E-Tourism for Sustainable Development through Alternative Tourism Activities

Abstract

E-tourism refers to the broader integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the tourism sector and infrastructure. In this context, tourists can choose the travel destination, use price comparison sites and buy online tickets at low prices, while tourism entrepreneurs enhance their marketing strategies in response to the increasing demands of modern tourism Over the last few decades, alternative tourism has gained considerable interest among tourists and enterprises in the tourism industry. At the same time, it acts as an enabler and a facilitator of sustainable development. This paper presents an overview of the current situation of content characteristics of the websites of enterprises involved with alternative tourism services in Greece. The websites are evaluated according to 30 characteristics through multicriteria method. Furthermore, the final ranking of websites is presented to identify the most successful strategies, as well as the website that need improvements. According to the results, an e-tourism website model is suggested for the entrepreneurs to exploit the opportunities that arise in the digitalization transformation of the tourism industry.