Tourism is adapted field of information technologies since the first tourist product is the product that requires more and involve many risks Tourist behaviour is considered as one of the reasons that led to the development and spread theory usability sie-tourism, usability,Internet , web sites

Coros Robert

Lacurezeanu Ramona

English

Research Papers in Economics

968 
USERS’ EVALUATION OF TOURISM SITES 
 
Lacurezeanu Ramona 
Babes-Bolyai  University  Cluj-Napoca  Faculty  of  Economics  and  Buusiness  Administration 
ramona.lacurezeanu@econ.ubbcluj.ro, 0264418654 
Coros Robert 
Babes-Bolyai  University  Cluj-Napoca  Faculty  of  Economics  and  Buusiness  Administration 
robert.coros@econ.ubbcluj.ro, 0264418654 
 
Tourism is adapted field of information technologies since the first tourist product is the product that requires more and 
involve many risks 
Tourist behaviour is considered as one of the reasons that led to the development and spread theory usability sites. The paper 
set out the title track is a first of a comparative radiography related to the ratio between the degree of user satisfaction and 
technologies used in a tourist site, in particular, tourist portal, in general In this first study have undergone some review sites 
on the tourism market in Romania online. 
 
 
Keywords:e-tourism, usability,Internet , web sites 
Cod JEL: M, M15, L, L86 
 
1. Introduction 
Because of the continuous increase in the number of the Internet users, as well as because of the increase in the 
value of the transactions made online, the electronic businesses are present today in various fields of activity and 
divided into various categories, of which, the most important are:  E-auctioning ,E-banking; E-commerce (one 
category is e-Tourism), E-directories; E-ingineering  E-gambling E-learning, E-mailing, E-marketing; E-supply; E-
trading (e-brokering) E-service,; e-procurement,e-leasing, e-government, e-working, e-health. 
Paraphrasing [15], we may say that the introduction of “e” in tourism “is like a conceptual and instrumental 
revolution. As any revolution, it is characterized by a strong discrepancy between promise and hope, between plan 
and achievement, between theoretical and real situations”. 
Tourism is known as the largest industry and because the trip is simple to match the expectations of tourists with 
different range and variety of options provided by millions of tourism providers. 
Because  millions  of  tourists  travel  each  day,  communications  accurate,  current  and  relevant  information  are 
essential for effective operations in the tourism industry. [17]. 
One can appreciate that the exchange of information is very important in every stage of the cycle of the product 
sales touristy. Information must be able to move quickly and securely between clients, brokers and suppliers of 
each travel involved in meeting customer needs.[17] 
Passengers can receive information from a variety of sources. In recent years more and more used for information 
and to "purchase" various sites of tourism business. 
We can say that a user who uses the site for a reservation is an "evolving consumer needs, tastes, preferences and 
predispositions marked by a pronounced dynamism" [7].  
Because globalization increases competition. Companies need to encourage tourism for the consumer and create a 
tourist product on the Internet to buy and use the same distribution channel. 
So, tourist behaviour's and tourist need’s are considered as one of the reasons that led to the development and 
spread theory usability sites. The paper set out the title track is a first of a comparative radiography related to the 
ratio between the degree of user satisfaction and technologies used in a tourist site, in particular, tourist portal, in 
general.  
In this first study have undergone some review sites on the tourism market in Romania online. 
 
2. Related Work  
The testing of the usability offers the chance of a clear image of the visitors’ behaviour on a website and of 
correcting the possible infrastructure errors in order to obtain a maximum profit for each visit. 
The specialists say that term itself is a usability lesson. As in the case of other concepts of data processing, as it 
comes  from  the  English  term  “usability”,  there  are  disputes  related  to  its  translation.  There  are  authors  who 
recognize it in the term “uzabilitate”, others in the term “usabilitate” and other translate it with “accessibility”.  
A short definition recognises by usability the efficiency of and ease with which people may use an Internet page, to 
the users’ satisfaction. [16] 
A broader definition accepts that usability is the efficiency of and ease with which people may use a webpage or an 
electronic interface (sometimes, the purpose for which the webpage is accessed is different from the purpose for 
which it has been created) – definition taken from Wikipedia and processed. [3] 
 
