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Web-site Marketing for the Tourism Industry

© 2001, CORNELL UNIVERSITY Gathering marketing data via web crawlers is an intriguing idea, but its time may have yet to come. The accompanying article, “Web-site Marketing for the Travel-and-Tourism Industry,” describes an innovative approach to data gathering designed to produce reasonably reliable databases that can be exploited for marketing purposes in the travel-and-tourism industry. The idea presented by Lau et al. represents a good example of an original technique that recognizes and aims to exploit the ongoing movement of information to a digital format available via the internet (see pages 55–62). Marketers continue to seek ways for compiling accurate databases of personal life-stage, socio-economic, and behavioral characteristics for prospective customers. As the barriers to publishing on the web diminish, a growing number of individuals may join the ranks of online publishers of personal information. As the authors point out in their article, such a growing database may create a wealth of marketing opportunities. One opportunity is the ability to use software agents, without human intervention, to collect, categorize, and store large amounts of personal customer information in a costeffective manner for later data mining. A second opportunity is the ability to collect the desired information directly from the primary source rather than having to purchase it from secondary sources. While Lau and his colleagues correctly recognize that personal web pages may not be entirely accurate (since the posters all too often do not maintain them over time), this problem may be resolved by searching only web pages for which their authors have an incentive to maintain accurate and up-todate information. Those could include, for example, personal web pages hosted by dating and matchmaking web sites, other virtual communities focused on some narrow interest (e.g., travelers, hobbyists), or even online directories (e.g., AOL members directory, ICQ members directory). As the technical challenges to querying dynamic database libraries for the purpose of automatic data collections are overcome (as Lau et al. suggest will occur), the focus on virtual communities would likely reduce the problem of collecting accurate information, because clearly defined data dictionaries could be developed. While the data-gathering model proposed by the Lau group is innovative and certainly intriguing, it has potentially critical limitations that must be recognized. In this article I seek to point out the risks and potential pitfalls that practicing marketers should consider before embarking on a technology project of this magnitude. The downside to their methodology involves ethical issues, public-relations challenges, and technical feasibility.