Marketing and Commercial Activities Offered on Croatian Five-Star Hotel Web Sites

Abstract

Tourism is the crucial industry for Croatian economy and this statement is supported by high growth rates of tourism income. One of the important factors for tourism are accommodation facilities, especially hotels. Due to the fact that we live in the information technologies era, the Internet became a new space for doing economic and business activities in all spheres, and especially important in tourism. Hotel Web sites become increasingly important, and this phenomenon will be analyzed in this paper. Using a data base containing data for the 30 five-star hotel Web sites, a survey was conducted on how much these new technologies are used in tourism industry in Croatia. Marketing and commercial activities offered on hotel Web sites have a significant impact on the hotel's commercial success. Characteristics of the five-star hotels hotel Web sites will be examined and compared thought the basic groups of Web business activities. Also some recommendations for the successful hotel Web sites will be provided. Hotel Web site in the future will not be only a promotion channel, but also an active generator of the hotel business and development.