Hotels’ dependency on online intermediaries and their chosen distribution channel portfolios: Three country insights

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.     

Opening the online marketplace: An examination of hotel pricing and travel agency on-line distribution of rooms

This paper studies the optimal pricing strategy of a hotel that establishes an online distribution channel through cooperation with an online travel agency (OTA). The OTA promotes the hotel and sells hotel rooms through its website and receives commission from the hotel for rooms sold. Through a sequence game model, this paper derives the optimal decision on the unit commission of the hotel and the optimal response of the OTA to that commission. The paper notes management implications, including (1) occupancy rate of a hotel before opening online marketing is an important metric for securing cooperation with an OTA; that is, a hotel with lower occupancy rates is more inclined to cooperate with an OTA to achieve an improvement in profits; and (2) a hotel is inclined to establish an online channel through an OTA with many online customers and/or few listed hotels.     

Online distribution of airline tickets: Should airlines adopt a single or a multi-channel approach?

In today's digital world, airlines typically distribute tickets both via their own websites and through online travel agency (OTA) platforms such as Expedia and Travelocity. Although associated with higher distribution costs, selling tickets through the platforms offers airlines exposure to a broader consumer base, and potentially higher sales than selling tickets solely through their own websites. While most airlines have adopted a multi-channel approach by selling tickets through OTA platforms and their websites, some (e.g., Southwest Airlines, easyJet and Ryanair) sell only via the latter. Is one approach better than the other, and if so, under what circumstances? This study analyzes factors that affect an airline's distribution strategy by developing a decision support model. We find that airlines are less likely to use OTA platforms if they have a large loyal consumer base or if the OTA platform is highly competitive.     

Availability management of hotel rooms under cooperation with online travel agencies

Hotels are required to pay high commission fees when cooperating with online travel agencies (OTAs) to manage online marketing channels. Thus, to maximize their revenues, hotels protect their income through their own (traditional) marketing channels and save on considerable commissions by optimizing room availability for their cooperative OTAs. The present paper proposes a method to manage such availability in the context of a hotel cooperating with an OTA on room booking service. Customers can make reservations directly through the distribution channel of the hotel or indirectly through the OTA, if applicable, during the selling period. The hotel then forecasts room demand base on distribution information after receiving enough room bookings and optimizes room availability with respect to its maximum revenue by determining whether on-hand rooms are available for the OTA. Results indicate when hotel rooms become unavailable for the cooperative OTA. Numerical studies reveal that this method is conducive to the improvement of hotel revenue.     

An integrative systematic review of innovation research in hospitality and tourism

This study critically reviews the key perspectives and topics in innovation research in various disciplines and the hospitality and tourism (H&T) field. This study synthesizes and analyzes 85 innovation literature review studies from several fields and 261 empirical articles from the H&T literature to achieve this purpose. The key topics are organized into three different perspectives based on how the phenomenon is understood: innovation as an economic phenomenon, innovation as a market phenomenon, and innovation as an organizational phenomenon. Through in-depth analysis and discussion, this article identified an extensive array of potential future research avenues. Some of these include exploring innovation as systemic turbulence under the lens of complexity theory, the commercialization of idle innovations as part of the open innovation paradigm, and the effect of corporate governance on innovation, representing key industry implications of the study.     

上海世博会旅游经营商市场感知维度及其行为影响研究

文章以上海世博会为例,采用SPSS、AMOS等统计分析软件对全国362家旅行商调查问卷进行统计分析,建构旅行商对重大事件旅游市场感知维度的测量模型,分析不同类型旅行商市场感知的差异性,通过结构方程模型检验市场感知维度对其分销行为的影响。研究表明:①重大事件旅游市场的旅行商感知模型包括事件属性维度、产品属性维度、市场属性维度及市场影响维度等4个测量维度。②国际业务、国内业务旅行商在4个感知维度上均存在显著差异;特许与非特许旅行商在市场属性感知维度上有显著差异,在其他维度上差异不显著;不同地理区域的旅行商在产品属性维度上差异不显著,在其他维度上有显著差异。③旅行商对重大事件旅游市场感知维度中,市场属性维度、市场影响维度对其分销行为存在显著影响,事件属性维度和产品属性维度的影响不显著,市场影响维度是主导其分销行为的主要因素。从旅行商视角研究重大事件旅游市场感知及其分销行为影响,对于重大事件在我国可持续发展及其后续旅游开发具有重要的意义。     

