Facing new challenges in rural tourism: signaling quality via website

Inmaculada Rabadán-Martín (), Francisco Aguado-Correa () and Nuria Padilla-Garrido ()
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Inmaculada Rabadán-Martín: University of Huelva
Francisco Aguado-Correa: University of Huelva
Nuria Padilla-Garrido: University of Huelva

Information Technology & Tourism, 2019, vol. 21, issue 4, No 5, 559-576

Abstract: Abstract Conscious of the importance of the tourist sector in Spain and the appeal of rural tourism in Andalusia, this paper aimed to analyse the quality indicators that rural Andalusian hotels show on their official websites (quality certifications, logos of excellence and online reviews), as well as the possible variables that may influence the sort of indicators published. The results reflected that only 38% of the analysed hotels presented some sort of quality indicator. In this regard, 23.68% of the establishments provided information related to their online reputation, 20.3% displayed some form of logos of excellence and only 7.5% chose to indicate that they had quality certifications. The hypothesis test indicated a significant correlation between the exhibition of logos of excellence and the high star hotels. Enhancing rural hotels’ websites, as a sales platform, could be the alternative to reduce the commissions of online travel agencies and could foster direct sales and subsequently improve business performance.

Keywords: Rural tourism; Quality certifications; Online reputation; TripAdvisor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s40558-019-00157-y

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