IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i8p2920-d164173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ski Tourism and Web Marketing Strategies: The Case of Ski Resorts in France and Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Eduard Cristobal-Fransi

    (Department of Business Management, University of Lleida, C/Jaume II, 73, 25001 Lleida, Spain)

  • Natalia Daries

    (Department of Business Management, University of Lleida, C/Jaume II, 73, 25001 Lleida, Spain)

  • Antoni Serra-Cantallops

    (Department of Business Economics, University of Balearic Islands, Carretera Valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 Palma, Spain)

  • José Ramón-Cardona

    (Department of Business Economics, Ibiza University College of Tourism, University of Balearic Islands, C/ Bes, 9, 07800 Eivissa–Balearic Islands, Spain)

  • Maria Zorzano

    (Department of Business Management, University of Lleida, C/Jaume II, 73, 25001 Lleida, Spain)

Abstract

The impacts of climate change are affecting ski tourism in Europe’s southernmost ski resorts, such as those in France, and Spain. This is leading to changes in the scheduling of activities which, in turn, imply changes in how ski resorts are managed. The main aim of this work is to analyze whether ski resort websites are developing an effective marketing strategy and if they are adapted to e-commerce and the needs of contemporary society, including the adaptations needed to better face climate change and the stagnation the sector is suffering. In order to achieve this, we have developed a model to analyze ski resort websites; it is based on web content analysis, taking four factors into account: information, communication, e-commerce, and additional functions. We will, secondly, apply the eMICA (Extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption) methodology to analyze the maturity of such e-commerce activities in ski tourism. Fifty-two ski resorts in Spain and 173 in France were analyzed. Results show that, while alpine ski resorts in general, and those in France in particular, are better prepared, resorts still have to facilitate more effective communication and interaction with their target public. A minority of resorts provide information on environmental certifications and snowmaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduard Cristobal-Fransi & Natalia Daries & Antoni Serra-Cantallops & José Ramón-Cardona & Maria Zorzano, 2018. "Ski Tourism and Web Marketing Strategies: The Case of Ski Resorts in France and Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-24, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2920-:d:164173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2920/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2920/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geoff Riddington & Colin Sinclair & Nicola Milne, 2000. "Modelling choice and switching behaviour between Scottish ski centres," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(8), pages 1011-1018.
    2. Stefano Duglio & Riccardo Beltramo, 2016. "Environmental Management and Sustainable Labels in the Ski Industry: A Critical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Martin Falk, 2015. "The Demand for Winter Sports: Empirical Evidence for the Largest French Ski-Lift Operator," Tourism Economics, , vol. 21(3), pages 561-580, June.
    4. Bigné, Enrique & Llinares, Carmen & Torrecilla, Carmen, 2016. "Elapsed time on first buying triggers brand choices within a category: A virtual reality-based study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 1423-1427.
    5. Raquel Santos-Lacueva & Salvador Anton Clavé & Òscar Saladié, 2017. "The Vulnerability of Coastal Tourism Destinations to Climate Change: The Usefulness of Policy Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Assumpcio Huertas & Estela Marine-Roig, 2015. "Destination Brand Communication Through the Social Media: What Contents Trigger Most Reactions of Users?," Springer Books, in: Iis Tussyadiah & Alessandro Inversini (ed.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015, edition 127, pages 295-308, Springer.
    7. Law, Rob & Qi, Shanshan & Buhalis, Dimitrios, 2010. "Progress in tourism management: A review of website evaluation in tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 297-313.
    8. Enrique Bernal Jurado & Adoración Mozas Moral & Miguel Jesús Medina Viruel & Domingo Fernández Uclés, 2018. "Evaluation of Corporate Websites and Their Influence on the Performance of Olive Oil Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-11, April.
    9. Martin Falk, 2009. "Are multi-resort ski conglomerates more efficient?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(8), pages 529-538.
    10. Xiang, Zheng & Gretzel, Ulrike, 2010. "Role of social media in online travel information search," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 179-188.
    11. Falk, Martin, 2010. "A dynamic panel data analysis of snow depth and winter tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 912-924.
