Website design in tourism and hospitality : a multilevel review

Abstract

Synthesizing and integrating the works of 78 journal articles on the effect of website design on consumers, this study reconceptualizes and redefines five design features constituting effective website design for tourism and hospitality. The review shows that content and system designs are the most studied design features, followed by social, sensory, and hedonic features. Existing website design research predominantly focuses on website-level outcomes, overlooking the importance of product- and consumer-level outcomes. An integrative framework encompassing the four crucial elements of website design (i.e., design features, outcomes, processes, and conditions) in tourism and hospitality research is proposed.