USABILITY OF TRAVEL WEBSITES (MAKEMYTRIP, TRIVAGO, GOIBOBO)

Abstract

Tourism industry is making tremendous contribution to global economy. Tourism has a strong connection with socio-economic progress of the country and has a multiplier effect on the economy. There are large numbers of people who decide on their travel plans by searching online. Internet can provide direct contact making it easier to create customized packages by liking with several companies’ websites. It is very important to evaluate the websites to improve the experience of visitors. It is important to understand the ways to improve the visitors experience and adding value to the websites. The online manager should understand what type of information one is specially looking for in a website. It can be visual appeal, the content or the ease of use or service quality. Thus, the study will provide insights about the internet users' feelings towards information seeking and online travel booking and also help to know their experience, level of satisfaction and purchase intention in future. Thus, the research study would be useful to online travel marketers to better develop appropriate strategies to enhance and promote e-booking to future users while retaining existing customers and also to researchers as well as academicians conducting research in this area in providing future direction. Through this paper I wants to evaluate the customer perceived value from travel websites and identify usability problems as well as recommendations for improvement of travel websites. Moreover, due to increasing players in online travel industry, the consumers have different preferences and perceptions regarding them. It also revealed that researchers have tried to study online consumer shopping behaviour in general but no such specific study to understand consumers 'perceptions related to online travel has yet been done. As consumers' perceptions and attitude towards online travelling is a prominent factor affecting actual buying behaviour, this research has tried to investigate a modest part of that area.