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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2007 pp 469–480Cite as

Internet Use by Hospitality SMEs in Alpine Destinations

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Abstract

This study examined Internet use by a representative sample of 182 hospitality enterprises from six Alpine destinations — Germany (Allgäu), Austria (Bodensee-Vorarlberg, Kleinwalsertal and Montafon) and Switzerland (Davos and Savognin) — within the framework of the eFitness Benchmarking project. The study adds to the limited research of evolving IT adoption in tourism and shows that the website age reflects the presence of advanced website features and IT usage. Clustering techniques classified the accommodation enterprises into four clusters based on website features. The clusters illustrate how adoption evolves from basic to advanced IT use. In line with prior research, there were significant positive relationships between cluster membership and firm size, category and affiliation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Economie & Tourisme, University of Applied Sciences Valais, Switzerland

    Roland Schegg & Miriam Scaglione

  2. Institut für Tourismuswirtschaft, Hochschule für Wirtschaft in Luzern, Switzerland

    Andreas Liebrich

  3. School of Business, University of Western Australia, Australia

    Jamie Murphy

Authors
  1. Roland Schegg
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  2. Miriam Scaglione
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  3. Andreas Liebrich
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  4. Jamie Murphy
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece

    Marianna Sigala

  2. Dipartimento di Informatica e Studi Aziendali, Universitá degli Studi di Trento, Trento, Italy

    Luisa Mich

  3. School of Business, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Jamie Murphy

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Wien

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Schegg, R., Scaglione, M., Liebrich, A., Murphy, J. (2007). Internet Use by Hospitality SMEs in Alpine Destinations. In: Sigala, M., Mich, L., Murphy, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2007. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-69566-1_43

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-69566-1_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-69564-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-211-69566-1

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