IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v47y2015icp79-87.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The power of search engine ranking for tourist destinations

Author

Listed:
  • Pan, Bing

Abstract

Most online travelers in the United States use search engines to seek out travel information. Thus, Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) need to attract clicks through returned results on search engines. We modeled clickthrough rates (CTRs) of several published clickthrough reports and investigate the CTRs of a DMO's webpages on different ranks of different properties (web, image, and mobile searches) on a search engine. The results validated the power-law distribution of CTRs on different ranks: the top results attract high CTRs but the rates decrease precipitously when the ranks go down. However, top ranks are a necessary condition but not a sufficient one: many top ranked results have low CTRs. Image search and mobile search have different CTR curves, providing different opportunities for tourism destinations and businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Pan, Bing, 2015. "The power of search engine ranking for tourist destinations," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 79-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:47:y:2015:i:c:p:79-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517714001678
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gandal, Neil, 2001. "The dynamics of competition in the internet search engine market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1103-1117, July.
    2. Plaza, Beatriz, 2011. "Google Analytics for measuring website performance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 477-481.
    3. Bernard J. Jansen & Udo Pooch, 2001. "A review of Web searching studies and a framework for future research," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 52(3), pages 235-246.
    4. Juan Feng & Hemant K. Bhargava & David M. Pennock, 2007. "Implementing Sponsored Search in Web Search Engines: Computational Evaluation of Alternative Mechanisms," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 137-148, February.
    5. Xiang, Zheng & Gretzel, Ulrike, 2010. "Role of social media in online travel information search," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 179-188.
    6. Anindya Ghose & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis & Beibei Li, 2014. "Examining the Impact of Ranking on Consumer Behavior and Search Engine Revenue," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(7), pages 1632-1654, July.
    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. Koen Arts & Maiara Thaisa Oliveira Rabelo & Daniela Maimoni De Figueiredo & Georgina Maffey & Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris & Pierre Girard, 2018. "Online and Offline Representations of Biocultural Diversity: A Political Ecology Perspective on Nature-Based Tourism and Indigenous Communities in the Brazilian Pantanal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Fengzhi Sun & Zihan Li & Mingzhi Xu & Mingcan Han, 2024. "New Changes in Chinese Urban Tourism Pattern under the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic: Based on Internet Attention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Gerard Loosschilder & Jean-Pierre I. Rest & Zvi Schwartz & Paolo Cordella & Dirk Sierag, 2017. "From OTA interface design to hotels’ revenues: the impact of sorting and filtering functionalities on consumer choices," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(2), pages 125-138, April.
    4. Theodoros Lappas & Gaurav Sabnis & Georgios Valkanas, 2016. "The Impact of Fake Reviews on Online Visibility: A Vulnerability Assessment of the Hotel Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 940-961, December.
    5. Marios Kokkodis & Theodoros Lappas, 2020. "Your Hometown Matters: Popularity-Difference Bias in Online Reputation Platforms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 412-430, June.
    6. Leask, Anna, 2016. "Visitor attraction management: A critical review of research 2009–2014," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 334-361.
    7. Hulya Bakirtas & Vildan Gulpinar Demirci, 2022. "Can Google Trends data provide information on consumer’s perception regarding hotel brands?," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 57-83, March.
    8. Francisco E. Cabrera & Manuel Amaya & Gustavo Fabián Vaccaro Witt & José Ignacio Peláez, 2019. "Pairwise Voting to Rank Touristic Destinations Based on Preference Valuation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-13, October.
    9. Shenzhen Tian & Xueming Li & Jun Yang & Hui Wang & Jianke Guo, 2023. "Spatiotemporal evolution of pseudo human settlements: case study of 36 cities in the three provinces of Northeast China from 2011 to 2018," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1742-1772, February.

    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. Iwanicki Grzegorz & Dłużewska Anna & Kay Melanie Smith, 2016. "Assessing the Level of Popularity of European Stag Tourism Destinations," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 35(3), pages 15-29, September.
    2. Di Fatta, Davide & Patton, Dean & Viglia, Giampaolo, 2018. "The determinants of conversion rates in SME e-commerce websites," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 161-168.
    3. Thomas A. Weber & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, 2007. "A Model of Search Intermediaries and Paid Referrals," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 414-436, December.
    4. Baka, Vasiliki, 2016. "The becoming of user-generated reviews: Looking at the past to understand the future of managing reputation in the travel sector," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 148-162.
    5. Abou Nabout, Nadia & Skiera, Bernd, 2012. "Return on Quality Improvements in Search Engine Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 141-154.
    6. Babur De los Santos & Sergei Koulayev, 2017. "Optimizing Click-Through in Online Rankings with Endogenous Search Refinement," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(4), pages 542-564, July.
    7. Mahan, Joseph E. & Seo, Won Jae & Jordan, Jeremy S. & Funk, Daniel, 2015. "Exploring the impact of social networking sites on running involvement, running behavior, and social life satisfaction," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 182-192.
    8. Tao Liu & Ying Zhang & Huan Zhang & Xiping Yang, 2021. "A Methodological Workflow for Deriving the Association of Tourist Destinations Based on Online Travel Reviews: A Case Study of Yunnan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    9. Carattini, Stefano & Gillingham, Kenneth & Meng, Xiangyu & Yoeli, Erez, 2024. "Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 340-370.
    10. Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani & T. Ramayah & Nalini Suppiah & Osama Alfarraj & Nasser Alalwan, 2020. "Modeling Blog Usage From a Developing Country Perspective Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    11. Sharma, Mahak & Antony, Rose & Sehrawat, Rajat & Cruz, Angel Contreras & Daim, Tugrul U., 2022. "Exploring post-adoption behaviors of e-service users: Evidence from the hospitality sector /online travel services," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Yanlong Guo & Jiaying Yu & Han Zhang & Zuoqing Jiang, 2022. "A Study on Cultural Context Perception in Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Reserve Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    13. 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.
    14. Qu, Hailin & Lee, Haeyoung, 2011. "Travelers’ social identification and membership behaviors in online travel community," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1262-1270.
    15. Li, Xiangping & Li, Xiang (Robert) & Hudson, Simon, 2013. "The application of generational theory to tourism consumer behavior: An American perspective," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 147-164.
    16. Benjamin Appiah Osei & Ama Nyenkua Abenyin, 2016. "Applying the Engell–Kollat–Blackwell model in understanding international tourists’ use of social media for travel decision to Ghana," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 265-284, September.
    17. Antoniadis, Konstantinos & Grougiou, Vasiliki & Zafiropoulos, Kostas & Vrana, Vasiliki & Theocharidis, Anastasios Ioannis, 2018. "The use of Facebook and Twitter by DMOs in Europe," MPRA Paper 98936, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Doris Chenguang Wu & Shiteng Zhong & Richard T R Qiu & Ji Wu, 2022. "Are customer reviews just reviews? Hotel forecasting using sentiment analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(3), pages 795-816, May.
    19. Tomasz Stanisław Szopiński & Robert Nowacki, 2014. "Plane Ticket Price Dispersion in the Online Selling System in Poland," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 8(2), June.
    20. Torres, Juan Pablo & Barrera, Jose Ignacio & Kunc, Martin & Charters, Steve, 2021. "The dynamics of wine tourism adoption in Chile," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 474-485.

    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:eee:touman:v:47:y:2015:i:c:p:79-87. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    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.