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Viewing report
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Travel Information Search on the Internet. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, June 2009, Pages: 148
Using a trip planning exercise, this research intends
to investigate: (1) the process of travel information
search and trip planning on the Internet; and (2)
users’ satisfaction, through different semantics of
tourism. The results showed that travelers used a
variety of web sites to search for information and
they had different semantic mental models regarding
the same destination. They searched for “information
hub” pages which contain a list of links to different
attractions or accommodations. Their information
search process can be broken up into different
episodes and each episode is targeting at a specific
aspect of trip planning. Several episodes constitute
a chapter which is one facet (accommodation, dining,
attraction or transportation) of a travel plan. The
results also showed that users’ satisfaction is not
only determined by the efficiency of finding relevant
information; the travel information searchers are
also looking for exciting and novel information which
is beyond their semantic mental models and their
initial expectation. The theoretical contribution of
this study and implications for designing better
information technology for the tourism industry are
discussed.
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