EFEKTIVITAS PEMANFAATAN E-TOURISM SEBAGAI MEDIA PROMOSI DAN IMPLIKASINYA PADA PERENCANAAN DESTINASI PARIWISATA (Studi Kasus: Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata Sulawesi Utara)

The rapid growth of the Internet and the continual adoption of innovative technology have led to serious changes in the travel industry during the last decade. The use of website as promotional tourism tool is a computerized sytem implemented by North Sulawesi Government Tourism Office. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness use of website (e-tourism) as tourism promotional media of North Sulawesi. This type of study combine from the qualitative and quantitative reserach by ovservation, interviews, distributing questionaires and structured documentation. The efectiveness of e-tourism is measured by using Likert scale from questionnires distributed, web � based survey analysis, service quality : expectation vs delivery and evaluation of website. The research finding are the factors that influence the effectiveness of e-tourism based on user highest expectation for the etourism features are 1) destination information feature, 2) Information of arts and culture. The lowest three factor that not fit with user expectation are mutimedia, online support (human resources online service), MICE information and promotional events. The use of e-tourism in the tourism planing are very important, particulary in the application of marketing planning as a vital element. This research also get the fact that the use of e-tourism as promotional media North Sulawesi tourism has not archieve the maximum result, in other words less effective, especially for website content, less feature for promoting the tourism. However, e-tourism received a positive response from the user prespective, According to respondent, the e-tourism quite effective in providing information