Comparative analysis of Spanish tourist websites

Abstract

An analysis of the 430 hotel, tourist destination, travel agency, transport, restaurant and leisure activity websites offers a clear view of the communicative behaviour of Spanish tourism companies in terms of design, functionality and customer value. A tool containing 21 attributes related to e-commerce from a customer perspective has been constructed for measuring websites. The results obtained suggest significant interest in the websites’ design, with an emphasis on aesthetics: low levels of functionality in searches, in the development of e-commerce and in the low customisation of the offer; and little interest in transmitting customer value-added, i.e. customers are given scarce information on price and are, at the same time, directed straight to e-shopping. The transport sector and tourist destinations attain the highest overall rating, while traditional travel agencies and restaurants attain the lowest overall rating.