Towards online content classification in understanding tourism destinations' information competition and reputation. (1st January 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Inversini, Alessandro; Cantoni, Lorenzo
• Is Part Of: International journal of internet marketing and advertising. Volume 6:Number 3(2011)
• Page Start: 282
• Page End: 299
• Publication Date: 2011-01-01
• Subjects: destination information competitors -- web reputation -- web2.0 -- eTourism; Internet marketing -- Periodicals; Internet advertising -- Periodicals; 658.872
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-5212

Abstract

Destination managers are investing considerable efforts to market their destinations on the internet, often without considering the fact that unofficial information sources are gaining popularity among internet users. Long tail players (such as blogs, wikis, reviews, etc.) are starting to appear in the rankings of search engines, spreading almost the same content as the official sources, but with very different practices, goals and styles. The study analyses the online tourism domain representation given by search engines (Google and Yahoo!) of a given destination, Ravenna (Italy). A content analysis study has been performed on search results in order to examine topics and arguments of the retrieved results, which are leading to online information competition and creating the web reputation of the destination. The article shows that destinations need to manage their online reputation holistically, by listening to online discourses, and leveraging on the users' online contributions for marketing and reputation purposes.