Virtual accessibility on digital business websites and tourist distribution

Abstract

Globalization has affected the tourism industry as well as tourism products. The Internet has fundamentally reshaped the way tourism-related information is made available and how people plan and consume tourism products. Accessibility to all information must be guaranteed to users in general but also to users with special needs. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. Whereas the realization, or otherwise, of a particular business depends heavily on a set of sen-sations that are experienced at the time of acquisition between the potential cus-tomer and the websites, and this relationship may be positively or negatively af-fected by previous experiences, economic viability may be constrained by such accessibility. Analysis of various websites of travel agents, such as travel agen-cies, airlines and hotels, revealed several weaknesses that may affect the relation-ship with a potential customer.