Competitive Analyses for Marketing Electronic Wine Tourism Available to Purchase

Internet characteristics — enhanced distribution customer relationships and information access in an information intensive industry — fit the tourism industry. There is little sense having an Internet presence though if visitors cannot find and use the website or receive answers to their e‐mail inquiries. Research lauds online tourism initiatives, yet little research investigates Internet use in wine tourism. Given the competitive nature of wine tourism, an important research area is what website features and e‐mail policies do wine tourism operations use for better site navigation site popularity and relationship marketing? Two online analyses of eight wine tourism operations, within and outside Western Australia, illustrate a methodology and dozens of possible metrics for analysing the competition and marketing electronic wine tourism. The results give wine tourism managers insights into short‐term competitive advantages via website features and e‐mail policies, and add to the academic literature and future research of the Internet's role in wine tourism.