Comparing the attributes of online tourism information sources

Ongoing developments in information technology (IT), particularly with respect to the Internet, have led to changes in the way tourism-related information is distributed. These changes have affected the planning and consumption patterns of tourists before and during their trips. Since the majority of tourists retrieve information from multiple information sources on the web, it is essential to define the differences in these sources and identify the distinct characteristics or properties of each source in order to understand the needs and tendencies of tourists. This study classifies online tourism information sources into four types: blogs, public websites, company websites, and social media websites. Five website attributes are identified: accessibility, security, information-trust, interaction, and personalization. This study uses data from 61 participants. Each participant answered all of the questions for four different information sources. This study then conducts an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and a multiple comparison Scheffé test to verify differences between groups. Based on these five attributes, the results of this multiple comparison show that the overall mean values are relatively high in personal blogs, while security is the dominant attribute for public websites. The mean values of all five attributes were relatively lower in SNSes compared to the other sources.