•This study integrates the conceptual model of website evaluation into theory of planned behaviour.•This study mainly tests the mediating effects of attitude, subjective norms and perceived ...behaviour.•Mediating effects exist between mobile usability towards mobile payment and customer satisfaction.
The impacts of website functionality and usability on the repurchase intention of consumers have been proven by previous literature. However, these impacts, along with the wide adoption of mobile payment for hotel reservations, remain unclear. Hence, this study integrates the conceptual model of website evaluation into theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to examine theimpacts of functionality and usability towards mobile payment on the repurchase intention of consumers within a Chinese context by mainly testing the mediating effects of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control. Based on a quantitative research design, findings revealed that mediating effects exist between mobile usability and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the mediating effect of customer satisfaction are identified within the context of mobile payment for hotel reservations. Practical implications and ideas for further research are discussed.
•Investigates customers’ searching behavior after viewing a business’ cover photograph on OTAs’ webpages.•Classifies the five attributes of a cover photograph: façade, type of place, room amenities, ...scenery, and property amenities.•Suggests façade and property amenities have positive impacts on customers’ viewing times of OTAs’ webpages.•Identifies scenery as a negative influence on customers’ viewing times of OTAs’ webpages.
Online travel agencies (OTAs) allow lodging businesses to select one cover photograph to represent itself on the OTA site. The cover photograph plays a crucial role for attracting customers’ attention from among alternatives, and lure viewers to view the webpage with detailed information. The present study investigates how the content of a business’ cover photograph on OTAs’ sites influences customers’ behavior when searching for information. The content of a cover photograph may fall within five categories according to attributes: façade, type of place, room amenities, scenery, and property amenities. Only façade and property amenities have positive impacts on customers’ viewing times of the webpages with the detailed information of businesses. In contrast, scenery has a negative influence on customers’ viewing times. The results of the study contribute, theoretically and methodologically, to OTAs’ knowledge base and can assist practitioners’ identification of effective cover photographs.
•Traditional sales channels are still highly relevant while the importance of social media as an actual sales channel is marginal.•Differences with regards to penetration and dependency on OTAs ...between the different countries are detected.•The amount of OTAs used as intermediary varies between 0 and 15—the average amount is 3.61.•Four distribution channel mix strategies are revealed: multichannel-, electronic-, real time-, and traditional distributors.•The strategy profiles show differences between the countries and concerning various characteristics of the SMEs (e.g., their target group).
New intermediaries are entering the market, challenging the hospitality industry to find an appropriate distribution channel portfolio. This research investigates how many channels hotels in Austria, Germany and Switzerland choose and what role the various channels play. Findings based on 1014 questionnaires reveal an average mix of 8.06 offline and online channel categories. Traditional channels, such as walk-ins and telephone, still play a major role; however, about one fifth of the bookings are completely generated online. On average, 3.61 online travel agencies (OTAs) are used. With regards to OTA penetration, an oligopolistic market structure is prevalent. Swiss and German hotels’ OTA dependency is higher than Austrian's. A series of a posteriori cluster analysis results in four distribution portfolio groups hoteliers choose: multi-channel-, electronic-, real time-, and traditional distributors. Distribution portfolio profiles facilitate learning from strategies used by hotels with certain characteristics such as target group and star-rating.
This paper investigates how consumers respond to online recovery strategies in response to a service failure in the online travel agencies (OTA) context. The study also examines the role of justice ...and forgiveness in the online service recovery process. Firstly, a qualitative study was employed to explore the predominant strategies exercised by the service providers. Further, we collect the data from a survey ( n = 335) using an online questionnaire about service failure in the OTA context to examine the proposed relationship based on Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and Justice theory. The data was analysed using CB-SEM and fsQCA. Results show that response speed, explanation, courtesy and problem-solving are crucial online recovery strategies. Results also highlighted that consumers’ perceived justice and forgiveness play a crucial role in the online recovery process. The fsQCA results showed that five solutions (i.e. various combinations of causal antecedents) could facilitate the formation of repatronage intention. Our study enriches service failure literature. Our findings may help online travel agents design suitable strategies to reduce the negative effect of service failure on their customers.
While many studies pointed out that travellers often consider a basket of factors when they are selecting their accommodation, few online travel agency websites allow the travellers to actively ...express their preference about the selection criteria in order to receive tailor-made recommendations in return. The absence of this feature causes travellers to spend extra effort and time to compare the hotel options themselves. This paper presents a decision support algorithm, namely Vague Set TOPSIS, to help travellers to rank the hotel options. It was found in this research that the structure and assumptions of the conventional TOPSIS methods are not suitable for handling this decision problem. Therefore, this paper is novel in providing a foundational change to the conventional TOPSIS models such that it is more applicable to hotel selection. The validity of the proposed decision support algorithm was proved via three approaches, which are mathematical proofs, computer stochastic simulation experiments and a numerical case study using data obtained from Hotels.com.
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Metaverse research propositions: Online intermediaries Ampountolas, Apostolos; Menconi, Giuseppina; Shaw, Gareth
Tourism economics : the business and finance of tourism and recreation,
02/2024, Volume:
30, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
One of the sectors with the fastest growth rates worldwide is the hospitality and tourism industry, although the pandemic caused losses and setbacks for the industry. The potential of the metaverse ...and virtual travel could lead to the emergence of a brand-new sector. Thus, traditional online travel agencies may need to change their utility model in the future to accommodate the new technology. This virtual transformation in the metaverse entails more flexible travel options, customized consumer services, and improved entertainment. The employment of augmented and virtual reality technology in the metaverse may enable seamless interaction between users in real and simulated surroundings. As such future developments in metaverse technology may enable fully immersive experiences. Customers can now get real-time price changes, availability, and promotions bypassing third-party distribution platforms. This research note aims to introduce the metaverse’s enormous potential and to define three research proposals for additional investigation.
Electronic tourism was born at the crossroads between tourism and electronic commerce. Electronic tourism developed in the 1990s and became widespread with the emergence of the Internet 2.0. This ...article examines this new disintermediated form of tourism by looking at the new requirements and attitudes of today’s tourists. The analysis focuses on tourists’ behaviour regarding technological tools. It relies on both the conceptual and theoretical frameworks and a qualitative study carried out with four focus groups composed of Moroccan Internet users aged between 16 and 64 years. The results of the study indicate that these technological tools have become an integral part of tourists’ behaviour because they not only facilitate the accommodation search but also significantly influence purchasing behaviour.
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