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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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Objectives: This paper assesses the quality of official tourist destination websites offered by Spain's regional tourism boards. Methodology: The system of assessment was designed by the research group Comunicación online de los destinos turísticos (Online Communication for Destination Brands, CODETUR) in the form of a template combining 12 parameters and 127 indicators to calculate a web quality index for each website and identify its strengths and weaknesses. Results: The quality of tourist destination websites offered by S pain's regional tourism boards was observed to be slightly above average, with an overall web quality index of 0.51 in which Galicia scored the highest (0.66) and Extremadura scored the lowest (0.33). Taken together, the Spanish websites scored highest in those areas the researchers had defined as technical, (0.75 for the parameter Usability and accessibility, 0.73 for Positioning and 0.69 for Web architecture) and scored lowest in those areas defined as relational (0.27 for Mobile communications and 0.28 for Interactivity) or as persuasive (0.29 for Commercialization). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Wide Web has become the primary instrument used by tourists in order to search for information. As a result, tourism websites pertaining to destinations need to be appealing and must convey their brand image in an appropriate, effective manner. However, there is no methodology in place to assess the quality and communicative effectiveness of destination websites that is scientifically sound and universally accepted. The development of such a methodology is one of the tasks we have proposed within the framework of the research project: "New strategies for advertising and promoting Spanish tourism brands online" (CSO2008-02627), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Method: The project team has developed an interdisciplinary, all-embracing analysis template combining certain automated analyses with other qualitative and quantitative ones. The template comprises a total of 12 subject areas and 154 indicators prepared on the basis of contributions from prominent experts in each of the fields of work. This article sets out the analysis methodology drawn up and possible applications are given. Results: The primary aim of the project is to provide an assessment methodology that would make it possible to optimise destination brand websites, thus providing a tool to support the work of public tourism destination managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous studies have identified different factors on hotel website functionality evaluation, the evaluation of the relative importance of these factors has not been empirically determined. This study adopted a sophisticated approach that analyzes the weights of hotel website functionality. This approach involved triangular fuzzy numbers and an analytic hierarchy process to develop a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model which prioritizes the relative importance of hotel website functionality criteria. First, 20 criteria for hotel website functionality evaluation were developed from a literature review and three focus group interviews. After that, a fuzzy AHP approach was used to examine the relative importance of the criteria and sub-criteria of hotel website functionality evaluation. As human judgments are often uncertain and vague, the use of fuzzy set theory, rather than exact numbers, enables us to capture decision-makers' uncertainty. Finally, the results indicated that “Reservation Information” is the most important criterion to hotel website functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study was designed to develop an instrument for evaluation of websites using the modified balanced scorecard (BSC) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and compare its differences between the hospitality and tourism area. For the first step, the 4 evaluation perspectives and critical success factors (CSFs) were developed based on the modified BSC and a literature review. For the second step, a final website evaluation instrument was constructed through AHP. Through these processes, the final instrument was developed. The results indicated that the two CSFs—user-friendliness and user security—appeared to be the most important factors for hospitality and tourism website among CSFs. Also, customer perspective was the most important of the 4 perspectives. The present study will help broaden knowledge about website evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper addresses the issue of communicating tourism crises, with a special focus on the role of the destination marketing organization's Web sites. The risks and impact of the avian flu on the mobility of people, and consequently therefore, on tourism has been addressed. Selected tourism destinations crisis communication strategies were investigated through their Web sites. The findings should (a) bring to the attention of tourism authorities the potential role that destinations' Web sites have in helping to prevent worldwide diseases and to compare different approaches adopted by different types of destinations, and (b) help governments, destinations and other stakeholders to understand the conditions necessary for communicating tourism crises and outbreaks by using their Web sites as effective tools to better share information among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to help tourism organizations enhance customer satisfaction (CS) for their websites and online services, this study develops a two layer supply-demand analysis model for tourism websites CS evaluation. This model is built based on the functionalities of tourism websites, and it mainly focuses on the CS evaluations from successful tourism websites applications. A number of tourism online service websites in Beijing, China, are taken as study cases for measuring and analyzing the supply-demand difference of online services presented in the model. The model can be used in regional tourism management to identify issues regarding the activity characteristics of tourism websites and to obtain suggestions to both customer satisfaction and tourism website provider profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research aims to employ Hofstede''s cultural dimensions as a frame to identify valid explanatory factors that account for differences in countries’ tourism websites. The study results support that Hofstede''s cultural dimensions can be a valuable tool for developing public relations strategies conducive to building and maintaining relationships with multicultural audiences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reviews the web site www.sidestep.com.

The article reviews the web site www.tripadvisor.com, a provider of online travel information from Expedia Inc.

The article reviews the web site Travel, Tourism, and Urban Growth in Greater Miami: A Digital Archive, which is maintained by the Otto G. Richter Library in Miami, Florida and is available at http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamidigital/.