Comparative Analysis of Official Tourist Destination Websites

Abstract

The Ecuadorian government has opted for tourism to boost the economy of the country. Although many factors converge to make Ecuador a tourist power, one of the pillars to achieve this is the promotion to generate demand. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and the websites take relevance as communication strategies to improve the promotion of a tourist destination. Among the functions performed by the municipal decentralized autonomous governments (GAD) are regulate, control and promote the development of cantonal tourism. Most municipalities have their website where they display tourism information, but very few have an exclusive website to publish tourism information. In addition, as shown in this paper, the tourist information provided is very low. The method that was used in this research was the content analysis through a systematic, objective and quantitative analysis. The study was carried out through a direct observation of the municipal websites in Ecuador and their counterparts in Colombia and Spain. The results showed that the vast majority of municipal GADs own websites but very few are the websites that are making appropriate use of the services that an exclusive web destined to the tourism could offer.  Ecuador should work harder to improve its tourism promotion on the Web if it really wants to become a tourist power as posed by the Ecuadorian government.