected websites.
202 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

Table II.– Users’ identification for tourism website success factors.

Success Factors Respondent (%)

Providing a large amount of helpful, up to date and attractive information 32.5
High access speed 30
Good interaction functions between users, and users and suppliers 22.5
Refinement page and interface design 13.8
Others 1.2

users were referring to the information content of tourism websites. Therefore

information provision should be the most important issue for website design.
Table II shows that about 13.8 % of users thought that ‘refined page design’
was the most important factor for tourism website success. The result indicates that
web page design influences users in receiving the online services provided.
However, many tourism websites in the survey only presented a pretty interface
and did not have a clear promotional direction and a customer-oriented design.
They thus could not help users in finding ‘where to go’, ‘where to stay’, ‘what to do’,
‘how to get there’, and, in general, plan a trip. As one customer mentioned in the
survey, some sites have lost the characteristics of a tourism website and made users
feel that the site was not very helpful, trustworthy, dependable or reliable.

4.2.User dissatisfaction factors of current tourism websites

The research also identified the ‘user dissatisfaction’ factors of current
tourism websites. The results are shown in Table III. About 35 % of responses were
unsatisfied with the low searching speed of sites. While 31 % of responses were
unsatisfied with the lack of information on tourism websites. A number of respon-
dents particularly indicated that they could not get the useful information they
required from tourism websites.
Slow accessing speed was a major problem and web users in China com-
plained about this. The main reasons for having such a low speed in China are (1)
the narrow bandwidth cannot meet the requirements of complex information such
as photos ; (2) there are many users accessing the same data at the same time ; and
(3) relevant networking technology problems, such as software architecture, search
engine algorithms and server output channels, still need to be solved. Therefore,
the development of tourism websites requires more effective technical support and
improved regional infrastructure construction.

4.3. User evaluation for ‘information content’ of tourism websites

User evaluation for ‘information content’ ensures that the information pro-
vided on the web is useful, up-to-date, and can meet customer needs and link rel-
evant sites to users. In response to the question ‘what are the main purposes to visit
tourism websites ?’, ‘to get information’ obtained the highest rating. For the ques-
tion ‘what is the most popular online service on tourism websites ?’, ‘providing
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 203

Factors Dissatisfaction Respondent (%)

Table III.– User dissatisfaction factors
Search speed Slow 35.07
of tourism website.
Information Lack 31.17
ISP service Poor 15.64
Security Poor 8.35
Easy to use Not 6.16
Connection fees High 2.00
Others dissatisfied 1.43

information’ has listed first. Therefore, as obtaining information is still the main aim
of web users, improving the quality and level of web information presentation and
management are major tasks for current tourism website development.
Page design, associate information, target user service, information dynam-
ic/update, and information integrity are the factors of information content used in
the survey. The main aspects of dissatisfaction in page design are unclear classifi-
cation for content and not user-oriented design. In associated information provi-
sion, there is a lack guidance and information in maps, healthcare, culture and law.
No clear targeted user service and poor information updates and integration were.
About 24 % of responses indicated that tourism information provided in tourism
websites did not meet their requirements.
In general, a tourism activity involves the six basic tourism elements : eating,
accommodation, travelling, wandering, relaxation, and shopping. Tourism website
users would like to get relevant information for the six elements from a destination
website before they go on tour. Tourism websites thus should be built with suffi-
cient links to other relevant sites and have the ability to develop various packages
that integrate a group of relevant services. However, through testing the selected
websites, the reality is that most tourism websites do not have links to relevant sites
or they only have implemented an overly simplistic page. For example, from a
national park website, customers can only find a list of local hotels but there is no
link to a hotel website. The name of the hotel does not allow for a direct booking
and this complicates planning.
Today, the number of business tourists and private tourists are rapidly
increasing in China. The two categories of tourists have different travel purposes
and requirements concerning travel, accommodation, tourism activity and time
duration. Tourism websites are expected to offer services to different target groups
of tourists. However, most tourism websites in China only focus on private tourists,
or do not specify their target groups. Obviously, some websites should focus on
customers and some should focus on private tourists, and some on both. For exam-
ple, an industry exhibition activity or a conference center website should concen-
trate on business tourists, a zoo website should focus on private tourists and a hotel
should cater for both.
Like any type of information system, the key factor for developing a success-
ful tourism online application is to correctly define user requirements. Some tourism
204 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

