Show cave websites in Serbia: Evaluation and potential improvements

Aleksandar Antić; Nataša Dragović; Nemanja Tomić

doi:10.5937/menhottur2101011A

Authors

Aleksandar Antić University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6973-7671
Nataša Dragović University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6074-3912
Nemanja Tomić University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad, Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5937/menhottur2101011A

Keywords:

show caves, website assessment, speleotourism, tourism promotion

Abstract

Show caves and speleotourism can have a major impact on the tourism industry as well as the local and regional economic development. Promotion is a crucial aspect of generating plans and strategies for tourist caves. In the case of speleotourism, promotion needs to be professional, attractive and continuous because caves are often considered to be dangerous and inaccessible places. The main goal of this paper is to determine the quality of official show cave websites in Serbia. The assessment included the application of modified Website evaluation model. Website design techniques were also assessed, including the performance and the degree of optimization for search engines SEO. The results show extreme deficiencies and weaknesses regarding the level of internet promotion of Serbian show (tourist) caves. These results are of great importance for cave management teams and tourist organizations because they point out the negative factors of cave promotion in Serbia that need to be revised.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Antić, A. (2018). Speleotourism potential and tourist experience in Resava cave. Menadžment u Hotelijerstvu i Turizmu– Hotel and Tourism Management, 6(2), 61–69. https://doi.org/10.5937/menhottur1802069A

Antić, A., Tomić, N., & Marković, S. (2019). Karst geoheritage and geotourism potential in the Pek River lower basin (Eastern Serbia). Geographica Pannonica, 23(1), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.5937/gp23-20463

Arasi Paniandi, T., Albattat, A. R., Bijami, M., Alexander, A., & Balekrisna, V. (2018). Marketing mix and destination image, Case study: Batu Caves as a religious destination. Almatourism, 9(17), 165–186. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-5195/7246

Beraaouz, M., Macadam, J., Bouchaou, L., Ikenne, M., Ernst, R., Tagma, T., & Masrour, M. (2019). An inventory of geoheritage sites in the Draa Valley (Morocco): A contribution to promotion of geotourism and sustainable development. Geoheritage, 11(2), 241–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-017-0256-x

Cao, K., & Yang, Z. (2016). A study of e-commerce adoption by tourism websites in China. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5(3), 283–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.01.005

Cigna, A. A. (2016). Tourism and show caves. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, 60, 217–233.

Ford, D. C., & Williams, P. (2007). Karst hydrogeology and geomorphology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Garofano, M., & Govoni, D. (2012). Underground geotourism: A historic and economic overview of show caves and show mines in Italy. Geoheritage, 4(1), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-012-0055-3

Giannakoulopoulos, A., Konstantinou, N., Koutsompolis, D., Pergantis, M., & Varlamis, I. (2019). Academic excellence, website quality, SEO performance: Is there a correlation? Future Internet, 11(11), 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11110242

Gómez-Martín, M. B., Armesto-López, X. A., & Martínez-Ibarra, E. (2017). Tourists, weather and climate. Official tourism promotion websites as a source of information. Atmosphere, 8(12), 255. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8120255

Hays, S., Page, S. J., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media as a destination marketing tool: Its use by national tourism organisations. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(3), 211–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2012.662215

Ioanna, P., & Yioula, M. (2012). Social media: Marketing public relations‘ new best friends. Journal of Promotion Management, 18(3), 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2012.696458

Jovičić, D. Z. (2019). From the traditional understanding of tourism destination to the smart tourism destination. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(3), 276–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2017.1313203

Kamperman Sanders, A., Falcão, T., Haider, A., Jambeck, J., LaPointe, C., Vickers, C., Ziebarth, N., & Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (UN/DESA) (2018). World economic and social survey 2018: Frontier technologies for sustainable development. United Nations.

Krisjanous, J. (2016). An exploratory multimodal discourse analysis of dark tourism websites: Communicating issues around contested sites. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5(4), 341–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.07.005

Król, K., & Zdonek, D. (2020). Aggregated indices in website quality assessment. Future Internet, 12(4), 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12040072

Lazarević, R. (2000). Geomorfologija. Banja Luka, Bosna i Hercegovina: Prirodnomatematički fakultet, Odsek za geografiju.

Li, J., Whitlow, M., Bitsura-Meszaros, K., Leung, Y. F., & Barbieri, C. (2016). A preliminary evaluation of World Heritage tourism promotion: Comparing websites from Australia, China, and Mexico. Tourism Planning & Development, 13(3), 370–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2015.1101393

Liu, X., & Li, Z. (2019). Grouping tourist complaints: What are inbound visitors ‘ problems with Chinese destinations? Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 24(4), 348–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2018.1564682

Musa, G., Najmin, S., Thirumoorthi, T., & Taha, A. Z. (2017). Examining visitors ‘ experience with Batu Cave, using the four realm experiential theory. International Journal of Tourism Cities, 3(2), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-10-2016-0037

Oguamanam, C. C., & Nwankwo, E. A. (2015). Sustainable development plans for caves in Southeast Nigeria for tourism. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Sports, 3, 20–25.

Okonkwo, E. E., Afoma, E., & Martha, I. (2017). Cave tourism and its implications to tourism development in Nigeria: A case study of Agu-Owuru cave in Ezeagu. International Journal of Research in Tourism and Hospitality, 3(3), 16–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2455-0043.0303003

Palmer, A., & Bejou, D. (1995). Tourism destination marketing alliances. Annals of Tourism Research, 22(3), 616–629. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(95)00010-4

Papadopoulos, N., & Heslop, L. A. (2014). Product-country images: Impact and role in international marketing. London, UK: Routledge.

Petroviš, A. (2005). Speleoturizam u Srbiji – Stanje i perspektive razvoja. Zbornik radova - Geografski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, 54, 183–194.

Tičar, J., Tomić, N., Breg Valjavec, M., Zorn, M., Marković, B. S., & Gavrilov, B. M. (2018). Speleotourism in Slovenia: Balancing between mass tourism and geoheritage protection. Open Geosciences, 10, 344–357. https://doi.org/10.1515/geo-2018-0027

Tomić, N., Antić, A., Marković, S. B., đorĐević, T., Zorn, M., & Valjavec, M. B. (2019). Exploring the potential for speleotourism development in Eastern Serbia. Geoheritage, 11(2), 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-0288-x

Vuković, S., & Antić, A. (2019). Speleological approach for geotourism development in Zlatibor county (West Serbia). Turizam, 23(1), 53–68. https://doi.org/10.5937/turizam23-21325

Vyas, C. (2019). Evaluating state tourism websites using Search Engine Optimization tools. Tourism Management, 73, 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.01.019

Walker, S. M. (2007). Caves. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Lerner Publications.

Wozniak, T., Stangl, B., Schegg, R., & Liebrich, A. (2017). The return on tourism organizations‘ social media investments: Preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Information Technology & Tourism, 17(1), 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-017-0077-4