The Determinants of E-Tourism Websites for Tourists While Selecting a Travel Destination

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the determinants of the e-tourism websites for tourists to select their travel destinations. Based on the review of the literature, a conceptual model has been developed. The model contains antecedents of e-tourism websites that could help a tourist to select the travel destination. The model has been validated statistically with a survey involving 309 usable respondents. The PLS-SEM analysis was conducted for hypotheses testing and for validation of the conceptual model. The results show that the antecedents of e-tourism websites like the ease of use, website enjoyment, perceived authenticity of websites, and perceived risk have an impact on the tourists for selection of their travel destinations. The e-tourism websites should possess special features to help travellers to accurately finalise their travel destinations. The developer of the website should design the websites to be interactive so that the viewers can enjoy while surfing the website and should be cautious towards the accuracy of the information-content so that the viewers can feel the contents authenticated. Since there are not many studies in the context of the contribution of e-tourism websites for selecting a travel destination, this study has taken an attempt to fill up this gap. © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.