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This study investigates how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) information is communicated on the websites of tourism firms in Tanzania. Specifically, the study assesses the quantity, prominence and style of presentation of CSR information on the websites. Data was collected through a content analysis of the websites of the member firms of the Hotel Association of Tanzania (HAT) and Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO). The findings reveal that about 50% of tourism firms disclose their CSR information on their websites. Also, about 57% of tourism firms disclose a minimal amount of CSR information (1 to 2 pages), 31% place their CSR information prominently on the homepage, 54% present their CSR information using textual format only and 38% of websites allow interaction with stakeholders for inquiries and feedbacks. Moreover, the study highlights that hotels are more effective in utilizing websites for CSR communication than their tour operators, suggesting that firm size and industry subsectors influence variations in CSR communication practices. The findings imply that tourism firms in Tanzania recognize the crucial role of websites in corporate communication including CSR communication. However, tourism firms need to improve their CSR web communication by enhancing the volume, prominence, multimedia-rich content and interactivity of web-based CSR communications. Further research focusing on specific subsectors and exploring strategies for enhancing CSR communication on tourism websites could provide valuable insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Management Academy is the property of Uluslararasi Yonetim Akademisi Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Nowadays, virtual methods are among the most important and influential marketing instruments in various industries, such as medical tourism. This study aims to investigate the quality of Iranian hospitals' web pages and their association with the province's share of the medical tourism industry in Iran and the ownership type of hospitals. Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, the quality of hospitals' websites was investigated through a 36-item self-administered questionnaire which was validated, and its reliability was verified (Cronbach's alpha = 74%.). The questionnaire was categorized into three sections: hospital services and facilities, hospital's medical tourism-related services, and tourism information of the destination province. The census method was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using the independent t-test and analysis of variance in SPSS software (version 25), and a P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of, 102 hospitals with an IPD (International Patients Department) were included in the study, and 21.6% did not have an English-language page and were excluded from the study. The mean total score was 47 ± 7.5, indicating low-quality content. Public hospitals had lower quality scores than semi-private and private hospitals. The total quality score, information about the hospital and its services, and the score of information about medical tourism-related services were associated with the province's share of national medical tourism. Conclusion: According to the obtained results and the possible role of website quality in increasing provinces' medical tourism development, the IPD page on hospital websites should be revised and regularly updated to make them more informative for prospective medical tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism in rural areas has enjoyed increasing demand and experienced new forms of implementation. The expanding quantitative and qualitative development of high-quality agritourism establishments in South Tyrol/Italy is an interesting and exemplary case for the commercialisation of rural tourism. For this scope, we analysed the websites of seventeen high-quality agritourism businesses in this region. We studied, how they conduct the commercialisation of agricultural and touristic features and to what extent offers and services have been commodified. Our findings show in most cases very professionally managed websites that feature high-quality hotel-like facilities. At the same time, they provide significantly less information on farming and related activities. Thus, our results highlight the characteristics of this growing touristic commercialisation of high-quality (commercial) agritourism establishments. Furthermore, we discuss the implications for the objectives of this sector, in which authentic everyday experiences of agriculture and rurality are a crucial feature for the target groups and the perception of farming and the image of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anuario Turismo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Empresas Turísticas y Hoteleras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this research, it is aimed to compare the accessibility of the information on the web sites and learning outcomes subject to accreditation on the websites of Tourism Management Departments that were not accredited by the Tourism Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (TURAK) in 2022 in Turkey, but had the highest score in the Higher Education Institutions Examination (YKS).. In this context, the "Program Learning Outcomes" criterion, which is the third criterion among the determined to be accredited within the research dates, was taken into consideration when evaluating the curricula of tourism management departments of 7 tourism faculties affiliated to 7 different universities (February-June 2022) TURAK's criteria for evaluating higher education tourism programs. The top three non-accredited state colleges, which are the ones that students like most based on criteria with the highest scores, were identified in order to allow for comparison. Ten departments of tourist management in all were examined. Within the scope of the study, document analysis approach, one of the qualitative research designs, was used to conduct situation analysis. In this context, when the curricula and learning outcomes of accredited programs are examined, it is seen that the education/training and research/development infrastructure has been improved and has become more productive and more