Title: E-government application in promoting local tourism in China: an empirical study

Authors: Xiaoning Zhu; Jiaqin Yang; Mike Whitfield

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, University of Sciences & Technology – Beijing Beijing 100083, China ' Department of Management, Georgia College & State University – Milledgeville, Milledgeville 31061, Georgia, USA ' Department of Management, Georgia College & State University – Milledgeville, Milledgeville 31061, Georgia, USA

Abstract: As tourism becomes an important factor in local economic development, all local government websites should provide the tourism information and related links online to promote local tourism industry. This research is an attempt to investigate the current issues and development of the application of e-government in promoting local tourism industry for medium and small cities throughout China. The primary data for this research are collected through a comprehensive website evaluation. The results show that half of the websites need to enrich their tourism content for a more effective design. The managerial implications for future research are also discussed.

Keywords: e-government; e-finance; fuzzy TOPSIS; local government websites; tourism industry; China; electronic government; electronic finance; economic development; regional development; tourist information.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEF.2012.046591

International Journal of Electronic Finance, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.13 - 34

Published online: 01 May 2012 *

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