Forgotten agritourism: abandoned websites in the promotion of rural tourism in Poland

Purpose Until recently, a large number of owners of small agritourism farms in Poland, for promotional purposes, used the (“abandoned”) websites made in an amateur manner at the lowest possible cost. The main purpose of this study is to characterize these websites. To achieve this goal, an attempt was made to evaluate the quality of these sites. Design/methodology/approach Two sets of websites were studied: the set of archaic sites (n = 282) and the set of modern sites (n = 282). The study consisted in the evaluation of selected attributes of the website development technology. The obtained results were normalized using the method of zero unitarization. Subsequently, the value of the aggregate variable was determined, which made it possible to describe each website with one synthetic quality index (SQI). Findings “Abandoned websites” do not perform marketing and sales functions. Owing to the frequent lack of content, they also lack an informative function. These websites have documentary value, as well as a historical function. Originality/value The paper presents the assessment of websites using one of the unification methods and the SQI. It has been shown that websites, in addition to having typical functions such as information, marketing or contact, may also have a historical function.