Analyzing the usability of travel web sites in Hainan, China : The perspectives of e‐buyers and e‐lookers

Purpose – This study sets out to investigate the perceptions of e‐buyers and e‐lookers in Hainan, China on usability performance of China‐based travel web sites, an emerging sector of the tourism industry in China. Design/methodology/approach – Data collection was conducted in Hainan, a province in Southern China, in December 2007. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the views of users on different usability dimensions and attributes on China‐based travel web sites. Findings – Empirical findings indicated that respondents who only viewed China‐based travel web sites had an average usability performance. More importantly, there was no significant difference between e‐buyers and e‐lookers. Research limitations/implications – The major limitations of the study are the non‐random selection of respondents and that the respondents were from one province in China. Originality/value – With the views of 489 respondents, research findings should provide an overview for tourism practitioners to allocate their limited resources on e‐business development appropriately.