Becoming an ambidextrous hotel: The role of customer orientation

Because competitive pressure in the hotel industry continues to increase, hotels have to develop service innovation (i.e., exploration) and service improvement (i.e., exploitation) capacities to become ambidextrous for continually creating customer value. In this study, a theory of the effect of customer orientation on service innovation and service improvement, which facilitates service quality and results in better market performance, was developed and investigated. By analyzing the data provided by senior executives and department managers from 126 hotels in Taiwan, both service innovation and service improvement were revealed to partially mediate the relationship between customer orientation and market performance. The results imply that customer orientation affects the market performance of a hotel through the development of service capabilities, and that customer orientation can transform a hotel into an ambidextrous hotel by concurrently developing service innovation and service improvement capacities.     

An Analysis of The Lowest Fares and Shortest Durations for Air-Tickets on Travel Agency Websites

Despite the existence of numerous published articles on website evaluations, the present tourism literature has no prior studies that examined the topics of lowest fares and shortest durations for air-tickets that are offered by travel websites. This study reports the findings of a study that investigated the practices of five online travel agency (OTA) websites. In terms of lowest airfares and the shortest in-flight durations (hereafter known as shortest durations) in four destinations for travelers who originated from Hong Kong, empirical findings showed the regional OTA outperformed other global leaders in airfares. Likewise, a smaller scale OTA offered lowest-fare air-tickets with the shortest durations. Practical implications are offered at the end of the article.     

Tell us your concern,and we shall together address! Role of service booking channels and brand equity on post-failure outcomes

The extant literature on service failure and recovery has overlooked the post-service failure evaluations when customers interact through different online service booking channels, such as direct websites (Direct) and online travel agents (OTAs). In this study, following the attribution theory and the expectation disconfirmation framework, we analyse the impact of service failure across service booking channels (direct vs. OTA) and its influence on post-service failure outcomes. Besides this, the study also examines the moderating roles of co-created service recovery and brand equity between channel type and post-recovery outcomes. A between-subjects experimental design revealed that when a service failure occurs in a direct (vs. OTA) website, it creates adverse outcomes of higher magnitude. The results also suggest that, in the case of a direct channel, co-created service recovery generates favourable service outcomes when the channel carries low brand equity. However, in the case of an OTA, the use of co-created service recovery works better when that OTA carries high level of brand equity. Further, the results also supported that these post-recovery outcomes are driven by recovery satisfaction and channel engagement. Thus, this study findings offer novel insights into online service recovery literature and managerial practice, primarily for efficient design and execution of recovery efforts across channels.     

Creativity and innovation in the restaurant sector: Supply-side processes and barriers to implementation

Evidence supports creativity and innovation as important drivers of firm performance. However, research in the restaurant sector has focused heavily on ‘culinary’ innovations, with little emphasis on creativity and innovations in marketing, management, processes, and services. This study adopts a broader perspective, exploring sources for creative ideas, the different types of innovations, and barriers to their implementation. The paper reports the findings of a systematic review of restaurant innovation literature and empirical data from interviews with restaurant owners in Australia. Results of the study revealed that restaurant entrepreneurs generate new ideas by 1) imitating the practices of leading competitors and 2) analysing customer feedback. Marketing innovations were the most commonly developed type of innovation, whereas management system innovations were the least developed. Finally, creativity in idea generation and implementation of innovation is restricted by two main challenges: staff resistance to change and customer non-acceptance of new innovations.     

都市区旅行社空间布局特征与销售等级差异——以重庆旅游百事通为例

在旅游供给研究中,重视在线旅行社发展的同时,不应忽略传统旅行社在地理实体空间的布局特征及其变化趋势。目前,对中微观尺度的都市区传统旅行社的空间布局研究相对薄弱,实证研究尤为缺乏。文章以旅游百事通在重庆主城区的195家零售门店为例,从都市区的中微观空间尺度分析了旅行社零售门店的空间集聚和空间关联特征,比较了商圈、社区和临街等不同分布类型的门店销售等级差异。结果表明:(1)旅行社门店呈现出较明显向城市商圈、交通设施和大型社区集聚的特征;(2)在城市内部,旅行社与其他城市生活服务业呈现出消费者主导型、商品主导型、竞争性关联和互助性关联等多种类型的空间关联关系;(3)商圈与非商圈门店、临街与写字楼门店的销售等级存在显著差异;社区与非社区门店、干道与非干道门店的销售等级差异均不明显。     

Drivers of environmental innovation in Majorcan hotels

Using a database of Majorcan hotels, this paper examines several previously untested determinants of environmental innovations in hotels derived from the Porter hypothesis and from the specifics of knowledge transfer in the tourism industry. The empirical analysis is original in that it distinguishes between eight types of environmental innovations. The results show that hotels’ general predisposition to implement innovations, manager remuneration based on environmental performance, staff satisfaction, environmental accounting, and trainings are important determinants of the overall environmental innovation activity of Majorcan hotels. Moreover, the use of environmental management systems is associated with innovations with cost-saving potential, whereas the hotel star category is associated with innovations that contribute to hotel quality, such as wastewater treatment, noise reduction, noise isolation, and visual impact improvements. Furthermore, high levels of staff satisfaction are related to the implementation of water-saving and noise reduction innovations, as such innovations require staff participation, whereas the role of information sources in explaining innovation adoption varies based on the technical complexity of innovations. The paper concludes with policy implications for sustainable tourism development, recommendations for the hoteliers, and directions for future research.     

Why do people purchase from online travel agencies (OTAs)? A consumption values perspective

Online travel agencies (OTAs) are struggling to remain financially sustainable due to intense competition. To overcome this challenge, OTAs need to better engage their customers by offering them superior value propositions. This calls for an in-depth understanding of the consumption values pertinent to the OTA context. To address this gap, the current study puts forward a framework for predicting purchase intention by adapting the theory of consumption values to the OTA context. The proposed model is tested with data collected from 809 OTA users. The results imply that quality-of-benefits, monetary, social status, preference, and information values predict purchase intention toward OTAs, with the chief driver being the quality-of-benefits value, followed by the preference value. Moderation analysis further reveals that the strength of the relationship between these values and purchase intention differs between users in different age groups and between users with different levels of privacy and security concerns, hygiene consciousness, and visibility perceptions.     

From innovation to sustainability: Sustainability innovations of eco-friendly hotels in Taiwan

Sustainable innovation is a critical attribute in modern hotel management, as is widely recognized by experts and hotel managers alike. This paper develops and tests a new integrated theoretical model of associations among innovation diffusion, environmental marketing strategy, sustainability innovations, and the organizational environment. This research also considers the mediating effect of environmental marketing strategy and the moderating role of the organizational environment. The results of a study that included 367 managers of eco-friendly hotels in Taiwan provide support for this model across various dimensions of hotels’ sustainable innovation. The present study found relationships among innovation diffusion, environmental marketing strategy and sustainability innovations, and a mediating effect of environmental marketing strategy. The results also confirmed that the organizational environment moderates the relationship between innovation diffusion and environmental marketing strategy. That is, a supportive organizational environment will enhance the effect of innovation diffusion on environmental marketing strategy.     

Management challenges with the maintenance of tourism experience concept innovations: Toward a new research agenda

This article suggests a new research agenda within the debates about tourism, the experience economy, and innovation. Knowledge about innovation and value co-creation within experience-based sectors has increased, but most studies focus on the initial steps of the innovation process. We argue that there is a need to focus on challenges that tourism management faces over time when it wishes to maintain innovations in an experience concept. Maintaining such innovations needs to be investigated from an organisational perspective. There are many reasons why it can be challenging to maintain innovative experience concepts over time. We address three important reasons and suggest an analytical model which employs four theoretical constructs namely, the experience concept, the experience system, internal engagement, and external engagement. We illustrate the model by applying it to three case vignettes from experience-based tourism. The case vignettes illuminate how “maintenance” is an important construct within experience innovation research.     

