Evaluation of Official Tourism Websites of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Using the Balanced Score-Card Approach

The South-East Asian Nations (members of ASEAN) represents one of the fastest growing regional economies in terms of markets and has been one of the most favored tourist destination during last couple of decades in the Asia and Pacific region. The association of ten nations is a miscellany of diverse cultures and religion along with a rich heritage. Among the member destinations, on one hand there are nations like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand which have grown popular catering to all segments of the tourist society, where as there are nations like Brunei, Laos and Myanmar on the other, which have just emerged from the shell of conventionality and are now unwrapping the shrouds from their rich heritage and possess enormous potential to attract the global tourist. And there are destinations like Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines who over the last few years have developed the tourism industry which has now began to reap the results in terms of international tourist arrivals and receipts. Collectively these nations comprise nearly 9 per cent of the global tourism industry with a CAGR of nearly 6-7 percent over the last few years. Realizing the emerging significance of internet or online media as a source for gathering information, determining travelling decisions, communication and transactions, the present study aims at the comparative content analysis of the official tourism websites of ASEAN members in order to evaluate their performance from the perspective of tourism promotion by incorporating the modified Balanced Score Card (BSC) approach. A set of critical success aspects under perspectives: technical, user friendliness and site attractiveness, tourism effectiveness and food tourism effectiveness have been examined. The study manifests the strength and weakness of the respective official tourism websites of South East Asian Nations on the accepted parameters and also suggests the remedial measures to stimulate tourism promotion through websites.