di Tonino Pencarelli, Marco Cioppi, Simone Splendiani e Mauro Dini

in Place Branding. Connecting tourist experiences to places” Foroudi P., Mauri C., Dennis C., Melewar T. (Eds), 2019, Routledge

Introduction

The aim of this study is to analyze and to assess the communication effectiveness of tourism websites in the 28 Member States of the European Community. In particular, the objective of the research is to verify how destination managers use the Internet to communicate the values, the unique characteristics, and the strengths that distinguish their nations and then, to persuade tourists to choose that nation as their holiday destination. The study is based on an analysis of the main issues that influence brand destination policies implemented by the various nations through their tourism website. A three-dimensional analysis model is proposed, in order to offer a set of items able to guide researchers and scholars in the evaluation of websites, but also destination managers or operators. These elements make it possible to bond with potential tourists and offer them an interactive experience that is essential to the image formation process of the destinations.