Web 2.0 applications in tourism-a statistical analysis at hotels' websites

Abstract

Web 2.0 applications have been increasingly recognized as important information sources for consumers, including the domain of tourism. It is important therefore to investigate the issues associated to Tourism 2.0. The interactive character of Web 2.0 applications allows users make recommendations and ratings, but the danger of “false” postings renders them less trustworthy than the official governmental tourist websites when trying to find information about residence and accommodation. Using the data collected by eight of the most dominant search engines related to tourism and concern information about four hundred eighty six, chosen according to the list presented on Tripadvisor for each one of the twenty seven European capital cities, we made a statistical analysis. After proving that the variables that we examine are correlated we observed that almost one at four hotels is found in all the search engines. The part related to the cost analysis showed that there are differences among the search engines but we cannot conclude that one specific search engine should be preferable for always presenting the lower prices. The same are the results of the rating-satisfaction analysis, so travelers must evaluate all the sources during their travel planning decisions to conclude to the most profitable solution.