Title: The promotion of tourism in Italian regions from a sensorial perspective: a website content analysis

Authors: Loredana Picciotto; Marcantonio Ruisi; Rodolfo Damiano

Addresses: Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 13, 90128, Palermo, Italy ' Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 13, 90128, Palermo, Italy ' Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Building 13, 90128, Palermo, Italy

Abstract: Recent tourism literature has identified the sensory dimension as key to understanding, planning and marketing tourist experiences. This paper aims to understand to what extent Italian regions consider the sensorial perspective in tourist communication, focusing the analysis on their institutional websites. We used the content analysis method considering two different periods to investigate the evolution of Italian tourism promotion. The results show that for all institutional websites, over time, attention engages only some of the five sensorial dimensions. That is, the communication does not appear balanced. Furthermore, the promotional communication in several regions is more oriented towards a specific human sense in both periods. Empirical evidence can offer useful knowledge to those involved in the planning and promotion of tourist offerings, as well as to managers, to develop a stronger and more attractive destination image.

Keywords: multisensory destination image; destination image; destination management; tourist communication; tourist promotion; tourism websites; website design; sensory tourist experiences; sensory marketing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDCET.2022.120831

International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2022 Vol.4 No.1, pp.36 - 61

Received: 02 Apr 2021
Accepted: 08 Aug 2021
Published online: 11 Feb 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article