Evaluation of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) culture applied to the webpages of the hotel industry in the Tarahumara Sierra, Chihuahua, Mexico
Evaluation of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) culture applied to the webpages of the hotel industry in the Tarahumara Sierra, Chihuahua, Mexico
Fonte: Journal of Tourism & Development; v. 2, n. 21/22 (2014); 183-192
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Resumo: Tourism is a fundamental sector of services that seeks to satisfy the wants and needs of local population and tourists. Even though Mexico is positively affected by this activity with its sea and sun proposal, the ecotourism in the Tarahumara Sierra of Chihuahua, Mexico, yields poor results that must be analyzed. The following research pretends to illustrate the lack of ICT culture in the hotel of such region. For instance, from 126 hotels, exclusively 26 have a website allowing the analysis of scientific content. For the purposes of this study and the problems detected, the current methodology reviews existing hotels’ models, in keeping with the requirements as set out by experts of digital media (Christou & Sigala, 2006; Luna, 2012; Garrido & Padilla, 2011) and allows the appropriate selection of pillars from the Webqual model (Loiacano, Watson & Goodhue, 2007). Further interviews with local experts permit the authors to reduce these pillars and to analyze the relevant webpages’ content. The findings identify the limitations of the hotels and the urgent necessity to redesign their web pages to attract tourism. Finally, the following paper intends to help hoteliers to elaborate a policy on digital promotion which is expected to increase tourism and through this, to improve the socioeconomic development of the local community.