A comparison study of the web site usage as marketing tool in hotel industry

An increasing number of companies are establishing a presence on the Internet. Information technology, marketing and sales, as well as public relations are driving companies to develop a web site. Marketing activities have traditionally been conducted via communication, transaction and distribution channels. Today activities from these channels can be performed on the Internet and the World Wide Web. The Internet as a marketing medium is on its way to become the easiest and most cost effective way to global marketing. This phenomenon provides a new opportunity for small companies in particular, considering that they can make use of this tool at a relatively low cost. The purpose with this thesis was to investigate how companies use their web sites as a marketing tool. To reach the objective we have studied the objectives of five companies as it related to web site usage as marketing tool in hotel industry and investigate the development of their web sites. It is conducted from a multiple case study of five Hotel companies and have used interviews, web observation and questionnaire to collect data. This study shows that the companies' primary objectives are related to marketing communication and they prefer to design and maintain the site themselves.