PROMOTING OF AGROTOURISM ON THE INTERNET – A LESSON FROM THE VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES


Abstract

Research results of chosen aspects of agrotourism promotion on the Internet in Visegrad Group countries are presented in this paper. Surveys were performed in three stages. In the first stage, visibility of agrotouristic farms websites in search results was examined. In the second stage, an attempt
was made to measure to what extent websites of agrotouristic farms “reach the recipients”. And in the third stage, selected aspects of their usage techniques were tested. The surveys show that farms from Visegrad Group countries, which carry out rural agrotourism and make attempts to find customers via
the Internet, lose the race on the Web with entities from the IT field. Such entities provide big business portals that accumulate various accommodation offers. They are the ones with the help that makes it possible to find recreation offers in the countryside in a simple and quick way. Some recommendations
resulting from the performed surveys is merging farms into organised groups, associations and clusters and promoting on the Internet. Websites that present unique content and a greater number of offers have a greater opportunity be rank high in search results. This, in turn, can result in the number of displays of a website and in use of lodgings. Therefore, decisions about a competitive advantage can be made.

Keywords

agrotourism; promotion of agrotourism; internet marketing; quality of website

Abrhám, J. (2014). Clusters in tourism, agriculture and food processing within the Visegrad Group. Agric. Econ. – Czech, 60(5), 208–218.

Baturay, M. H., Birtane, M. (2013). Responsive Web Design: a New Type of Design for Web-based Instructional Content. Procedia–Social and Behavioral Sciences, 106. 2275–2279. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.259.

Buhalis, D., Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet – The state of eTourism research. Tourism Management, 29(4), 609-623. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2008.01.005.

Buday, Š., Federičová, Z., Vajcíková, R. (2009). Diversification of farm business. Agric. Econ. – Czech, 55, 77–83.

Epstein, R., Robertson, R. E. (2015). The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(33), E4512–E4521. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419828112.

Gałaś, S., Gałaś, A., Zeleňáková, M., Zvijáková, L., Fialová, J., Kubíčková, H. (2015). Environmental Impact Assessment in the Visegrad Group Countries. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 55, 11–20. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2015.06.006.

Hennyeyová, K., Depeš, P. (2010). Analysis of the exploitation of information and communication technologies in the agri-food sector companies. Agric. Econ. – Czech, 56, 403–408.

Jarábková, J. (2010). The rural areas – the unutilized potential in light of tourism. Agric. Econ. – Czech, 56, 532–539.

Jerath, K., Ma, L., Park, Y. H. (2014). Consumer Click Behavior at a Search Engine: The Role of Keyword Popularity. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(4), 480–486.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmr.13.0099.

Killoran, J. B. (2013). How to Use Search Engine Optimization Techniques to Increase Website Visibility. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 56(1), 50–66. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2012.2237255.

Konečný, O. (2014). Geographical perspectives on agritourism in the Czech Republic. Moravian Geographical Reports, 22(1), 15–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgr-2014-0002.

Lazer, D., Kennedy, R., King, G., Vespignani, A. (2014). The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis. Science, 343(6176). 1203–1205. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1248506.

Multazam, M., Purnama, B. E. (2015). Influence Of Classified Ad On Google Page Rank And Number Of Visitors. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 81(2), 174–181.

Palmer, J. W. (2002). Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics. Information Systems Research, 13(2), 151–167.

Pan, B. (2015). The power of search engine ranking for tourist destinations. Tourism Management, 47, 79–87. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.015

Paraskevas, A., Katsogridakis, I., Law, R., Buhalis, D. (2011). Search Engine Marketing: Transforming Search Engines into Hotel Distribution Channels. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52(2): 200–208.

Shih, B. Y., Chen, C. Y., Chen, Z. S. (2013). An Empirical Study of an Internet Marketing Strategy for Search Engine Optimization. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, 23(6), 528–540. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20348

Šimková, E. (2007). Strategic approaches to rural tourism and sustainable development of rural areas. Agric. Econ. – Czech, 53, 263–270.

Törő, C., Butler, E., Grúber, K. (2014). Visegrád: The Evolving Pattern of Coordination and Partnership After EU Enlargement. Europe–Asia Studies, 66(3), 364–393. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2013.855392

Vaughan-Nichols, S. J. (2010). Will HTML 5 Restandardize the Web?. Computer, 43(4), 13–15.

Wang, D., Fesenmaier, D.R. (2012). The Role of Smartphones in Mediating the Touristic Experience. Journal of Travel Research, 51(4), 371–387.

Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism Management, 31(2), 179–188. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.02.016

Xiang, Z., Wöber, K., Fesenmaier, D. R. (2008). Representation of the Online Tourism Domain in Search Engines. Journal of Travel Research, 47(2), 137–150.
Download

Published : 2017-12-31


Karol, K. (2017). PROMOTING OF AGROTOURISM ON THE INTERNET – A LESSON FROM THE VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES. Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 46(4), 805–813. https://doi.org/10.17306/J.JARD.2017.00383

Król Karol  k.krol@onet.com.pl
University of Agriculture in Krakow, Polnad  Poland


CitedBy Crossref
1

CitedBy Scopus
0

HTML tutorial

This journal permits and encourages authors to post items submitted to the journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication, while providing bibliographic details that credit, if applicable, its publication in this journal.