Abstract
On the basis of the establishment and analysis of 29 indicators, this article analyses the quality of the climate and meteorological information that is provided to tourists on the websites of the bodies responsible for promoting Spanish tourist destinations at a state and regional level. Official tourism promotion websites are a prominent source of information for tourists, so it is necessary to control the quality levels of the information contained in them. The objective is to detect weaknesses that can be corrected to achieve the improvement of the public service that is offered by these websites. The results indicate that the weather information provided on the institutional websites does not meet the information needs of tourists in the different phases of the travel experience, and as a result contributes little to tactical and strategic decision-making regarding the various activities for tourists, in which the weather or climate are relevant factors. This could make it more difficult for them to interact and integrate with the destination and worsen the quality of their tourist experience.
Highlights
Climate and meteorological information plays an important role in today’s society
Our analysis of the tourism promotion websites run by the Spanish Central Government and Regional Governments (Autonomous Community and Autonomous Cities), according to the indicators set out in the methodology section shows that, with few exceptions, they all have some form of climate and/or meteorological information about their destinations (Table 8)
In some of these websites the tab or link to the weather information is not visible or recognizable, and often users have to click through two or three pages to reach the weather section. They provide about the climate with that about the weather, we found that climate information generally had a lower profile than weather information (Table 8), to the extent that 13 of the 21 profiles that we analysed had no systematized information of any kind about the climate, they did have some indirect references in the form of photographs, logos, or in the main body of general information about the destination
Summary
Climate and meteorological information plays an important role in today’s society. There is very high demand for this type of scientifically processed information, which is explained in a practical way that enables the different end users to use it when taking decisions. Climate and meteorological information must be regarded as a service that should be offered to the user in the most appropriate form possible. In Spain there is widespread public demand for climate and meteorological information, as revealed in a survey entitled Perceptions of Meteorology, conducted by the Spanish Sociological. Research Centre (CIS) in 2011 [2]. In this survey 27.1% of those interviewed (N = 2958) considered that the role of climate and meteorological information in Spanish society is very important, 52.5% said it was quite important, and 11.7% important. A mere 7.3% considered it of little importance, while the “don’t knows” (0.7%), and those who considered it unimportant (0.7%) were almost negligible
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