INTERNET DOMAINS PROMOTING AGROTOURIST FARMS

Abstract

Abstract Many agrotourist farms use the potential of websites to distinguish their offer from others to attract as many guests as possible. However, maintaining a website is connected with a range of costs, e.g. registering the domain and the hosting package. Searching for cost savings, the owners of agrotourist farms often face the dilemma of choosing between a payable website and its free equivalent. The aim of this article is to analyse internet addresses as regards their type and potential, both informative and marketing. The surveys were carried out on a set of 1,121 websites. The analysis included domain names (main names) as well as domain extensions, paying special attention to type and indicating sub-domains at the same time. Division into payable and free was looked for as well. In conclusion, it is shown that the owners of agrotourist farms mostly use national domains, choosing addresses in functional, regional or European domains less frequently. Moreover, they relatively rarely use addresses created on free services. In their place, they choose free sub-domains often created in the domain of the provider hosting a regional (informative) portal or another.