websites are not satisfactory due to ill-defined requirements that do not meet the
expectations of users. E-commerce technology is still a new experience for most
tourism managers and tourists. The tourism organization managers cannot clearly
define expectations and do not have enough online service experience and online
service feedback from their customers. Therefore, website developers have to be
leaders in the process of defining user (external customer) requirements. The pres-
ent situation is one of the main reasons for user dissatisfaction with many aspects of
current tourism websites.

4.4. User evaluation for ‘ease of use’ of tourism websites

‘Ease of use’ includes tourism website format design, customer support,
website linking, facilitated browsing, software download, search engine provision,
accessing speed and user control of a transaction process.
Allowing users to email requests and replying to questions on time is an
important function in websites design and an effective way to attract online cus-
tomers. This is also a strategy of business management. As shown in Table I, 26.9 %
of tourism websites had such a service, but only very few sites provided answers
for frequently asked questions and some sites cannot feedback user on-time.
The weakness in website links was identified as another dissatisfaction issue
in the survey. Most of the selected tourism websites in the survey have built in links
with relevant sites for users. For example, ‘travel.tom.com’ builds enough links with
relevant websites such as attractions, local transport and hotels. However, the lev-
els of links in these sites are quite different. The largest link number of a tourism
website is 102 and the smallest link number is five. In general, there was a lack of
linking between relevant tourism sites.
An interaction function is important to allow users to share experiences, cap-
ture valuable information and take part in consultations. In the survey, ‘good infor-
mation interaction’ was identified as the third most important factor for a success-
ful tourism website. A lot of users are interested in online chat, online consultation
and email facilities. The results show that users prefer a combination of information
content (such as a tourism guide) and community involvement (such as web con-
sultation). Normally, customers like to get other opinions of scenic places before
they go on tour. They thus wish to talk with other tourists via the websites. Tourism
websites are expected to provide an interactive space to customers and service
providers. Customers would like to share ideas, experiences, opinions and sugges-
tions with others online. They then can get a clear picture and relevant information
of the destination they are planning. In Australia, ‘Join a chat’ has been a very com-
mon feature of tourism websites and many websites also provide several chat cat-
egories. For example, a tourism website lists hobbies, recreation, sport, and health
in the chat category.
It is very weak in online booking, ordering and payment in China. The sur-
vey results show that some tourism websites did not have online booking facilities.
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 205

Users have to make a phone call or fax for booking. Another problem is online
security for payment.

5. EVOLUTION AND BARRIERS TO ONLINE TOURISM WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT IN

CHINA

A total of 15 tourism websites were randomly selected from those tourism

websites that registered in Hebei province. The research group tested web service
functionality presented in the 15 websites and contacted several web masters of
these websites. ‘Hebei Tourism Windows’ and ‘Qin Huang Dao Web’ are two high
quality tourism websites in the 15 selected sites. The two websites have had fea-
tures of user-oriented design. From the main page tourists can get the information
about Hebei and Qin Huang Dao tourism. If you plan to have a trip, you can get
information about how to get there, which place to go, where to stay and what kind
of things to do. The six tourism elements have been combined to present to web
users, containing information about attractions such as beach and coast, cities,
national parks, rivers, lakes and mountains ; accommodation such hotels ; relax-
ation such as sports and arts ; food and shopping, local festivals and events, exhi-
bition and conventions.
Business website development typically begins simply and evolves with the
addition of features as the site takes on more functionality and complexity (Trepper,
2000). Under the evolution model proposed in Lu and Zhang (2002), this study tests
15 selected Hebei tourism websites. The report shows that about 14 % websites
were still at stage 1, 26 % at stage 2, 40 % at stage 3, 20 % at stage 4 and none at
stage 5. Figure VI shows the results. Figure VI also shows that the evolution of
tourism website design is from simple to comprehensive, from isolated to linked,
from static to dynamic that is from read-only to operationable, from single-direction
information flow to double-direction information flow, and from limited functions
to more functions.
Through contacting website providers, this research investigates the current
barriers to the adoption of web technology in the Chinese tourism industry from
three aspects : technical, financial and organizational.