Hospitality innovation strategies: Robustness analysis of paths to firm performance

Empirical knowledge on the relationship between innovation and firm performance in the hospitality industry is important for theoretical progress and for decision making. Martin-Rios and Ciobanu’s (2019) recent contribution identifies eight different innovation strategies being significantly associated with firm performance including the ambitious strategy of simultaneously innovating products, processes, organizations, and marketing. By replicating the analysis and testing the robustness of the results with a specification curve analysis using the same dataset, we find only three strategies to be robustly associated with firm performance. All three include process innovation as a necessary component: i) a pure backstage-oriented strategy of process and organizational innovation that can be ii) extended with product innovation and iii) a frontstage-oriented strategy, where marketing innovations complement new products and processes. This substantiates the relevance of the process-based view of innovation in services and call for efforts in theorizing about how different configurations of innovation strategies can represent paths to firm performance.     

The consequences of forty years of tourism growth

Leisure travel has become a major lifestyle in the United States since World War II. This paper describes the social, economic, and technological changes that have been adopted by the industry and society during three eras of travel evolution. A synoptic view of the development of travel is provided by a review of five travel industry components: transportation, attractions, facilities and services, information, and the consumer. Emphasis is placed on the consequences of the adoption of major social and technological innovations that have impacted this vibrant industry and will continue to do so in the future. The paper concludes with eight observations on the present and future status of leisure travel in the United States.     

Effect of Price Change Alert on Perceptions of Hotel Attribute-based Room Pricing (ABP) versus Traditional Room Pricing (TRP)

Aside from marketing information on traditional room rates, hotels and online travel agents (OTAs) are trying a new pricing technique based on the attributes of guestrooms. This research investigates how attribute-based room pricing (ABP) differs from traditional room pricing (TRP) in influencing consumer reactions when consumers receive a price change alert before (vs. after) sales. Through a series of experiments, we found that TRP and ABP result in similar alert attitude, brand attitude, and visit intention for presale price change alert. However, ABP leads to more favorable results for postsale price change alert. We examined the underlying mechanism and found that perceived fairness mediates the effect of pricing strategy on brand attitude, price alert attitude, and visit intention for postsale alert only. This research provides hotel managers and OTA marketers with guidance on when to send either type of price change message to consumers.     

Effects of price sorting display on extreme option choice aversion: The role of ease of comparison in multiple option displays

Due to the popularity of online travel agency (OTA) booking platforms, OTAs display diverse information, including features of products, on their websites. Based on choice architecture literature, this study aimed to examine the effect of product quality and price sorting (vs. non-sorting) on extreme option choice aversion and identify the moderating effect of displays that made it difficult to read information. The results of a series of four experimental studies (total n = 2838 online panel members) demonstrated that the tendency to choose the non-extreme or middle-attributed options was stronger when quality and price were displayed sorted (vs. non-sorted). It was theorized that easy comparison of multiple options leads to decision-making. The positive effect of quality and price sorting on extreme option choice aversion was significantly reduced when customers had difficulty reading the displayed information.     

Posting reviews on OTAs: Motives,rewards and effort

High-quality reviews are crucial for users and websites. Many online travel agencies (OTAs) offer online incentives to encourage high-quality reviews. However, the effect of these incentive programs on users' posting effort remains unclear. Our analyses of a dataset collected from a leading OTA present the following: (1) users with more digest reviews tend to exert more effort when posting subsequent reviews; (2) an increasing number of digest reviews for a hotel induces subsequent users to exert additional posting effort; (3) the marginal effect of an additional digest review on posting effort is decreasing; (4) users with high expertise tend to exert extra posting effort when in a fierce competition. This study concludes by presenting theoretical and managerial implications for both research and practice.