Website design and development as an effective and efficient promotional tool: A case study in the hotel industry in Cyprus

The organizational long-term success of promotional campaigns and the integration of marketing communications (IMC) are affected by the effective use of information communication technologies (ICT). E-content that combines all media, visual, text, sound, video and animation represents the base knowledge. Internet technology, as a source of communication, has become an important and exploring tool for marketers in the past. Today, the internet implementation in the marketing process is inexpensive, delivers instant international reach, offers great real time feedback and reaches millions of people for whom the web is the centre of virtually all communications. This research is based on two survey questionnaires that were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of this research identify that successful web-based marketing can indeed be achieved by defining a website's main objectives, designing a website through applying principles of best practice usability, tracking website visitor activity, and maximizing the site's visibility. Furthermore, this study provides suggestions that aim to benefit marketers and website developers in the Cyprus hotel industry in designing, developing, implementing and evaluating a successful web-based marketing communication plan.