| Author: | Liang, Ru |
| Title: | Comparing and contrasting China-based and US-based hotel websites |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Hotels -- Computer network resources |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xxii, 182 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | As China becomes a member of WTO, China's hotel industry will speed up its openness to the world. The Internet and World Wide Web are becoming widely used in the hotel industry as the market demands. Based on the Functionality Performance Evaluation Model proposed by Chung & Law (2003), which consists of hotel website components including facilities information, customer contact information, reservations information, surrounding area information and management of website, this research is to evaluate the content of China-based hotel and US-based hotel websites, to compare the differences of website performances between two regions' hotels, and contrast the hotel websites' performances among different hotel categories. A focus group discussion was conducted to redefine the features of the Functionality Performance Evaluation Model and to rate the importance of the components. One hundred and eighty hotels were chosen in these two regions and for different categories on their sites. The evaluation was conducted for 180 hotel websites by two investigators. The scores of websites were used to compare and contrast the performance between two regions and among three hotel categories. Furthermore, the results of analysis by descriptive statistic, independent t-test, and ANOVA showed that the website performance of US hotels received higher scores than China hotels, and significant differences existed between these two regions. Additionally, there was no significant difference detected on the website performance scores among three categories of China hotels. The significant differences were existed on the websites between 3-diamond hotels and 5-diamond hotels. This result typically reflects that the website application of China-based hotels largely remained its features as an "electronic brochure", whereas the website application of US-hotels was already characterized with distribution and marketing tools. Though China hotels have been classified by a star-rating system in terms of facilities and services but the Internet and World Wide Web have been more and more important to hotel operation and customer demands. The study reflected that the performance of hotel websites is not reflected in the hotels' star-rating system in China. Therefore, China hotels need to be fully aware that the website should consider measure the website performance as a star-rating criterion. This study reveals the big disparity between China-based hotels and US-based hotels, and makes a contribution for China hotels to make full use of the advantages of the Internet. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b17176669.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 14.07 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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