Abstract
As a sports activity with immense tradition, current offerings and future prospects, golfing represents a first-rate tourist resource. In choosing golfing destinations, tourists rely upon information that is available online, just as consumers do in making decisions about any resource. Thus, in our study, we sought to profile the internet presence of golf courses in Catalonia, as well as the maturity of their e-commerce. To that end, we developed an integrated model for analysing the websites of golf courses: one based on web content analysis and structured with four dimensions (i.e., information, communication, e-commerce and additional functions) and the phases of the extended model of internet commerce adoption (eMICA). Applied to all golf courses in Catalonia that operate websites, the model revealed that, despite the sport’s great importance to the local economy and tourism, the golf courses do not have an adequate online presence or sufficient platforms for communication. The present work includes information on its theoretical contribution, implications for management, limitations and future lines of research.
Highlights
The use and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), in transforming society in general and commercial organisations in particular, have given rise to so-called “information societies” [1]
In using the extended model of internet commerce adoption (eMICA), we considered that companies in sports tourism, despite being important tourist resources for their destinations, do not always take advantage of all possibilities offered by
That process involved conducting a principal component analysis (PCA) including all of the variables of both methods—that is, the four dimensions of the web content analysis (WCA) and the six levels of the eMICA—such that both techniques were integrated
Summary
The use and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), in transforming society in general and commercial organisations in particular, have given rise to so-called “information societies” [1]. ICTs provide organisations with better access to markets, both nationally and internationally [12,13], because e-commerce, by eliminating the geographical barriers at play in traditional commerce, reduces transaction costs and facilitates worldwide connections between users [14]. For those reasons, implementing ICTs is pivotal for organisations and companies in general, even in the tourism industry
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