professional. However, it has been understood that accredited tourism management programs do not change the preference rates. Finally, when the web pages of accredited programs and non-accredited programs are compared, it has been concluded that the web pages of accredited programs are designed in a simple and accessible way, and that the relevant information is found where it should be, compared to non-accredited programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the fascination with the aesthetics of abandoned places has stepped into the limelight as a new form of tourism known as Urbex or Urban Exploration, which involves discovering abandoned places and reporting the exploration with documentary evidence on specialized websites and blogs. This paper aims to investigate online discourse on Urbex by analyzing how urban exploration is talked about in two different online spaces, i.e., interest-based communities where discussion about the activity of visiting abandoned places among members is fostered and encouraged (Reddit), and more public, monologic spaces, such as blogs and websites, where longer texts are produced with a more descriptive/commercial purpose. To reach this goal, a comparative analysis of keywords and selected key terms was carried out on two ad-hoc corpora, i.e., the Urban Website Corpus (UW-Corpus) and the Urban Reddit Corpus (UR-Corpus). Results show that the linguistic choices of urban explorers highlight the existence of tension between the core tenets and ethical principles of urban exploration - avoiding disclosure of exact location, focusing on sites disregarded by preservationists, awareness of legal repercussions for trespassing - and a shift towards a more mainstream, regulated type of activity. In the UR-Corpus, distinctive language forms suggest that Urbex aficionados constitute a discourse community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, cities are competing to become the global community’s choice in investment, trade, tourism, and partnerships. In this context, the redefinition of their communication strategy, especially at the digital level, has become an urgent challenge. On the other side, COVID-19 has directly impacted all facets of life and, particularly in the world of travel and tourism, has transformed into a communication crisis for cities. On this basis, this paper, using a methodology already proven on websites of different thematic areas, presents a descriptive, explanatory, and exploratory research on the websites of the 26 most visited cities in the world. Conceiving websites as the nerve center of cities communication strategy, the study has applied an analysis tool based on six variables (usability, interactivity, information offered, content typology and updating, social networks and transmedia content, and accessibility) and organized around 75 thematic categories. This made it possible to deepen among other topics, on how the city is shown through its digital channels, what and how it tells the story, and, very relevantly, how cities have tackled COVID-19 related information on their websites. The research highlights, among other aspects, a trend towards the mediatization of processes following routines typical of cybermedia, warning of the need to increase the role of websites as informative spaces on COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento (RT&D) / Journal of Tourism & Development is the property of Associacao de Gestao e Planeamento em Turismo da Universidade de Aveiro (AGPTUA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Online tourist reviews are widely used to identify and evaluate a wide variety of tourism-related products and services. Sustainable products and green services for all industries and workplaces; with the increasing environmental awareness, it has started to be applied in the most beneficial way for the society. The aim of this research is to determine how tourists evaluate green practices by examining the user comments on the TripAdvisor web site of the accommodation establishments in Turkey, which are evaluated by applying for the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certificate issued by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The basis of the study is to investigate the effect of LEED certification criteria and the perception of quality rather than determining tourist satisfaction. Content analysis and document review techniques were used in the research. 25 accommodation businesses that have applied for LEED certificate until April 2, 2022 constitute the universe of the research. 5 businesses could not be analyzed as they are not yet operational. WebHarvy Web Scraping Software and MAXQDA 2021 programs were used in the data collection process of the research. As a result of the content analysis, the main and sub-themes were formed by examining 10,954 tourist reviews of 20 accommodation businesses that have certificates and whose certificate applications have not been finalized yet. In accommodation establishments that apply LEED certification criteria; how energy saving practices, environmentally friendly designs and green services are perceived by tourists has been revealed. The "green hotel perception" of tourists was investigated by analyzing online tourist reviews about accommodation establishments through content analysis. The results reveal how accommodation businesses should implement a quality, qualified and environmentalist approach. According to the results of the research; it is suggested that how businesses should adopt auditable green practices to create environmentally friendly brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online communication (Web 2.0) is an important tool that can assist consumers in choosing a service and/or buying a product and, if used effectively, can help businesses to improve organizational performance. This is a study of the websites of a sample of 4,080 Italian agritourism farms, which focuses on the construction, utility, and relative maturity of these businesses. The study entails an exploration of how and where the organization of websites is effective for the promotion of the features of agritourism farms and is therefore essential for providing recommendations for decisionmakers in the Italian agritourism sector. To test the study hypotheses, an extended model of internet commerce