Website Evaluation for the Local Tourism Offices of Indonesia’s Top 10 Priority Destinations
Mohamad Robbith Subandia , Fajar Kusnadi Kusumah Putrab a Travel Department, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia b Hospitality Department, Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia
Corresponding author: Tel. +62 8156087625 E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Mohamad Robbith Subandi)
Abstract— The recent growth of information regarding the destination; Information and Communication however it lacked facilities or features Technology (ICT) has a significant impact which allow visitor to interact more with to people’s way of searching and the tourism office or even fellow visitors. processing information. Increasing The most frequent features available in number of travelers is using the internet to the evaluated websites are Culture/history assist them in planning their journey information which was the feature with especially as a source of information. This highest percentage (77%) followed by has made internet as an important Contact (email/fax) with (74%) Picture destination marketing tool for travel & gallery and use of animated pictures were tourism organizations including local and scored at (71%) and Newsletter at (68%), national tourism offices. The aim of this In the bottom of the list are Terms & study is to provide updated overview of Condition, Chatting/News Group, Virtual the official websites of local tourism Postcard at (0%)or virtually non-existent. offices or local government in provincial The results also show that local tourism and city or regency’s level in which Top offices still have much room for 10 Priority Tourism Destination are improvement in the term of using the located, based on the facilities and internet to boost and maximize their services offered by the websites. destination marketing effort. It is Subsidiary aim of this study is to recommended that local tourism offices determine the features that are used most significantly upgrade and modify their frequently on the Local Tourism offices' official websites into more efficient and websites. This study should be of interest effective marketing instrument to exploit to researchers, government official as well the potential internet based market. as industry professionals by applying the content analysis on the feature of tourism Keywords— website evaluation, content websites. The findings of the research will analysis, local tourism office tourism enable the local government official to information, destination marketing. understand how effective their websites in delivering information for the visitors. The Internet has gaining more importance and results will assist them also in judging popularity as an effective tool of searching website performance against competitors information of destination these days, so that they have useful information to tourism and travel information are among facilitate continuous improvement on their the most popular and sought after own websites. The results indicated that information in the internet (ZHOU, Q and official websites of the local tourism Desantis, R, 2005) & (BRONNER, Fred offices already provides sufficient general and de Hoog, Robert, 2016) The use of Internet in travel planning is also support its function in marketing the increasing and prevalent (GRETZEL et destination, more DMO nowadays own an al., 2008). From a previous research it was official websites. One of the objectives of identified that official destination websites its websites is to incorporate its marketing was used by 93% of internet user as a and visitor services strategies into their source of online information about the online activities (YAYLI, Ali and destination (LEHTO, X Y et al., 2006) Bayram, Murat, 2010) when DMO hence it is becoming important for the website is concerned it is currently government and Destination Management become an important marketing and Organization or DMO to capitalize on this communication tools with travellers or increasing popularity of internet search visitors (MORRISON, Alastair M, 2013) among the potential visitors, by putting As a part of the DMO, local government more attention and allocate more official websites which are often serve as resources towards developing a suitable the official destination website along with official websites of the destination, which official websites of The Ministry of in this Indonesia context in general are Tourism in the national level, play a usually manages by the local tourism critical role in promoting the destinations offices, which may setup a separate as well as the individual services and website or incorporate it in their official facilities of a destination. Therefore, local government websites. website's features should be carefully The rationale behind this study is that selected and designed (YAYLI, Ali and while there are already a number of Bayram, Murat, 2010). There are some studies conducted before on tourism methods or approaches to analyze and websites analysis, study on local tourism measure the quality of tourism websites, offices websites, especially which related (LAW, Rob et al., 2010) summarize the to Indonesia Top 10 Priority Destinations methods into these following is very limited or non-existent. However classification (a) counting, (b) automated, there is one particular research previously (c) numerical computation, (d)user done on City Culture and Tourism judgment and (5) combined methods. Directorates in Turkey (YAYLI, Ali and The one which is frequently