The Websites of National Tourism Organisations – A Challenge of E-Marketing

Abstract

Nowadays tourists from all over the world get information about the destination they plan to visit through the internet web pages. National Tourism Organizations (NTO-s)/ Agencies are the official organizations which have as main responsibility the tourism marketing in national level. There are a lot of marketing activities, which are used by the NTO-s such as the promotional leaflets/brochures, Tourism Fairs, Advertising, Study tours with foreign journalists or tour operators in their countries etc., but one of the most important form of promoting the tourism resources is the e-marketing, particularly the official websites of NTO-s and some other online technologies. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the quality and effects that six NTO-s websites from the Balkans region have, based mainly on the image technology and functionality elements, and the way that this quality influences the visitor’s decisions. The features that are launched in an NTO-s website create an interesting and trustworthy online experience because of the official status as well. More creative and well-designed websites may effectively increase their value and thus may attract more tourists. Nowadays tourists from all over the world get information about the destination they plan to visit through the internet web pages. National Tourism Organizations (NTO-s)/ Agencies are the official organizations which have as main responsibility the tourism marketing in national level. There are a lot of marketing activities, which are used by the NTO-s such as the promotional leaflets/brochures, Tourism Fairs, Advertising, Study tours with foreign journalists or tour operators in their countries etc., but one of the most important form of promoting the tourism resources is the e-marketing, particularly the official websites of NTO-s and some other online technologies. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the quality and effects that six NTO-s websites from the Balkans region have, based mainly on the image technology and functionality elements, and the way that this quality influences the visitor’s decisions. The features that are launched in an NTO-s website create an interesting and trustworthy online experience because of the official status as well. More creative and well-designed websites may effectively increase their value and thus may attract more tourists. Kewords: Websites, e-marketing, tourism, National Tourism Organizations, online technologies.