Francisco Tigre Moura, Juergen Gnoth, and Kenneth R Deans
University of Otago, New Zealand

THE EFFECTS OF LOCALISING CULTURAL VALUES ON TOURISM DESTINATION WEBSITES ON TOURIST’S WILLINGNESS TO TRAVEL

This paper discusses the effects the localisation of cultural values on tourism destination websites on user’s willingness to travel. First, a preliminary research was conducted in order to test and propose adaptations to Singh’s et al. (2005) framework of cultural values localisation on websites. Secondly, the authors conducted an experiment to test the localisation of cultural values on a website of a fictitious destination, developed for the purpose of this research and customised for the New Zealand audience. 400 respondents participated, performing tasks on the site and answering a survey. Results indicate that the exposure of opposite cultural values (i.e. reverse-localisation) to the target audience leads to a higher willingness to travel, contradicting previous works that supports the effectiveness of website localisation.

Keywords: Destination Websites; Website Localisation; Cultural Values.

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