Touristic Websites Performance and Governance Typologies

The paper discusses the results of research, still in progress, regarding the influence of website governance for the promotion of tourism and the balance between delivered services and information. The research aims to test if, according to the common belief, websites owned by private sector organisations focus on the provision of services, compared to public and not-for-profit websites that focus on the provision of information. The relevance of this research topic derives from consideration that the web is a channel for the diffusion, processing, search and storage of tourism information. Therefore, the research can make a contribution to increasing our understanding of how different types of websites (public or private) affect investment in tourism. The study confirms the absence of evidence to suggest that private sector tourism websites offer more services than public or not-for-profit ones. Moreover, public sector websites offer more and different services, compared to private sector websites.