use is content Bayram, Murat, 2010) which can be analysis (YAYLI, Ali and Bayram, Murat, replicated with some modification for the 2010) or Web Quality Index (WQI) which purpose of this study. Therefore this study is specific website analysis model for try to fill the gap by evaluating the local tourism industry (MIGUEL-GONZALEZ, tourism offices websites related to Maria Isabel and Fernandez-Cavia, Jose, Indonesia’s Top 10 Priority Destinations 2015). based on the instruments and method used Indonesian central government has set a in the research previously conducted on high target of receiving 20 million Turkey’s City Culture and Tourism international tourists by 2019 Directorates (YAYLI, Ali and Bayram, (KEMENTERIAN PARIWISATA, 2016) Murat, 2010) to reach that number Indonesian central government through The Ministry of Tourism employs several strategies one of Literature review which is setting up Top 10 Priority Tourism Destination out of 50 National Destination Management Organization or Tourism Destination previously mapped DMO are non-profit public or private in The National Tourism Development institution responsible for marketing and Plan 2011. (KEMENTERIAN managing a tourism destination PARIWISATA, 2011) (GRETZEL, Ulrike et al., 2006). To These 10 destinations are Lake Toba, Tanjung Kelayang, Seribu Islands, Turkish Local Tourism City Culture and Tanjung Lesung, Borobudur, Bromo, Tourism Directorates (CCTD) (YAYLI, Mandalika, Wakatobi, Morotai and Ali and Bayram, Murat, 2010). There Labuan Bajo. (RATMAN, Dadang Rizki, were 31 indicators used in the evaluation 2016). Despite this Top 10 Priority as shown in table 1 below Destinations program is actually initiated and belong to The Ministry of Tourism in Table 1 the national level, at provincial and city or Website Evaluation Checkpoints regency level, the organization in charge of destination information is The Features in the Website Department of Tourism or Tourism Offices of the local government. Though Culture/history information the names or nomenclatures may vary in Call center/Detailed contact each region but their roles remain the Video related to Destination same, as a representative of the local Picture Gallery government in tourism sector. Information on Transportation Use of animated pictures Link to related Sites Research methodology Online search in website Contact (email/Fax) In Indonesia local tourism offices or Website Map department of tourism are part of the local Events Calendar government which in general have bigger Shopping Information authority than the central government in Climate Information managing the destinations. These local Hotel / Accommodations tourism offices with the support of central government mainly through The Ministry Maps of Tourism, and in some part private Research data sectors, plan, set-up, market and manage Link to other Tourism Sites the destinations collectively. Because of Restaurant Information its central role in destination management Trip Guide and as the source of information for Online Brochure tourists the local tourism offices website Multilingual Websites was chosen for this study. In total there Rent a Car were 32 websites identified for this study, Feed Back Form but only 31 websites were evaluated as Visitor Comments one website was still under construction at Search for Packages the time of the study and hence omitted Newsletter from the study. Currency Information This study aimed to describe and Terms & Condition evaluated the features and information of Chatting / News group the websites therefore content analysis Virtual Postcards method was used in this study as this Registration method was the most commonly used in this kind of research. Each local tourism office websites in Content analysis is used to examine and provincial and regency level were evaluate the content and function of the evaluated by using 1 for availability and 0 websites. This study utilized modified for absence as coding in each checkpoint standardized form, and features previously of features. The assessment process used in similar research conducted on involving two assessors, to minimize the possibility of personal bias. The Newsletter 21 68 evaluation was carried out using both Currency Information 0 0 personal computer and notebook with Terms & Condition 0 0 sufficient internet connection, during the Chatting / News group 0 0 evening after office hours. Collected data Virtual Postcards 0 0 then analyzed using Statistical Package for Registration 7 23 Social Science Software. There are some interesting findings in this Research findings and comments research; one of the main finding is that no websites scored 100% in all of the Table 2 features evaluated, which means none of Websites features frequency level them have all the features or checkpoints used in the web evaluation. This finding No of Feature in the Website % may not come as a surprise for the local Website tourism offices of the destination in the Culture/history 24 77 small and remote areas of Indonesia, due information to the limited resources they have but it Call center/Detailed 22 71 hardly acceptable for the local tourism contact office websites of Indonesia’s more Video related to 16 52 developed provinces and regency, Destination including DKI Jakarta as the Country’s Picture Gallery 22 71 Capital city. There are (16%) of the Information on websites that were inaccessible during the 10 32 Transportation evaluation hence they are given 0 for all Use of animated features evaluated. (13%) of the local 22 71 pictures