This paper focuses on the use of the Internet for ecotourism marketing. It discusses the most important features in creating an interesting successful ecotourism web site. As well, some web sites that are appropriate for an ecotourism operator to establish hyperlinks with are listed.
In general, customers want useful, accurate information and entertainment (Bickerstaff, 1996). However, definitions of what constitutes 'useful' and 'entertaining' content differ greatly, depending on the user's profile. Therefore, it is essential that decisions regarding form and order of content are based on the interests and priorities of the target market (DeVito and Porter, nd).
In terms of marketing ecotourism, the text must address the ecotourist's profile. Ecotourists generally demand little by way of amenities or infrastructure, therefore graphic detail of accommodation facilities is unnecessary, except for outlining same in the textual portion. Costa Rica Trailriders (www.phoenix.net/~trailriders/ecotour.htm), provides a good example of the type of accommodation information that should be furnished. It simply states that
...[t]he rooms are 'rustic', which means simple, comfortable and clean... [and] fresh baked bread, fresh fish from the local fishermen, and wonderfully ripe local fruits...supplanted with the Costa Rican staples - rice and beans - are the basis of the meals...Ecotourists are concerned about the environment and conservation. As responsible travellers, they want to ensure that their travels are environmentally-friendly. It is therefore wise for the ecotourism operator to provide information about its philosophy and its contributions towards both environmental and cultural protection. A philosophy statement is included in Kokanee Ecotours Ltd (www.shuswap.bc.ca/sunny/kokanee.htm) and EarthWise Journeys (www.teleport.com/earthwyz/) uses its site to describe its environmental assistance measures. According to the owners of the World Wide Wildlife Directory, testimonials confirming that the ecotourism operator practices responsible tourism are also recommended (Lozinsky and Schultz, 1996). Eco-Adventures in St. Kitts & Nevis (www.interknowledge.com/tkitts-nevis/kneco01.htm) is an example of a site that records past visitors' comments.
Ecotourism sites should concentrate on addressing ecotourists' primary interests - nature and the environment. Since ecotourists place great emphasis on learning, it is important that the ecotourism operator provides factual information about the region's natural and environmental history, problems and attractions. Examples of sites that do this effectively, and which can be used as guidelines, are Kenya-Nepal Ecotourism (www.nrdc.org/amicus96/etnep3.html), which discusses environmental threats being faced by the two countries, and Thoho-ku Ecological Projects (www.expo-yucatan.com/index.htm), which discusses the history and culture of Mexico's Yucatan region. Examples of sites successfully focusing on subjects that interest ecotourists includeThoho-ku Ecological Projects for birdwatching, and Eco- Adventures in St. Kitts & Nevis for medicinal plants.
A second issue inherent in having useful and interesting content is ensuring that content remains current. Failing to provide regular updates and enhancements will discourage users from revisiting the site (Bickerstaff, 1996), thus destroying its marketing value. In order to make updating easily recognizable, the date of the latest version of the page should be included (Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1995). One excellent method for updating, which the any ecotourism operator could easily adopt, is to incorporate a newsletter into its site as Costa Rica Expeditions (www.crexped.co.cr) has done. This newsletter would serve to inform visitors of events and changes weekly.
A third issue regarding content is the provision of a range of links to other relevant sites. This is important for several reasons: outgoing hyperlinks make the site "an integral part of the Web and [help] with 'value-adding' from the perspective of the Internet population" (Bickerstaff, 1996, p 7). Incoming hyperlinks are also important because they provide an excellent way of promoting a site (discussed fully below). For travel related sites, it is particularly useful to provide outgoing links that facilitate the traveller's planning. Doing so will increase the chances of the traveller making a booking. The ecotourism operator should follow the example of sites such as Virtual North: Adventures in Canada (www.virtualnorth.com/vn.html), which provides its visitors with many excellent travel planning related links, including ones to the Canadian Tourism Commission, which provides tips on travelling in Canada, and to the Bank of Canada, which provides currency exchange rates.
Other outgoing links that the ecotourism operator should include in its web site are ones that provide further information on attractions available in the surrounding region. These links are important because they serve to provide learning focused ecotourists with more information, which should increase the odds of their actually making a booking.
The fourth content related issue is that an active link to a contact person, provided via an E-mail address, should be included on each page of the web site. Such a contact allows users to give the ecotourism operator feedback regarding site maintenance and content (DeVito and Porter, nd), and suggestions for developing reciprocal links with other sites. According to the owners of the World Wide Wildlife Directory, an E-mail link is also important because it allows users to electronically request more information. They state that Internet users seem unwilling to accept other methods for requesting additional information, such as having an 800 number. Moreover, they say, using E-mail helps to overcome language problems. For example, foreign customers may be very difficult to understand on the telephone because of their accents, even if they are fluent in the ecotourism operator's language, but this is less of an issue if E-mail is used (Lozinsky and Schultz, 1996).
