A user-centered approach in the development lifecycle of ecommerce websites is nowadays a crucial factor in the success of any on-line business. The purpose of this paper is twofold: a) to identify the factors that affect e-commerce website usability and b) to analyze the role of those factors in increasing the effectiveness of ecommerce web sites. Furthermore, it presents the application of a ...

Nowadays the importance of websites to the tourism and hospitality industries is fundamental. Hotels, for instance, spend a huge amount of money improving their websites to show all the activities and amenities that they can provide. There are studies to evaluate website performance based on functionality, usability and other factors; nevertheless, they are not exhaustive. This paper presents a...

The fast technology and economic growth in China has attracted global attention in its tourism development. This study makes an effort on investigating China’s online tourism market and the Chinese online travelers’ perceptions of hotel websites. The findings are expected to better understand Chinese customers’ online preference and identified the differences among online travelers from differe...

Recent developments in information technologies (ITs), in particular the popularity of the Internet in the early 1990s, have changed the way that tourism businesses communicate with its customers and the way that promotion and sales of tourism products are conducted. Travel agencies with established websites are in a position to undertake productive marketing activities. This paper uses the ext...

This paper examines industrial relationships in the distribution channel of tourism. Distribution becomes one of the most significant elements of tourism marketing as it determines all other aspects of the marketing mix. This paper concentrates on the conflict experienced in the distribution channel between hoteliers and tour operators in the Mediterranean summer/seaside resort context. It atte...

In the past few years, the Smart Cities concept has become one of the main driving forces for the urban transition towards a low carbon environment, sustainable economy, and mobility. Tourism, as one of the fastest growing industries, is also an important generator of carbon emissions; therefore, the recently emerging sustainable tourism concept is envisioned as an important part of the Smart C...

Policy makers and tourism developers must understand visitors’ mobility behavior and how they consume space and tourism resources in order to set up sustainable cultural tourism destinations. With this in mind, it should also be pointed out that the mobility patterns of tourists in urban destinations are mainly located in the city center (spatial centrality), the analysis of which enables us to...