    12. Chiou, Wen-Chih & Lin, Chin-Chao & Perng, Chyuan, 2011. "A strategic website evaluation of online travel agencies," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1463-1473.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seungju Nam & Chunghun Ha & Hyun Cheol Lee, 2018. "Redesigning In-Flight Service with Service Blueprint Based on Text Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Ayana Yangutova & Suocheng Dong & Hao Cheng & Shuangjie Xu & Fujia Li & Zehong Li & Menghan Zhang & Jingwen Li & Tcogto Bazarzhapov & Tamir Boldanov, 2023. "Assessing the Competitiveness of the Ski Resources around Lake Baikal (Russia) and Measures for Their Further Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Jesús Barreal & Berta Ferrer-Rosell & Eduard Cristobal-Fransi & Gil Jannes, 2021. "Influence of Service Valuation and Package Cost on Market Segmentation: The Case of Online Demand for Spanish and Andorra Ski Resorts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Xiaoshan He & Jian Ming Luo, 2020. "Relationship among Travel Motivation, Satisfaction and Revisit Intention of Skiers: A Case Study on the Tourists of Urumqi Silk Road Ski Resort," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Teodoro Luque Martínez & Luis Doña Toledo & Nina Faraoni, 2019. "Auditing Marketing and the Use of Social Media at Ski Resorts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, May.
    6. Ferrarese, Moreno & Loner, Enzo & Pulina, Manuela, 2021. "Demand, business profitability and competitiveness in the cableway system: A multidimensional framework," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eduard Cristobal-Fransi & Natalia Daries & Eva Martin-Fuentes & Yolanda Montegut-Salla, 2020. "Industrial Heritage 2.0: Internet Presence and Development of the Electronic Commerce of Industrial Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Tonghui Lian & Caihua Yu & Zhongqun Wang & Zhiping Hou, 2017. "The evaluation study on tourism websites: from the perspective of triangular intuitionistic fuzzy multiple attribute group decision making," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(16), pages 2877-2889, December.
    3. Huang, Zhao & Mou, Jian, 2021. "Gender differences in user perception of usability and performance of online travel agency websites," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Estela Marine-Roig & Eva Martin-Fuentes & Natalia Daries-Ramon, 2017. "User-Generated Social Media Events in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    5. Boštjan Brumen & Marjetka Rangus & Maja Turnšek Hancic & Tanja Lešnik Štuhec & Mitja Gorenak, 2017. "Slovenian Tourism Industry: E-Disabled," Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, University of Primorska Press, vol. 10(1), pages 19-26.
    6. Vo Nga Thi & Chovancová Miloslava & Tri Ho Thanh, 2019. "A major boost to the website performance of up-scale hotels in Vietnam," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 14-30, March.
    7. Molinillo, Sebastian & Liébana-Cabanillas, Francisco & Anaya-Sánchez, Rafael & Buhalis, Dimitrios, 2018. "DMO online platforms: Image and intention to visit," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 116-130.
    8. Iveta Malasevska & Erik Haugom & Gudbrand Lien, 2017. "Modelling and forecasting alpine skier visits," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(3), pages 669-679, May.
    9. Orlikowski, Wanda J. & Scott, Susan V., 2014. "What happens when evaluation goes online? Exploring apparatuses of valuation in the travel sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57602, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Escobar-Rodríguez, T. & Carvajal-Trujillo, E., 2014. "Online purchasing tickets for low cost carriers: An application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 70-88.
    11. Egbert Van der Zee & Dario Bertocchi, 2018. "Finding patterns in urban tourist behaviour: a social network analysis approach based on TripAdvisor reviews," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 153-180, December.
    12. Steiger, Robert & Posch, Eva & Tappeiner, Gottfried & Walde, Janette, 2020. "The impact of climate change on demand of ski tourism - a simulation study based on stated preferences," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    13. Marya Wani & Vishnupriya Raghavan & Dolphy Abraham & Virginia Kleist, 0. "Beyond utilitarian factors: User experience and travel company website successes," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-17.
    14. Salavati, Shahram & Hashim, Noor Hazarina, 2015. "Website adoption and performance by Iranian hotels," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 367-374.
    15. Goncalves, Olga, 2013. "Efficiency and productivity of French ski resorts," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 650-657.
    16. Krakover, Shaul & Corsale, Andrea, 2021. "Sieving tourism destinations: Decision-making processes and destination choice implications," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 33-43.
    17. Aurélie Corne & Olga Goncalves & Nicolas Peypoch, 2020. "Evaluating the performance drivers of French ski resorts: A hierarchical approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 389-405, April.
    18. Jordi Moreno-Gené & Laura Sánchez-Pulido & Eduard Cristobal-Fransi & Natalia Daries, 2018. "The Economic Sustainability of Snow Tourism: The Case of Ski Resorts in Austria, France, and Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, August.
    19. Paolo Enria, 2012. "Local identity and food and wine communication as a lever for place marketing," CERIS Working Paper 201208, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    20. Andrea Runfola & Massimo Rosati & Simone Guercini, 2013. "New business models in online hotel distribution: emerging private sales versus leading IDS," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 7(2), pages 183-205, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2920-:d:164173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.