In order to facilitate requesting information or making bookings, it is useful for the ecotourism operator to provide on-line inquiry forms. Suitable forms can be viewed at the site of Travel 88 (www.internetnorth.com.au/travel88/tvlhome.htm#SpecialServices), an Australian tourism operator that offers ecotourism arrangements. It provides both an on-line questionnaire, used to advise clients of travel options that best suit their needs, and an on-line reservation form, which allows for electronic bookings.
For organizational purposes, it is important that the ecotourism site have a logical/intuitive structure, making it easier for the user to navigate (Bickerstaff, 1995). The menu and tree structure is useful to facilitate individualized browsing. Under this method, the top level of the access menu gives the site's main sections. The second and subsequent levels allow the user to access increasingly more specific information under major headings, depending on their interests (Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1995). An example of an ecotourism site with a well organized menu and tree structure is The Eco-Source (www.podi.com/ecosource).
In terms of navigation, the ecotourism operator must make it easy for visitors to its site to see where they are and where else they can go. Providing clear titles and headings makes navigation easier, as do buttons that allow users the mobility to return to the access menu's top level and sub- headings (DeVito and Porter, nd; Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1995). Costa Rica Expeditions (www.crexped.co.cr) provides a good example of an easily navigated site.
General rules that the ecotourism operator should adhere to include the following. Firstly, site designers should avoid using fancy backgrounds, buttons or images. They are very time consuming to download and may discourage users, even causing the user to leave a site without having viewed it (DeVito and Porter, 1996). An example of an excellent site that may not receive many visitors is Philip Greenspan's Arenal Volcano (www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/cr/arenal.html), which has many wonderful photos, but loads slowly as a result.
Downloading problems also make it inadvisable to use multimedia, such as slide, video or audio shows, in a web site. Safari Expedition Action - Virtual Reality (www.lagamar.com/multi_ch.html) is an example of a site that offers all three of these features, but which is frustratingly slow to download. Moreover, multimedia features would likely be prohibitively costly, because site design costs increase proportionately as more technology is incorporated.
Large maps, pictures and charts that need too wide a window should also be avoided. Web site creators should also use colourful backgrounds cautiously, as they obscure text and colours vary among machines. Such intrusive backgrounds will merely confuse the user and make it more difficult to assimilate the information. For best results, use complementary colours for the text and background. Finally, the use of bouncing balls and flashing icons or buttons should be minimized or altogether avoided because both soon annoy and distract the user (DeVito and Porter, 1996).
When choosing images for an ecotourism web site, it is important that they be closely related to the site's main attractions. This requirement is stressed by the owners of theWorld Wide Wildlife Directory (Lozinsky and Schultz, 1996), who say that being selective is important. While photos are an important factor in securing bookings, they are very time consuming to load. Photos that should be included are ones of any unique geographical features and bird, plant and animal life found in the region.
In general, say the World Wide Wildlife Directory's owners, thumbnail images should be avoided, since they result in the user downloading the same picture twice, albeit in different sizes. One place where expandable images are useful, however, is for obtaining more detail on an image (Lozinsky and Schultz, 1996). An example of a site that could be used as a guide for developing this feature is Virtual North: Adventures in Canada (www.virtualnorth.com/vn.html).
Ecotourists will be more likely to find the ecotourism operator's web site if its uniform record locator (URL) is registered with a wide variety of search engines, the most commonly used method of searching for sites and/or finding information. Using indexing software agents called robots or spiders, search engines constantly 'crawl' the Web in search of new or updated pages (Author Unknown, 1996 (www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm)). An ecotourism operator can help ensure that its URL is found when a user enters an ecotourism keyword in a search engine if the word 'ecotourism' is included in the TITLE tag of its web document. This strategy works, as the text located between tags is the first place accessed by search engines. Also, text between the TITLE tags is what is displayed when a web page is listed in a search (Author Unknown, 1996 (www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm)).
There are also two 'tricks' that can assist in getting an ecotourism operator's
URL listed higher or more frequently on a search engine's results page. Firstly,
site designers can place many hidden ecotourism keywords (e.g.
Ecotourists will be more likely to find an ecotourism site if hyperlinks from
other likely visited sites and directories are also established. Such reciprocal
links can be established in two ways: by requesting that the appropriate
webmaster add a hyperlink to the site, or by paying a commercial directory to
list the site. Site promotion companies, which exist to handle the registration
of uniform record locators with various search engines or directories, can also
be used to help in establishing links.
A variety of web sites exist from which an ecotourism operator might request free
links. Firstly, since it is likely that an ecotourist would visit web sites that
provide general information on the host country in which the particular
ecotourism operator is located, such as those of the country's tourism authority.
Therefore, it is important that the ecotourism operator establish links with any
such appropriate sites.
Links should also be established from willing travel related web sites that
promote ecologically- friendly travel, such as Ecoventure
(134.121.164.23/ecoventure.htm) and Ann Craven's Ecotourism Resource Site
(www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/847/resguide/craven/eco.htm) . Also useful are on-line
magazines like Travel Weekly Online (www.traveller.net/two/),Soft Adventure
Almanac (SoftAdventure.com),The Civilized Explorer
(www.cieux.com/~philip/advntr.html), and Vapour Trails Online Travel Magazine
(www.vaportrails.com).