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3. Work methodology and some results  
We have used 45 websites of tourism, from Romania, according to the criteria mentioned in [11]. These criteria 
have been divided into three categories:  
  A. - standard criteria 
Navigability 
  - ease in the user authentication; 
  - visibility of the menus and ease in the access of menu items; 
  - identification of the positions in the site and access of each page, irrespective of the position. 
Design  
  - first page – visibility of the authentication area; 
  - layout – colours;  
  - methods to catch the attention; 
Information 
  - number of information levels; 
  - support area; 
  - contact data. 
  B Personalized criteria 
  - ease in the achievement of a transfer / payment; 
  - joining of security and anti-fishing elements, being easy to use; 
  - ease in the access of the “demo accounts” and other helping elements for the user; 
  - contact data in the case of loss / theft the authentication data;   
  - transparency of costs covered by the client. 
  C Criteria for HOME PAGE 
  identity and mission of the organization; 
  - logical and hierarchical access to the information; 
  - possibility to search the information;  
  - “teasing” elements;   
  - special offers, novelties;  
  - shortcuts to the most visited areas of a site;  
  - users’ registration module.  
 
Of  the  sites  of  our  study  we  mention  following  (18):  www.iloveromania.ro,  www.promoturism.ro, 
www.veltravel.ro,  www.  calibratravel.ro,  www.kartagotours.ro,  www.pantravel.ro,  www.eximtur.ro, 
www.tunisiana-travel.ro, www.atlassib.ro, www.normandiatransport.com,  www.filadelfia-group.ro, www.blueair-
web.com,  www.infoturism.ro,  www.marshal.ro,  www.paralela45.ro,  www.aerotravel.ro,  www.perfect-tour.ro, 
www.christiantour.ro. 
Ten persons on all websites have made the analysis. After the centralization of the individual observations, we have 
obtained the following results: 
Services offered by these websites we can summarize: 
  counselling related to holiday plans; 
  reservation of hotel rooms or boarding houses in Romania; 
  reservation of hotel rooms or boarding houses abroad;  
  tourism packages that include the charter air transportation or bus transportation to Antalya, Kusadasi, 
Istanbul, Hurghada, Sharm el Sheick, Barcelona (for Barcelona, Costa Brava and Costa Dorada), Tenerife, Ibiza, 
Corfu, Crete, Salonic (for Paralia-Katerini and Halkidiki), etc.; 
  tourism packages without transportation – hotel rooms and meals, visa, trips, medical insurances;  
  special  offers  related to  certain  events  as  Christmas,  New  Year,  Easter,  sports  competitions,  folkloric 
festivals, etc.; 
  tourist circuits abroad, both by plane and by bus;  
  plane tickets for any destination with traditional companies, with low cost companies (cheap tickets) and 
also charters. 
Other services:  
  organization of conferences, symposia, team-buildings, special meetings, company party; 
  organization of training camps or recovery holidays for sports teams; 
  organization of personal events, as weddings, baptisms, anniversaries, name days parties, family parties.   
 
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Standard criterion: 
Criterion   
Navigability    - horizontal menu, for the ease in the navigation by accessing 
a  destination;  they  maybe  arranged  on  the  whole  page; 
references  to  a  new  page  with  more  details  only  for  the 
selected destination (service) or 
 - vertical menu, which includes all the destinations (services) 
and the horizontal menu, with general – informative character 
 - with / without authentication area 
 - with / without site map or map for destinations.  
Design   - on some websites there are predominant foundation colours 
(as white and blue, yellow and pale orange, etc.) – there are no 
two  websites  of  the  analysed  ones  that  have  the  same 
foundation colour; of the colour analysis we may say that some 
transmit  the  atmosphere  that  persists  in  the  destination 
countries.  
 - we may say that other sites are “without colour”, as there is 
no dominant colour, the foundation is formed of images.   
Informational 
content  
 -  organization  from  two  up  to  nine  informational  levels 
(services / categories / subcategories). 
 
Home Page Criterion 
Criteria   
Identity  and  mission  of 
the organization 
 - is specified very clearly for all websites.  
Logical  access  to 
information 
 -  presentation  of the  website  purpose,  contact  data, 
authentication  area,  support  area  for  users,  possible 
search area and even shortcuts for the most accessed 
information (a kind of top).  
Users’  registration 
module 
 - creation of an account for the completion of certain 
compulsory  fields,  respectively  optional  fields,  or 
introduction of the e-mail address for subscription to 
the newsletter; 
 - it needs the creation of an account only in the case 
of  concrete  service  requirement  (tourist  destination, 
ticket reservation) 
 “Teasing” elements    -  it  does  not  present  any  teasing  element  at  the 
moment of analysis 
Special offers, novelties   -  the  menus  present columns  as  “special  offers”  or 
“discounts of X% for Easter (New Year)”;  
 - some do not stand out among the other columns, as 
they have the same colours and size; 
 -  they  stand  out  by  being  placed  on  the  page  and 
capturing the attention by animations and colours. 
 
