Online destination experiences before the trip on DMO websites

Project description

DMOs often use experiential marketing to attract guests. However, little is known about the experiential impact of DMO websites from a customer perspective. Within the framework of several consecutive sub-studies, we investigate how users of DMO websites experience destinations before they travel, how this experience can be measured and how particularly experience-rich websites should be designed. Destination websites (DMO websites) provided by destination marketing organizations are a central source of information for tourists in the inspiration and information phase before the trip. In some cases, experiential marketing tools (e.g. emotional images or videos) are used to positively influence tourists’ travel decisions. As part of this research project, an initial study investigated how users of DMO websites experience unknown tourist destinations in the pre-travel phase. To this end, a qualitative multi-method study was conducted from October 2019 to February 2020 using eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews and video observations with 15 German millennials. The data was evaluated in a structuring content analysis. The study provides new insights into the various dimensions of ODEs and was published in the Journal of Qualitative Research in Tourism(article). Building on this, a quantitative study was conducted in fall / winter 2020 to investigate the effect of experiential marketing on the online destination experience using an experimental approach. As part of this, a measurement tool for recording the ODE value of destination websites was tested for the first time.

Project results

The results of the study were published in the Journal of Destination Marketing and Management in November 2021. Finally, as part of another experimental online survey in autumn 2021, the measurement tool was further developed and various factors influencing the experience were analyzed. As a result, a valid, reliable and application-oriented scale (measuring instrument) was developed with which the experience value of destination websites can be recorded before the trip. The findings were published in the Journal of Information Technology and Tourism (JITT) in fall 2022(to the article). The article received an honorable mention in the Journal of Information Technology and Tourism Best Paper Awards 2022. In 2023, the measurement tool will be tested again in the course of a follow-up project in a real website context through on-site surveys on LMO websites. The findings are used in the ITM degree course (focus on digitalization). They were also part of Dr. Anne Köchling's doctoral project at Leuphana University Lüneburg (first supervision: Professor Dr. Martin Lohmann, second supervision: Professor Dr. Bernd Eisenstein), which has since been completed.