An Investigation of SMTE Web Site Usage in Australia: Implications for E-Commerce Adoption and Planning Processes*

Abstract

This chapter examines the Web site development and usage practices of Australian small and medium tourism businesses (SMTEs). A list of barriers and motivators to the successful use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in small business are examined, and a profile of Internet usage practices in Australian small businesses in general and SMTEs in particular is provided. One particular barrier that is not matched by a motivator is the lack of effective planning by small businesses. A number of planning models are examined, with one (Burgess, 2002) selected for comparison with the activities of SMTEs in selected parts of urban and rural Australia. Some 59 SMTEs were interviewed for the purpose of assessing their Web site development. In general, SMTEs generally performed a little better than we expected—but not all of them and even those that did had room for improvement. There were some variations between urban and rural SMTEs, but not as many as we expected. The main outcome of this investigation is that, although SMTEs performed slightly better than we would have expected in relation to the planning model, there is still a great deal of scope for those that have performed adequately to perform better and still a great number of SMTEs that do very little planning at all for their Web site implementations.