Since ecotourists are very interested in environmental issues, the ecotourism
operator should also request free links to the various ecologically related
non-travel web sites and directories that allow hyperlinks to commercial sites.
For example, several individuals and organizations have compiled comprehensive
environmental directories, including environmentally friendly tourism businesses.
Such directories include Eco-Links (www.envirolink.org/EcoLink/ecolinks.html),
Largoran Strandberg's Ecology Page (www.lib.kth.se/~lg/envsite.htm), Ecological
Society of Australia Incorporated (life.csu.edu.au/eas/esahome.html), EnviroLink
Network (www.envirolink.org/envirohome.html), Ecology WWW Page
(herb.biol.uregina.ca/liu/bio/Ecology.html) and Econet
(www.econet.apc.org/econet/).
The ecotourism operator should also establish hyperlinks from appropriate nature
oriented sites and directories. One example is birdwatching, an activity which
is popular among ecotourists. Birdlinks
(pcchung.rug.nl/mk/people/wpr/birdlink.html), The Owl,
(www.bright.net/~vfazio/the-owl/htm), and Birding on the Web
(compstat.wharton.upenn.edu:8001/~siler/birding.html), are excellent link sites.
The ecotourism operator should also look for other nature-related pages and
directories whose users would be interested in the surrounding region's
attractions. For example, sites dealing with such subjects as Vulcanology,
Nature Photography, Organic Agriculture and Medicinal Plants might be appropriate
for ecotourism operator to establish links with.
Bickerstaff, Bruce. 1996. We Dreamt of a Warm Busy Plaza and Got a Lonely
Billboard in Cyberspace - What Went Wrong with Our Company Web Site?
http://www.mhs.oz.au/g_day/intconf.html B DeVito, Ann and John Porter. No date.
Practical Suggestions to Bear in Mind when Designing or Evaluating a WWW Site,
http://www.usask.ca/classics/webdesign.html
Ellsworth, Jill H & Matthew V Ellsworth. 1995. Marketing on the Internet:
Multimedia Strategies for the World Wide Web, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lozinsky, Bob and Robert Schultz. 1996. World Wide Wilderness Directory.
Personal interview.
McMinn, Howard. No date. Internet Search Tool,
http://gopher.libraries.wayne.edu/sel/search.html
1997 Copyright Judy Karwacki. The author, who resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
is a consultant. She
specializes in ecotourism, and is especially interested in the role that
ecotourism plays in community economic development. Email: JKarwacki@kpmg.ca.
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Headlines 4.1 Establishing Free Hyperlinks
Many individual web sites and Internet directories will add links to other
related sites without charge, upon receiving such a request by E-mail.
Considering that most ecotourism operators have limited marketing funds, they
should take full advantage of all free hyperlinks available. Such free links can
be established by surfing the Internet to search for suitable sites and
requesting that Webmasters of those sites add a link to the ecotourism operator's
site. Further, the ecotourism operator should post a note on its pages
requesting that visitors send E-mail suggestions of other appropriate links.4.2 Commercial Hyperlink Services
While many sites and directories offer free hyperlinks, others do so for a fee.
The ecotourism operator should consider experimenting with such links, since the
fees are usually relatively low and represent an inexpensive form of advertising.
According to the World Wide Wilderness Directory's owner's, being part of a
directory service makes a site easier for users to find (Lozinsky and Schultz,
1996). Directories promoting adventure and/or ecologically-minded recreation
should definitely be considered. Some of the directories that should be
considered include Specialty Travel Index (www.spectrav.com/ecotour.html), The
Green Arrow Guide to Central American Ecotourism
(www.greenarrow.com/ecohome1.html), El Planeta Platica
(www.planeta.com), the Great Outdoor
Recreation Pages (www.gorp.com/gorp/about.htm), and World Wide Wilderness
Directory (www.wbm.ca/wilderness/).4.3 Site Promotion Services
The ecotourism operator could use a site promotion service rather than
registering its URL with each individual search engine and directory. When
using such services, an ecotourism operator might fill out a master form,
selecting the various search engines and directories to which to post its URL.
Some services also send announcements of new Web sites and updates to existing
ones directly to its subscribers on topics they have identified as being of
interest. An example of a site promotion service is Submit It!
(www.submit-it.com/).4.4 Providing Incentives
Building and maintaining a web site require considerable effort and money on the
part of the ecotourism operator. Consequently, it is imperative that all
possible enticements be used to attract Internet users to visit a web site. In
terms of attracting ecotourists, incentives that may prove useful include
down-loadable offerings. For example, the ecotourism operator could provide a
down-loadable travel planner or a screensaver that features a scene of ecotourist-related interest.5.0 Conclusion
The Internet provides a new and relatively inexpensive medium for marketing
ecotourism sites. Moreover, it has an unparalleled ability to reach ecotourists
all over the world. Its graphical and interactive capabilities allow ecotourism
operators to effectively advertise their products and communicate on a global
basis. By incorporating the recommendations in this paper, the ecotourism
operator can increase its odds of successfully marketing its product on the
Internet.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
Author Unknown. 1996. http://www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm.PLANETA.COM GUIDES
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