Website adoption and sales performance in Valais' hospitality industry

An analysis of 147 Valaisan hotels' monthly revenue between 1992 and 2003 indicated that website adoption related positively to a performance indicator-Revenue per Available Room or RevPAR. That is, the RevPAR of hotels was higher after adoption than before and hotels with no web presence showed a negative trend in revenues. Furthermore, revenue growth rates were stronger for hotels with their own website than for hotels with a web presence via regional portals. These patterns suggest that Internet technologies have a positive impact on hotel performance, perhaps via improved marketing and distribution. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.