Article review

“ Enhancing Destination Image through Travel Website Information” – Article Review Summary of article Potential foreign visitors would usually have flimsy information on their destination and the perceived image would greatly impact on their destination decision. Destination marketing organizations, DMOs currently make use of the Internet to effectively create the appropriate image to attract visitors. This article evaluates the relationship existing between information search from websites and the destination image. The static-group comparison design was adopted with two sets of students being experimental and control groups. The findings indicate that travel websites greatly affected not just cognitive but also overall destination images.
Possible outcome of the trend
Particularly, having found a weakness in the Korean Tourism Organization, KTO website in attracting tourists to its destinations (Jeong et al. 25), it would be critical for the organization to incorporate communications on benefits in the message on its website so as to be effective. But the implications of this study would be far reaching. With the results indicating that travel websites greatly influence majority of overall and cognitive destination image Jeong et al. (21), more DMOs and government tourism agencies would resort to the use of Internet in marketing their tourist destinations. Even in doing so, the content of the websites would be designed to increase effectiveness by adopting measures such as communication of benefits and more convincing information.
Effect of the trend on the development of tourism industry
The findings of this study suggest that DMOs would have to continuously evaluate the content of their travel websites so as to post vivid information that would strongly influence the decision of potential tourists. According to Jeong et al. (25), various African countries have developed their brand images through such processes. It would be critical for DMOs to be sensitive to the dimensions of brand personality when developing their websites as this gives them a competitive edge against their rivals. Visual and audio effects have to be encompassed appropriately to achieve the objectives of such websites. Finally, it would be of much significance to communicate the benefits that a destination would offer as this would attract even tourists who already have information on the destination.
My position
I support the findings of this research study. It is the nature of human psychology to make consumption decisions based on the perceived image. The perception of the image greatly depends on the ability of the seller to create a convincing image. In a similar manner, the ability of DMOs to create an effective destination image would cause tourists to make their decision to visit a specific destination. The creation of the image involves incorporation of convincing information either using audio or visual approaches.
Learning experience
The findings from this study give insights in my future career in the tourism and hospitality industry. No matter my job position, it would be important to influence the content posted on the website so as to achieve effective website marketing content. Since it has been affirmed that tourists make choices of their destination based on the perceived image, it would be critical not only to create the best image of a destination but also vividly give the benefits of selecting the marketed destination.
Future implications of the trend
This research opens up further research in the use of website to market tourist destinations, considering the limiting factors of this research such as demographic factors and previous experience. But it would be expected that more organizations would use websites to advertise their destinations. Organizations that already have websites would review the content posted on their websites so as to ensure that they effectively attract the intended audiences.
Work Cited
Jeong, Chul, et al. “ Enhancing Destination Image through Travel Website Information.” International Journal of Tourism Research 14 (2012): 16 – 27.