TY - CHAP AB - American tourism is largely affected by the ability and ease with which one can travel to a tourist destination. Information availability, utility, and value of information on websites are essential in choosing and planning a vacation or business trip. This study compares visa and nonvisa tourist destinations as they relate to American tourism and business travel. Each destination's internet website quality, quantity, and utility are compared through an evaluation rubric with 36 attributes. Four countries are considered to provide two countries in each category of visa required and nonvisa required. The marketing mediums compared are the government run websites and Lonely Planet's private sector version. The first proposition is that countries that require visas lack the quality and quantity in internet marketing in comparison to those countries that do not require a visa. The second proposition is that the government run websites are comprehensive in detailing information in comparison to privately created websites. The eight complete rubrics achieve a comparison that is comprehensive demonstrating variability in quality and information available. The third proposition addresses is the fact that the quality of the government run websites relates strongly to the overall web presence and periodical existence of that particular countries’ tourist destination literature. This chapter is unique and valuable to those considering travel to a visa-required destination but the theories demonstrated highlight the deficiencies of private sector websites and the fast pace growth of internet tourism marketing. VL - 4 SN - 978-1-84950-901-5, 978-1-84950-900-8/1871-3173 DO - 10.1108/S1871-3173(2010)0000004010 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1871-3173(2010)0000004010 AU - Dion Christopher P. AU - Woodside Arch G. ED - Arch G. Woodside PY - 2010 Y1 - 2010/01/01 TI - Usefulness of Government and Private Destination Websites T2 - Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and Usefulness Auditing of Destination Websites T3 - Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 69 EP - 137 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -