Guiding the content of tourism web advertisements on a search engine results page
| Date | 20 April 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011036981 |
| Published date | 20 April 2010 |
| Pages | 263-281 |
| Author | Chin‐Feng Lin,Yu‐Hung Liao |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Guiding the content of tourism
web advertisements on a search
engine results page
Chin-Feng Lin
Department of Leisure Management, National Pingtung Institute of Commerce,
Pingtung City, Taiwan, and
Yu-Hung Liao
Department of Quality Control, Spinner Industry Company, Fongyuan City,
Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – This study seeks to focus on the following: discovering consumer preferences regarding
package tours to China; revealing differences among consumers’ cognition related to these package
tours, travel advertisements on web sites and search engine results; identifying the similarities among
travel agency web sites; and establishing a consumer cognitive structure to assist marketers in
designing written content for display in search engine results.
Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted means-end chain theory as a theoretical
basis and used the written content of tourism web sites displayed in search engine results as an
empirical object. By comparing the contents of tourism web sites and the search engine results, the
researchers could analyse and compare similarities and differences among web site content, search
results and consumer cognition.
Findings – Using the utility score of each attribute level to calculate the total utility can uncover the
customers’ preferred attribute level portfolio. The calculation results identified the most preferred tour
package. The study found that the greater the variety of package tours to China provided by the web
sites of a particular travel agent, the higher the possibility of that agent providing discount incentives.
Furthermore, the text content of each web site provides more attribute information regarding package
tours and less information about the consequences of travelling and value satisfaction.
Originality/value – This is one of the first studies to provide a methodology integrating conjoint
analysis and the means-end chain approach. Understanding the written content of web sites preferred
by Chinese people can help marketers and web site designers design web sites attractive to this
market.
Keywords Advertising,Tourism, China, Search engines
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The internet is a platform capable of providing rich resources that consumers can
search for information. Internet users typically attempt to gather information from
around the world via search engines that display obtained information in a convenient
web page format. Search engines thus become a gateway via which, internet users can
conduct web searches. The growth of search engine usage demonstrates that search
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support for this paper by the National Science
Council, Taiwan. No. NSC 95-2416-H-251-018-MY3.
Content of
tourism web
advertisements
263
Refereed article received
18 May 2009
Approved for publication
16 October 2009
Online Information Review
Vol. 34 No. 2, 2010
pp. 263-281
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684521011036981
engines are the key application for internet users in searching for information (Pew
Internet and American Life Project, 2005). According to the results of surveys
conducted by the Infoplease web site (2009) and Fallows (2008), email and search
engines are the most popular applications among internet users. Sullivan (2005)
analysed the behaviour of global internet users and found that internet users are
increasingly using search engines to obtain information, and user demand for search
engines for obtaining information from various web sites is growing accordingly.
Consequently search engines are a vital aspect of web site visibility and popularity. If a
particular web site ranks at the top of the search results, internet users are more likely
to either browse or click through that web site (iProspect, 2004). Consequently,
designing the written content of search engine results to attract internet users has
become a major challenge for web site owners.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Tourism in Taiwan (2009), the use of the
internet by Taiwanes e people to search for tour ism products increas ed by
approximately 6.3 percent f rom 2007 to 2008. The Market Intel ligence and
Consulting Institute of Taiwan (2008) also stated that tourism products comprised
approximately 58 percent of the online shopping market, representing a 21 percent
increase from the previous year. Obviously people are becoming ever more likely to use
the internet to search for and purchase tourism products. Furthermore according to
statistics from the Ministry of Tourism in Taiwan (2009), mainland China is the most
popular destination for Taiwanese consumers. Consequently, this study focused on
Chinese tourism products.
Recent developments in search engines and the continuous growth of advertising
revenue have forced search engine owners not only to improve search engine
technology and design, but also to stress the importance of search results meeting
internet user preferences and demands. Once search results can meet user needs and
wants, users may become interested in browsing and clicking through to web sites to
find desired information (Ozmutlu, 2005). Thus this study sought to identify
differences among internet user preferences, search engine results and the written
content of travel agency web sites, and further to develop an effective method of
written content design to attract target internet users. Because the text displayed in
search engine results is excerpted from the written content of web advertisements, the
design of written content should be based on consumer cognition toward a particular
product or service. Understanding what consumers really need and want becomes
extremely important for marketers to design attractive written content of web
advertisements.
In marketing literature, means-end chain (MEC) methodology is commonly used to
analyse consumer-product relationships. Such relationships are represented by a
product’s means-end chains. A product’s attributes (A) are the means to he lp
consumers achieve desired ends, namely values (V) through the consequences (C) of
product consumption. Consequently the attribute-consequence-value (A-C-V) chains
form a cognitive structure of consumers, termed a hierarchical value map (HVM).
Marketers can adopt the HVM to develop effective advertising strategies (Reynolds
and Gutman, 1984). Therefore this study used the MEC methodology to analyse
consumer preferences in package tours to China in terms of A-C-V chains.
Simultaneously, conjoint analysis was conducted to analyse the attribute levels
OIR
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