4. Conclusions 
As we are aware of the limits of this article (the number of persons who have tested the websites, the test used), we 
think that it is needed to extend the study by using the split a/b tests, proposed by [14]. 
The  A/B  split-testing  is  an  advanced  marketing  principle;  more  exactly  the webmasters use  it  to  test various 
versions of a webpage or website, to determine which of them would be sold better, which colours would lead to a 
better promotion of the site from the user’s point of view.  971 
The  success  of  a  website  is  connected  to  the  observance  of  the  usability  criteria  –  navigability,  design, 
informational content.  
The purpose of an on-line tourism business should be that of attracting clients who are offered quality services. In 
this regard, we have noticed that those websites that offer many destinations and many services are not very easily 
used, and their quality is very low. It is recommended that they should choose a strong point that they may use and 
specialize in. the specificity of each tourism agency may be adapted for all categories of tourists, without needing 
the offer for all destinations.  
In conclusion, the tourism portals should focus on originality, specificity and should regain their credibility related 
to the price – quality relationship.  
Up to a certain level, the usability degree also depends on the purpose and target public of the site. There is a 
general agreement related to the web usability, which takes into consideration that the site should be accessible, 
attractive, consistent, clear, simple, navigable and tolerant to errors. 
For the best results, it is recommended to use a variety of methodologies in order to create websites and to treat the 
design as a repetitive and active process.[14]  
A site as much taste should be the user should answer the criteria of usability, not alone to raise the value of 
services a company's e-tourism 
 
References:  
1. www.dailybusiness.ro/tipareste-stire/teasing-in-campaniile-de-pr-cum-sa-nu-bati-la-cap 
2. Rusu L. si colab., Modele de afaceri pe Internet, Ed. Risoprint, Cluj-Napoca, 2007 
3. http://www.siteaudit.ro/consultanta/cat-de-important-este-studiul-de-usability-la-un-site-de-comert- 
electronic.html#more-27 
4. http://www.jurnalismonline.ro/?p=267 
5. http://www.underclick.ro/Uzabilitate/Websituri-pentru-adolescenti.htm 
6. ARIADNE - Ghid pentru orientarea prin web,  
http://www.ariadneproject.org/fileadmin/ariadne/dokument/Guideline_Ro.doc 
http://www.tree.ro/ro/strategie-white-papers/probleme-de-uzabilitate-in-crearea-siturilor-si-a-aplicatiilor.pdf 
7. Diaconu M., Turism prin Internet, Ed. Tribuna Economica, Bucuresti, 2004 
8. http://www.buildwebsite4u.com/  
9. http://www.asiostudio.com/  
10. Software Usability Research Laboratory - http://www.usabilitynews.org  
11.  Ad  Mission  România:  “Raport  de  uzabilitate  a  serviciilor  de  internet  banking”  Mai  2007 
http://www.ghiseulbancar.ro/files/news/49/5705/Uzabilitate_e-banking_mai_2007.pdf 
12. http://www.studiidecaz.ro 
13.  http://www.liviutaloi.ro/2008/09/01/de-ce-ar-trebui-si-magazinele-online-sa-faca-teste-de-tipul-split-ab-in-
cautarea-solutiei-ideale-la-o-problema-de-uzabilitate/ 
14. www.tree.ro/ro/strategie-white-papers/probleme-de-uzabilitate-in-crearea siturilor -si -a- aplicatiilor.pdf 
15. Buchmann R.A., Conceperea, proiectarea si realizarea afacerilor pe Internet, Ed. Risoprint, Cluj-Napoca, 2004 
16. http://www.admission.ro/uzabilitate/Definitie.html 
17. http://www.ecursuri.ro/referate/referate.php?report=distributia-produselor-turistice-pe-internet 
   

Conceperea, proiectarea si realizarea afacerilor pe Internet,

Ghid pentru orientarea prin web,

România: “Raport de uzabilitate a serviciilor de internet banking” Mai

si colab., Modele de afaceri pe Internet,

Turism prin Internet, Ed. Tribuna Economica,

www.tree.ro/ro/strategie-white-papers/probleme-de-uzabilitate-in-crearea siturilor -si -a- aplicatiilor.pdf

USERS’ EVALUATION OF TOURISM SITES

http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/198.pdf

USERS’ EVALUATION OF TOURISM SITES

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