adoption (eMICA) is used, which is adapted to include the information reported on each agritourism farm website. Chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) helps to analyze the differences in website design and vacation types on offer at the provincial level. The eMICA highlights the utility of using interactivity to measure the relative maturity of agritourism farm websites. In contrast, the CHAID decision tree shows how the diversification of vacation types is an important strategy for selling local agrifood products, especially to farm accommodation guests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyses Environmental Sustainability (ES) policies of the hotel industry in New Zealand (NZ) and compares them with a recognised global standard – the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Design/methodology/approach: The study considered ES policies of ten major hotel groups (consisting of 208 accommodation providers) in NZ and employed content data analysis using Leximancer software to identify the themes relating to ES and benchmark them against the GRI standards. Findings: Firms in the sample are lagging behind in regard to ES practices in comparison to GRI. Firstly, they did not follow the global standard guidelines strictly in reporting their environmental impact; secondly, they have not quantified the impact or related reductions to environmental damage and thirdly, they did not cover all relevant impact areas as outlined by the GRI in reporting some ES initiatives already in place. Research limitations/implications: The research findings are based on the content data from websites and their executions were not validated. In addition to GRI, there could be other global organisations that can be used for future research. Practical implications: This study confirms the prior research findings on environmental impact in NZ, induced by tourism-hospitality sector, and provides an opportunity for the practitioners to reflect upon and develop environmental policies in line with global practices such as GRI. Originality/value: Prior studies on analysing ES of the businesses in the hotel industry are scarce. To the best of our knowledge, no prior study has attempted to analyse online content data of the NZ hotel industry to examine sustainability policies and practices and compare them against any global standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical tourism has been seriously affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has become a huge threat to global economy. In mitigating this issue, attention needs to be given to the online promotional message strategy to boost medical tourism. However, there is a scarcity of work on medical tourism promotional discourse from the textual function perspective despite the considerable number of studies in other types of discourse. This study, therefore, aims to examine and compare the promotional discourse message strategies in Malaysia and Thailand's private hospital websites. The analysis was based on Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective, using Halliday & Matthiessen's model of textual analysis (2004) and Daneš' classification of thematic patterns (1974). A total of six webpages with three webpages of one Malaysian website and one Thai website were analysed in relation to theme type and thematic progression. The findings show that texts derived from the hospital websites in Malaysia and Thailand display similarities and differences pertaining to how the texts are organised in relation to their theme types and thematic patterns. Both websites from Malaysia and Thailand combined objectivity with subjectivity in choosing their themes and thematic progression since they have a preference for unmarked themes in combination with marked theme to inform and persuade readers. However, the Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC, Malaysia) website was direct and cohesive with its short texts and use of textual themes, while the message in Samitivej Hospital (SH, Thailand) website was more indirect, less compact, and less cohesive as the texts were rather lengthy and interspersed with interpersonal themes. The findings can be a guide for copywriters, website designers or medical tourism stakeholders to be aware of meaning-making strategies in promoting medical websites for medical tourism purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is a wide variety of tourism resources on the Internet. Tourism management departments must monitor these resources. At the same time, tourists must also retrieve personalized information that they are interested in. This requires a lot of time and energy. This essay studies and implements the tourism network resource monitoring system. The main work completed in the thesis proposes and constructs a topic collection algorithm and establishes a starting point, topic keywords, and a prediction mechanism. The algorithm includes three stages: the first climbing stage, the learning stage, and the continuous climbing stage. Open category directory search is used for similarity judgment and result evaluation. The experimental results show that with the continuous execution of the crawling process, the collection speed of related pages is getting faster and faster. We propose an algorithm for the extraction of wood based on the density of Internet tourism resources. The algorithm calculates the ratio of Internet tourism resource labels by row and uses a threshold extraction algorithm to distinguish area from private non-Internet tourism resource area. Experimental results show that the algorithm can successfully extract the main content of the article from a wide variety of web pages. This thesis takes the monitoring of tourism network resources as the research object and establishes a tourism network resource monitoring system, which can provide users with customizable, all-round, and real-time tourism network resource collection, extraction, and retrieval services so as to monitor tourism resources. The research results of this article can promote the construction of tourism informatization and can help users grasp the latest tourism information, thereby bringing great convenience to tourism. The system only downloads travel-related information through the use of topic collection technology, reducing the interference of irrelevant