Abstract:

Despite the continuously increasing number of published work on the use of the internet in tourism and hospitality literature, little has been written on destination based comparisons and lessons to be learned from the successful practices. Indeed, analyzing the well performing destinations and comparing their practices with not so well performing counterparts would provide useful insights for the hotels around the world in general and later hotels in particular. The aim of the study is first to find out the use of the Internet in the hotel industries of two tourist destinations, namely Hong Kong and Northern Cyprus then compare the internet related practices carried out by hotels in these two locations. To do so, a research process carried out through members of major hotel associations in both locations. The research process was carried out by using a questionnaire that developed for front office and marketing managers of 56 hotels in Hong Kong and 47 in Northern Cyprus. According to research findings hotels in Northern Cyprus are not efficient in internet using than hotels in Hong Kong especially in having professional service in designing their websites, updating, online reservation, registering search engines etc. Discussion of research findings, implications and limitations are also given.