An exploratory study of the tourist-computer interaction: the role of web site usability on hotel quality perception

The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of between the quality of a hotel website towards the tourists’ perception of the hotel overall quality, in relation to the effects of functionalities, language, layout and graphics. We interviewed 50 subjects with experience on online hotel booking and we used the structural equation model to analyse the collected data. Our findings demonstrated the role of layout and graphics on tourists’ perception of the hotel overall quality. The results show both the positive influence of a more appealing website on users’ perception of hotel overall quality and the main influencing factors of a good hotel website from a tourists’ point of view. Hence, it might be appropriate to mix an appealing layout and an effective graphics with more functionalities, by implementing innovative web user’s interfaces for an easier and entertaining browsing.