redundant web pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new analysis system for website quality evaluation is presented. It is characterized by its potential to interrelate and evaluate both technical and strategic aspects of a website. It has its origin in the premise that, although the technical aspects, which determine the website operability and functionality, have a great impact on its quality, they do not alone guarantee success. This approach differs from those commonly adopted by analysis systems for website quality evaluation, since most of them have been developed adopting a predominantly operational or functional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, it is aimed to determine the complaints of the tourists about the hotels and to evaluate the related complaints in certain categories. In this context, it has been identified and categorized the complaints of the tourists about the four and five star accommodation businesses located in the provinces (İstanbul, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Bursa, Balıkesir, Çanakkale, Yalova, Kırklareli, Edirne, Tekirdağ and Bilecik) in the Marmara Region which is one of the important tourism destinations of Turkey through the “şikayetvar.com” website. A list of the four-star (226 businesses) and five-star (161 businesses) accommodation businesses which are actively operating has been prepared by using the web pages of the cultural and tourism directorates of the relevant provinces and by communicating by phone. As a result of the analyzes, a total of 1.015 complaints have been identified about 385 of 387 four and five star hotels operating in the Marmara Region. The total number of views of the related complaints was 1.619.851 and the average display of a complaint was 1.596. The number of responds to the complaints by the accommodation businesses was 4. The complaints of the tourists were mostly related to the price policies (292 complaints), staff (255 complaints) and service quality (224 complaints) of accommodation businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social network management has become a key factor in developing tourism. Content generated on social networks can influence tourist choices, online reputation, sales and the very survival of the hotel establishment. In a study of 503 four- and five-star hotels in Andalusia, we analysed all the social networks used on their official websites to attract customers, and the potential factors (number of stars, modality, age of the establishment, size, chain hotel or otherwise) that could influence the number of visits and choice of destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution delves into the investigation of cohesive devices in original and translated texts by querying the impact of text and language typologies on the frequency of conjunctions (NUNES, 2014). Data was obtained in the Corpus de Língua Portuguesa em Tradução, a bilingual bidirectional parallel corpus in the language pair English-Brazilian Portuguese. The corpus is comprised of eight text types: research article, political speech, science popularisation, fiction, instruction manual, tourism leaflet, review and educational website. TreeTagger was used for POS tagging and R environment utilized to perform automatic word frequency and significance testing. The results showed highly above expected frequencies in reviews and in political speeches, thus corroborating explicitation hypotheses as to the frequency of cohesive marks in argumentative texts. Also, the explicitation hypothesis as to significantly above expected frequencies of conjunctions in translated texts and in the original and translated texts in Brazilian Portuguese was partially corroborated. Findings also showed relevance in statistically significant frequencies in fictional and educational website texts. As to the former, a tendency for the explicitation of conjunctions in original and translated texts in Brazilian Portuguese was revealed. Conversely, frequencies in the latter pointed to a tendency for the explicitation of conjunctive marks in translated texts in English. The findings mostly contribute to descriptive translation studies concerning language description of English and Brazilian Portuguese in their written modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to determine the role and importance of the tourist information and promotin centers from Bihor county taking into consideration the economic, social and cultural influence of tourism worldwide. These centers were established to provide tourists with the necessary and updated information regarding the tourist destination, thus to become a major part in the promotion of tourist attractions. The implemented methodology based on questionnaires helped us assess the role of these centers in the shaping of Bihor county tourist destination and the analysis of the existent web sites (8 out of 13 tourist centers have got one) gave us an insight into the significance of internet promotion as a powerful marketing tool of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Applying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools such as TrafficEstimate and Twitter Search, Google Trends, Alexa, SimilarWeb, SEMRUSH, SEO Analyzer, and Moz-Open Site Explorer; this research comparatively evaluates tourism websites of the government of India and of five Indian states. The criteria for selecting state websites are the number of Foreign Tourists Arrival (FTA). Using each SEO tool, individual rank is given first and then the mode of ranks is taken to give the final ranking to six tourism websites. Though there is literature available on evaluating Indian government (central or state) run tourism websites, there is no research available on comparing and ranking state government tourism websites in the Indian context, using Search Engine Optimization tools presented in this research. The result shows that the government of India's website www.tourism.gov.in ranks fourth. Tourism websites of three states i.e. Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu ranks first, second, and third respectively. Highlights • There is no prior study on applying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools to evaluate and compare tourism websites. • Government Tourism department's websites are informative but not as popular as privately run tourism websites such as www.tripadvisor.com • Out of six tourism websites evaluated, Delhi tourism website ranks first on selected SEO parameters. • West Bengal state tourism website ranks sixth while the Government of India's tourism website ranks fourth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following previous research on museum and tourism websites, this study focuses on the websites created by UNESCO sites located in France, Italy, and Spain to evaluate their information content and how it can influence their online popularity. Empirical evidence suggests the following: a) heritage sites basically create websites to provide general and touristic information; b) the use of interactive elements and on-sale platforms is limited; c) relevant touristic information, engaging contents, and interactive elements are necessary to reach online popularity, and d) access is usually obtained without passing through a search engine tool. Heritage sites are considered an important element attracting tourists to visit a destination; hence, there is an urgent need for managerial implications on the most effective communication strategy that must be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forum on Economics & Business / Közgazdász Fórum is the property of Hungarian Economists' Society of Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Medical Tourism is any kind of travel to make a person or a member of his family healthier (Raj, 2006). The word Medical Tourism was coined when people started looking outside west for cheaper medical treatment with international quality. It can be broadly defined as provision of 'cost effective' private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical care and other forms. Kerala has become one of the leading Medical Tourism destinations of India and gained international attention for health tourism and is becoming a popular health tourism hub. There are a number of speciality hospitals in Kerala that offer specialized care for complex medical conditions. Patients from all over the world are becoming medical tourist in Kerala for low cost and health restorative alternative treatments. Speciality hospitals in Kerala are at the forefront of Medical Tourism. Many of the hospitals offer a complete package that includes consultancy with a medical specialist, diagnosis, appropriative medical treatment, pre and post operative care etc. The quality of health care offered by the doctors, nurses and support staff, makes Medical Tourism in Kerala the preferred choice of patients seeking healthcare solutions in World. Kerala has an excellent track record in the fields of tourism and health care. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has declared 2006-2007 as Medical Tourism Year in Kerala and they organized an International conference and exhibition on Health tourism in 2013 at Kochi, Kerala. According to the CII-Mc Kinsy report Medical Tourism industry in Kerala is expected to be worth $4 billion by 2017. Confederation of Indian Industry along with Kerala Government is organizing an International Conference on Health Tourism 2015 at Le Meridian, Kochi, Ernakulam on 30-31of October 2015. The event aims to promote Kerala as the hub for Medical Tourism in the country by 2020. The competitiveness of Kerala in health tourism is enhanced by the attractiveness of the alternative systems of medicine, especially ayurveda, for the foreign tourists. Kerala is also known as land of Ayurveda for its traditional medicines which aim at providing rejuvenation, longevity and relaxation to stressed and strained. More over Kerala has a potential to attract tourists around the world due to its cultural diversity, perfect beaches and fabulous cuisine mixed with a pinch of oriental mysticism. Kerala and Ayurveda have virtually become synonymous with each other. World-class facilities are also available in the other traditional forms of medicine as well as modern medical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication that Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) address to destination stakeholders plays a central role in attracting attention and resources for sustainable destination development and disclosing the efforts made to be a sustainable territory. There has been extensive analysis on the role of official tourism websites that addresses both DMO's internal and external stakeholders. However, less exploration is available on the relationship between the contents disclosed through tourism websites and the strategic positioning of the destination. This study empirically examines that link with a focus on ‘green/sustainable/responsible' travel. Results show a positive association between the orientation to sustainability in online communication and both sustainable regulation of the tourism sector and tourism development. In contrast, there is no significant association with destination size, tourism maturity and pricing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Websites are an important communication tool in destination branding. This study analyses the relational nature of 87 official destination websites (ODWs) according to two parameters: interactivity, whose link to ODWs has been highlighted in several studies; and, the presence of the social web elements, increasingly necessary to achieve comprehensive, effective online communication, for instance blogs, microblogging platforms or social networks. The authors apply a methodology based on indicators from the Web Quality Index (WQI): a specific website analysis model for the tourism industry. The methodology provides a useful tool for examining and assessing how destination marketing organisations endow their websites with interactivity and connect them to the social media arena. The results show significant shortcomings in the websites for the aspects analysed, especially with regard to indicators linked to interactivity. Furthermore, the study suggests a series of measures that destination marketing organisations could adopt in order to remedy these shortcomings and optimise the relational aspects of their websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism & Management Studies is the property of Escola Superior de Gestao, Hotelaria e Turismo, Universidade do Algarve and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)