Study on Chinese Tourism Web Sites' Distribution and Online Marketing Effects

Abstract

As a platform and carrier of tourism information, tourism Web sites (TWs) and online tourism marketing have deeply affected the tourism industry. The authors adopt a geographical perspective to analyze the distribution of Chinese tourism Web sites (CTWs), and statistical analysis with SPSS 16.0 was conducted to explore the online marketing effects of CTWs. Some meaningful results were produced: (a) The number of CTWs generally decreases from eastern China to central and western China and are especially dominant in tourism developed provinces. (b) The number of tourists has strong statistical correlation with the number of CTWs. (c) The strongest correlation for inbound tourists is with hotel Web sites, and the highest correlation coefficient is 0.807 between the number of domestic tourist and resort Web sites. Both inbound and domestic tourists have a low correlation coefficient with travel agency (TA) Web sites. (d) There exist some statistical models between tourist numbers and different kinds of CTWs. The results clearly unveil the marketing effects and correlation of CTWs and are helpful for further online marketing strategies.