tourism offices evaluated dedicated the Link to related Sites 15 48 whole website as destination or tourism Online search in information websites while the rest or 18 58 website (87%) still included their governmental Contact (email/Fax) 23 74 daily activity and other governmental Website Map 2 6 information which not directly related to Events Calendar 20 65 the destination. From the evaluation it can Shopping Information 10 32 be identified top 11 most frequent features Climate Information 5 16 available in local tourism websites, they Hotel / are Culture/history information which is 16 52 Accommodations the feature with highest percentage (77%) Maps 12 39 followed by Contact (email/fax) with Research data 10 32 (74%) Picture gallery and use of animated Link to other Tourism pictures are scored at (71%) and 11 35 Sites Newsletter at (68%), events calendar Restaurant (65%), Online search in websites (58%), 16 52 Information Visitor Comments (55%), Video, Hotel and restaurant information at (52%). In the Trip Guide 15 48 bottom of the list are Terms & Condition, Online Brochure 4 13 Chatting/News Group, Virtual Postcard Multilingual Websites 8 26 (0%) Search for Packages (3%) Website Rent a Car 4 13 Map (2%), Online Brochure and Rent a Feed Back Form 10 32 car (13%). The local tourism offices Visitor Comments 17 55 which are part of the local government Search for Packages 1 3 where the 10 priority destinations are located usually eager to showcase more of website or to (Indonesia.travel) website their ‘locality’ or local identity to which is a tourism promotional websites differentiate themselves from other manages by The Ministry of Tourism. destinations, therefore it was not This finding was unforeseen, considering surprising that most of the websites have that apart from the fact that the highest Culture/history information provided, authority of the top 10 priority some of them even in great details. Ideally destinations often lies with each local they also provided sufficient information tourism offices as part of the local on how the unique local identity can governments, The Ministry of Tourism as contribute to Indonesia’s national identity. a part of Indonesian central government is The use of animated pictures, picture actually the main driver and initiator of gallery and Video related to destination this 10 national priority destinations feature are also of almost equally high program hence until now The Ministry of percentages (71%) and (52%) Tourism is still allocating significant respectively, it could suggested that the funds and expertise in order to help local tourism offices already aware of the accelerating the development of all these importance of visual communication, 10 priority destinations at least until 2019 where well-shot photograph or video with (RATMAN, Dadang Rizki, 2016). This attractive animation is actually more finding can be a result of mere web design alluring and intriguing to visitors than errors but can also indicated the lack of mere text description, however they seems effective collaboration between local to overlooked the potential of virtual government through local tourism offices postcard and online brochure in this visual and The Ministry of Tourism as a part of communication process, where none of the central government. Interactivity the evaluated official websites actually features in the websites such as visitor provided a virtual postcard for their comments, feedback form, registration, visitors, and only (13%) of the websites chatting/ News group features are evaluated provided an online brochure. available in moderate-low percentage Call center/detailed contact is also of high (55%), (32%), (23%), (0%) respectively. percentage (71%) They seems aware the Interactivity itself has a significant effect risk of misinformation especially for their on visitor interest and even to their web visitors who have not been to the purchase intention (JIANG, Zhenhui et al., destination should be minimized, therefore 2010) therefore the local tourism offices instead of risking their visitor finding the should consider to engage with their detailed information from other sources website’s visitors more by adding which may be unreliable and bias they interactive features on their sites. Apart consider it is necessary to put clear and from Culture/history information (77%) detailed contact on their websites to make and newsletter (68%) all other informative sure that the interested web visitors features are having lower percentage level received the right information regarding including event calendar (65%), the destination from them. hotel/accommodation and restaurant The availability of link to the related sites information (52%), trip guide (48%), and link to other tourism sites features in maps (39%), information on the websites are quite low (48%) and transportation, shopping information and (35%) respectively. While most of the research data (32%), climate information related websites links are of the other (16%), rent a car (13%), search for departments under the same local package (3%), currency information and government, only small part of the terms & condition (0%), Ideally these evaluated websites were actually provided websites should put more effort in a link to The Ministry of Tourism official providing basic information about the destination to the visitor as this conducted in Turkey (YAYLI, Ali and information is certainly needed by most of Bayram, Murat, 2010) This similarity of the visitor should they plan to visit the findings mostly evident