Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 21.1
Travellers interacting with the Internet when searching information (Pan and
Fesenmaier 2006).
However, there are commonalities in the chapter level since results show that more than half of
the subjects make their accommodation choice fi rst.
With the amount of travel-related information continuously growing, tools such as search
engines have become increasingly important in directing online travel. The impact of the
Internet has generated a considerable amount of interest in understanding the use of search
engines for travel planning (Xiang
et al
. 2008; Xiang and Gretzel 2010; Fesenmaier
et al
. 2011).
For example, Xiang
et al
. (2008) focus attention on understanding the representation of the
tourism domain on the Internet. Analyses of search results from a major search engine were
conducted in order to assess:
1
the visibility of destination-related information;
2
the visibility of various industry sectors within destinations; and
3
the power structure of websites that represent a specifi c destination.
The results show that although there is a huge amount of information indexed, travellers can
access only a tiny fraction of the domain; also, there are a relatively small number of websites
dominating the search results.
Travel information search is increasingly being captured in travellers' 'footprints' online.
Recently, Xiang and Pan (2011) studied patterns in travel queries using transaction log fi les from
a number of search engines and show important patterns in the way travel queries are constructed
as well as the commonalities and differences in travel queries about different cities in the United
States. The ratio of travel queries among all queries about a specifi c city seems to associate with
the 'touristic' level of that city. Also, keywords in travellers' queries refl ect their knowledge
about the city and its competitors. Fesenmaier
et al
. (2011) suggest that the use of a search engine
