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| AN EVALUATION IN SERVICE FUNCTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR SMALL-MEDIUM SIZE TOURISM WEBSITE——THE CASE OF LEYOU OUTDOORS CLUB |
| LU Zi1,2, FAN Li-li2 |
1. Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology, Sydney NSW 2007, Australia;
2. College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050016, China |
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Abstract Small-medium size websites are the main body of on-line tourism-industrial systems and they affect greatly the growth of the whole e-tourism business. Based on the investigation of LeYou outdoors club and its website,a small company engaging in online tourism business, this article analyzes main service functions of such kinds of companies. The paper constructs two tourism website evaluation frameworks:tourism website function evaluation framework (6 main functions each contain a number of sub-factors) and customer satisfaction (4 evaluation categories) evaluation framework for tourism website. It then uses these frameworks to evaluate LeYou site. The paper tries to reveal the development of a new business model which may compete with existing operations. The lack of strategic business planning and their poor understanding of potential of Internet commerce mean that small-medium size websites are likely to face decline.
Some academic research works dedicated to e-commerce consider that location is no longer a key element in gaining a competitive advantage. But we believe that geographical space can conquer e-consumers. It is clear that between the destination and the origin, location is going to become extremely important.Small-medium size websites have their points of sale close to their clients, and their favourite location are city-areas (CBD) or close to the focus of shopping and business areas in central places. The most outstanding pushing factors of influences can be separated into two groups:the internal factors of expected savings and economies; the external factors of pressure, information and advertising. LeYou club represented the type of a private, market-orientated enterprise. It will probably be involved in a more international competition in the world in the next years. The Macro-location will have a key position on this market.
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Received: 18 June 2003
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2005, Vol. 20 
