Evaluating the Effectiveness of Destination Marketing Organisations \u27 Websites: Evidence from China

Despite the extensive use of the Internet as a marketing tool by Chinese destination marketing organisations (DMOs), few studies have been conducted to measure the effectiveness of Chinese DMOs\u27 websites. This study attempted to fill the gap by constructing a conceptual website evaluation model consisting of five dimensions of information, communication, transaction, relationship and technical merit. The proposed framework was tested to evaluate the effectiveness of each of the dimensions of 31 Chinese Provincial Tourism Administrations\u27 (PTAs) websites. The results indicated that overall, the PTAs in China were not using their websites effectively. Among the five dimensions, transaction and relationship dimensions were the weakest areas of Chinese PTAs\u27 websites. Great variation exists in the website effectiveness among different provinces. Suggestions and implications were provided and discussed. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd