The Use Of Internet Sites By Smaller Travel Agencies In The Netherlands

This research effort is based on empirical research carried out by masters students of the IS department of Tilburg University, which studied the websites of 30 smaller travel agencies in the Netherlands and conducted interviews with their owners.

Abstract

Internet seems to open up new marketing possibilities for smaller companies in the tourism sector. Therefore, it is interesting to now how these smaller companies make use of the possibilities of the World Wide Web. Much of the literature, however, focuses on Internet use by larger companies. Thus, it seems worthwhile to focus some empirical research on the smaller companies in the trade. Such a research effort is reported on in this paper. It is based on empirical research carried out by masters students of the IS department of Tilburg University. They studied the websites of 30 smaller travel agencies in the Netherlands and conducted interviews with their owners. Although the number of observations in the research is too small too draw statistically reliable general conclusions the results seem interesting enough to share with a broader public. In this paper we first focus on the research methodology, then provide the description of the websites and next report the outcomes of the interviews. In the final paragraph some conclusions are drawn.