% (No.) Simple Isolated Static Single-flow Limited functions

Stage 1 14% (1)
Stage 2 26 % (4)
Stage 3 40 % (6)
Stage 4 20 % (2)
Stage 5 0 (0)
Comprehensive Linked Dynamic Double-flow Full functions

Figure VI.– The distribution of tourism websites in evolution stages.

206 NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 3-4, 2002

The main technical barrier is the lack of E-commerce application develop-

ment technology and experienced staff. Tourism companies requiring complex
transaction systems are adopting new technology, but also require a new business
model along with the technology (Standing and Vasudavan, 2000). Many tourism
companies have difficulties in setting up online services and have a lack of in-house
expertise and experience in ensuring transaction security.
Investment includes web development costs, operating costs, staff training
costs and web maintenance costs. The cost of training and educating staff, and
switching from a manual system to an online system restricts many small tourism
companies. Researchers have indicated that training and education are important
issues for the electronic market, travel agencies are not prepared to invest in this
area however. In China many tourism agencies are very concerned about cost
issues and feel that they lack expertise to make judgements on investment. Some
companies think they do not obtain sufficient benefits from online services.
On organisational side, many website providers demonstrate a lack of plan-
ning for E-marketing development. There is a lack of cooperation with business
partners and a failure to come to terms with changing traditional organizational cul-
ture to support the requirements of online services. These organizations have
become aware of the importance of tourist requirements, forming an online tourism
service network, and implementing systems that enable cost-effective production
of personalized packages.

CONCLUSIONS

Online tourism services have been developing in China for several years.
However, many aspects of online tourism services need to be improved. This study
investigates online tourism service development in China from three perspectives :
the tourism website, the tourism website user and the tourism website provider
(organizations). From a website perspective, the study finds that there is a higher
percentage in the regional compressive websites developed by government tourism
departments. These websites aim to provide services, not to conduct business,
which is different from websites hosted by companies. From an E-government point
of view, these websites will be a part of E-government. However, most tourism web-
sites have only implemented basic functions, providing information and email reser-
vations. Very few websites can perform online transactions. As most tourism web-
sites are available only in Chinese, they can thus only provide services to local
tourists and lost a place in global market. From the users’ side, the difficulties are low
Internet access speed. The main unsatisfactory aspects are poor web information
provision and a lack of interactive support. As an example, many accommodations
have not built their own websites but only provided information on an isolated web-
site such as a city site. This makes information update very difficult and users have
to make an offline booking and payment. Tourism organizations see the impact of
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION IN THE CHINESE TOURISM INDUSTRY 207

the web as being significant to the industry, but they have not utilised it as a major
catalyst for change. Most of them have not adopted the web as a strategic initiative
with transformational capabilities. From the tourism organizations interviewed, their
businesses have not obtained obvious benefits from the website but they have
invested in the project.
The primary limitation of this study is that data were gathered from the users
of Shijiazhuang city only. Although Shijiazhuang is a typical middle-level city in
population and economic development the data provided are bounded by local
culture. Further studies could focus on two aspects : (1) to build a three-dimension
framework for exploring the relationships between the results obtained from the
tourism website, the tourism website user and the tourism website provider ; (2) to
conduct performance evaluation of tourism websites in selected websites. The per-
formance evaluation can be used to find a way to improve the business process that
customers can participate in improving business performance.

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