Tourism Destination Management Organization Website Usability: A Qualitative Evaluation Model

Abstract

It is currently unquestionable the influence of internet in the tourism industry, and it is already acknowledged the existence of a “digital” tourism market. However, it is noticeable that the tourist destinations have different levels of development of ICT Information and Communication Technologies. The aim of this study is to determine whether, in addition to the constraints inherent to the technological conditions, the Destination Management Organization (DMO) website usability can influence the demand for a tourist destination, and if there are different levels of digital satisfaction. From a qualitative assessment, we determined how the factors that restraint the website usability can be overcome by adjusting it to the needs and desires of the consumers and to propose recommendations that promote the websites usa bility improvement of the management organizations of the Tourist destinations and as well as ways to  improve digital  satisfaction. As a result of the research that was made it can be concluded that a DMO website is now the first vision of a tourist destination and the main source of information about it, from which positive or negative impacts can be derived. For these reasons, it is credible that the website usability has a fundamental role in tourist demand especially in the initial phase of trip or vacation preparation, that is, the website usability has impacts in the search for a tourist destination.