in the way that destination. It should be noted that none of generally the websites evaluated are the websites evaluated are actually informative but surprisingly both study provided any information about local indicated the lack of links to the national currency; hence the visitor should look for tourism offices websites are actually the currency information elsewhere, provided by the evaluated websites. On unless they already have some knowledge the other hand while none of the features about Indonesia’s currency as the country in the websites evaluated in this study where the destination is located. When it scored 100%, some of the website features comes to term & condition feature it is in the previous study are actually scored quite obvious that none of the websites 100% or available in all websites evaluated have that feature, as all of the evaluated, especially in terms of websites evaluated do not have reservation informative features. or booking feature and only function as source of information on the destination. Conclusions and recommendations There are apparently some legal and regulatory constraints that may hinder This study was intended to provide government owned official websites to updated general picture of local Tourism integrate a booking engine as one of their office websites of Indonesia’s Top 10 features; however the absence of booking Priority Destination and identify the most feature can be replaced by providing a link common features in these websites. The to online travel agency or other tourism study was carried out based on similar service provider related to the destination. research previously conducted on the Lastly there are some features that can official websites of City Culture and help the visitor navigating in the website, Tourism Directorates (CCTD) in Turkey. such as website map, online search in (YAYLI, Ali and Bayram, Murat, 2010). website, and language options or Some features and analytical method from multilingual websites. These features can previous study on (CCTD) were also provide the visitor with better browsing utilized. However this study were not ease and experience, unfortunately only meant to evaluate all of local tourism few local tourism offices are actually office websites in Indonesia but only incorporated these features into their evaluated websites of local tourism office websites. Most of the websites doesn’t related to Indonesia’s Top 10 Priority provide website map (6%) and only few Destinations. The results of the study websites (26%) are bilingual or indicated that while the websites are multilingual. English, Mandarin, Japanese, generally informative, the local tourism Dutch, and Deutsch are some of the offices of Indonesia’s Top 10 Priority international languages option available in Destinations are not using the internet to few of the websites. The majority of the its full potential especially in marketing websites are only using Indonesian their destinations. There should be more language or Bahasa Indonesia. The lack of interactive features that allow visitor to language options for the visitors of the engage and communicate more and easily websites can be highly unfavorable for the with the respective local tourism offices or websites and the destinations themselves even with fellow visitors. especially if they are planning to attract Local tourism offices and The Ministry of more international visitors. The overall Tourism should working together more findings of this study indicated some closely and come up with more effective similarities with the previous study integrated destination marketing scheme as both sides actually have equal interest Joseph T O'LEARY. 2006. Searching for and concern on this 10 Top Priority the Future: Challenges Faced by Destinations, thus a better integrated Destination Marketing Organizations. marketing scheme will prove more Journal of Travel Research. 45, pp.116- beneficial for both of them and the 126. destinations itself. Providing a better GRETZEL, ULRIKE, and Kyung Hyan experience for the visitor of the websites YOO. 2008. Use and impact of online should also be a focus of the local tourism travel reviews. Information and offices, a website map and more language communication technologies in tourism., options are fundamental if they wish to pp.35-46. increase the number of their web visitors’ especially international visitors. Despite JIANG, Zhenhui, Jason CHAN, Bernard the legal and procedural constrains the C.Y TAN, and Wei Siong CHUA. 2010. local tourism offices should also consider Effects of Interactivity on Website installing reservation or booking engine or Involvement and Purchase Intention. feature in their official website as it can Journal of the Association for Information simplify the travel decision-making Systems. 11(1), pp.34-39. process of the visitors. This will make the KEMENTERIAN PARIWISATA. 2011. website seen as more effective and Rencana Induk. [online]. [Accessed efficient one-stop tourism service center January 2017]. Available from World rather than just information sources Wide Web: < ?c=11" website. This study has several http://www.kemenpar.go.id/asp/ringkasan. limitations, some of them are the data asp?c=11 > collection only done from local tourism office websites accessible on the time of KEMENTERIAN PARIWISATA. 2016. the study and a number of destinations Rencana Strategis. [online]. [Accessed among the Top 10 Priority destination are January 2017]. Available from World actually have their own non-government Wide Web: destination websites which runs or