Evaluation of the websites functionality of the Egyptian intermediaries and defining barriers to online development

Abstract EN

Nowadays e-commerce is playing a big role in the tourism industry.

Information technology has changed this industry in a way that travellers can now plan, reserve and purchase their ideal trips in a fraction of time and money used by traditional methods.

This research focuses on investigating intermediaries websites in Egypt to see where they are standing today from internet technology adoption.

Considering a travel agency's website as a mirror that reflects the organizational commitment and efforts toward customers, if the travel agency's website design is poorly constructed, it neither attracts tourists nor satisfies their needs.

The paper evaluates intermediaries’ websites performance in functionality, interaction and basic information.

The extended model of internet commerce adoption (e-mica) is used to evaluate the level of websites development in Egyptian travel agencies and an interview with three travel agencies is used to gain an insight into the use of the websites and the barriers faced by Egyptian travel agencies for better web development.

A significant finding of the websites evaluation is that according to the e-mica the majority of the websites have only developed to the provision stage