A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Advanced Technologies

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1998

The tourist industry depends heavily on providing timely and high-quality information to potential travelers. Most countries and many tourist organizations now market their tourist attractions on the Web. For travelers, there are several advantages to getting information from the Web: the information is free of charge (unlike travel books), easy and quick to search, and (mostly) up-to-date. The objective of creating travel and tourism home pages is first, to create interests of the marketed destination. Second, to provide information on the destination. And third, to encourage people to visit the country. The success of Web sites in attracting travelers depends both on their quality of presentation (attractiveness) and their depth of information as compared to travel books. This thesis analyses the features of 25 national tourist Web sites worldwide and proposes a design option for such sites. Based on interviews in Yangon, it then characterizes the range of information collected and managed by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism in Myanmar. In light of this available information, the thesis refers to "best practice" features from tourism sites worldwide to design a site appropriate to Myanmar. It uses multimedia tools to propose an effective use of graphics and moving images.