The Influence of Innovativeness on On-Site Smartphone Use Among American Travelers: Implications for Context-Based Push Marketing

This study investigates the relationships between traveler innovativeness traits and the patterns of smartphone use during the experiential stage of travel. Using data collected from 1126 travelers residing in the United States (US), it was identified that tourism and technology innovativeness have significant positive effects on on-site use of smartphones for trip management, social networking, and searching deals, online reviews, and push recommendations. Technology innovativeness also influences smartphone use for navigation within destinations. The results suggest that highly innovative travelers are open to recommendations and influences when making on-site decisions, making them an effective target for context-based marketing.     

What prevents consumers that are aware of Airbnb from using the platform? A mixed methods approach

The hospitality sector is now characterised by the co-existence of traditional providers and sharing economy enterprises. It is important to better understand what prevents the use of peer-to-peer accommodation rentals in the tourism marketplace. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this study first examines travellers’ Airbnb use constraints, and then profiles 252 Airbnb non-users based on their constraints and characteristics. The findings suggest that travellers do not use Airbnb because of distrust in the providers, in the platform and in other users, as well as perceived risk and unfamiliarity. Loss of service quality, lack of local experience, legal and regulatory issues, and disinterest also prevented consumers to book Airbnb accommodations. A cluster analysis divided non-users into three segments: Traditional travellers, Sharing economy misbelievers and Airbnb prospective users. Significant differences based on age confirmed that young travellers are more confident in using peer-to-peer accommodation platforms and more interested in the philosophy.     

Influence of the user’s psychological factors on the online purchase intention in rural tourism: Integrating innovativeness to the UTAUT framework

This study explores the process of adoption of new information technologies by the users of rural tourism services and, more concretely, the underlying psychological factors of individuals that explain their intentions to make bookings or reservations directly through the websites of the rural accommodations (online purchase intentions). Based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study establishes a theoretical model that includes five explanatory variables of the online purchase intention: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and innovativeness. The empirical results obtained in a sample of 1083 tourists that had previously visited several websites of rural accommodations suggest that the online purchase intention is positively influenced by: 1) the levels of performance and effort expected with regard to the transaction; and 2) the level of innovativeness of users. In addition, the innovativeness construct has a moderating effect on the relationship between performance expectancy and online purchase intention.     

Vacation travel planning segments: Self-planning vs. users of motor club and travel agents

The characteristics and travel behavior of 2,436 respondents are analyzed with respect to their use of planning assistance for vacation travel. Differences were detected between the three planning segments: self-planners, motor club users and travel agent users, e.g., travel agent users traveled more often by air and for multiple purposes. Substantial similarities were found between self-planners and motor club users. In general, the use of professional planning assistance increased as the distance to be traveled increased. The findings support the development of specific marketing programs developed for the motor clubs and travel agent users by destination managers.     

The impact of perceived security and consumer innovativeness on e-loyalty in online travel shopping

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impacts of perceived security and consumer innovativeness on online travel shopping. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data and a total of 283 questionnaires were used for data analysis. The mechanism of perceived security and consumer innovativeness was then identified. The study results indicate that: (1) higher perceived security increases the perception of website image and trust; (2) consumers with a higher level of innovativeness tend to trust travel websites; (3) website image has a mediating effect between perceived security and trust; and (4) trust has a mediating effect between website image and e-loyalty.     

Attitude toward luxury cruise,fantasy, and willingness to pay a price premium

This study applies the functional theory of attitudes in examining the structural relationships among the social-adjustive, value-expressive, hedonic, and utilitarian functions of attitudes, fantasy, and willingness to pay a premium. This study also identifies the moderating roles of sensory innovativeness and maximization in the relationships between the four functions of attitudes and fantasy. An online survey (N?=?543) was conducted to collect data from American respondents. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test proposed hypotheses. Results showed that the four functions of attitudes had significant positive effects on fantasy. In subsequent process, fantasy had a significant positive effect on willingness to pay a premium. Sensory innovativeness moderated the relationship between value-expressive function and fantasy, and maximization moderated the relationship between fantasy and willingness to pay a price premium. Given these findings, valuable theoretical and practical implications are discussed regarding the role of fantasy in luxury cruise decision-making.     

Perceptions of Functionality and Usability on Travel Websites: The Case of Chinese Travelers

Despite the large increase in the amount of online purchases of travel-related products in recent years, previous studies on travel website analysis have concentrated mainly on assessing the quality of travel websites, customer purchase behavior, and website content analysis. In the context of Mainland China (hereafter known as China), with growing wealth of her citizens and the inclination to travel, more Chinese travelers have been, and will probably be, visiting worldwide destinations. In addition, many Chinese travelers will use the Internet to search, and subsequently to purchase, travel-related products and services. This study makes an attempt to analyze Chinese online buyers and online browsers on their perceived importance of travel website functionality (content) and usability (design) and their specific factors. Online buyers (e-buyers) are the Internet users who have previously purchased on travel websites, whereas online browsers (e-browsers) are the Internet users who have browsed travel websites but without making any purchases. The research findings showed that e-buyers did not differ significantly from e-browsers in most of the included factors. The findings of this research are expected to assist travel website developers to improve their websites and to attract more e-travelers.     

A study of pre-trip use of travel guidebooks by leisure travelers

Travel guidebooks are one of the information sources used by tourists. This study applies and extends the information needs model proposed by Vogt and Fesenmaier to examine what Hong Kong residents specifically required from their pre-trip use of guidebooks. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 leisure travelers, and 402 questionnaires subsequently distributed. A factor analysis is employed to show that as well as the five original needs from the model (functional, hedonic, innovation, aesthetic and sign needs), five more needs can be identified. These are itinerary improvement, travel partner, quality information, personal interest, and security needs. Functional needs are found to be the dominant factor and sign needs the least significant. The results of independent t-test and one-way ANOVA reveal that the importance placed on different needs varies according to age, education, income, planned destination, mode of travel, length of trip, number of visits and travel companions. The study makes recommendations for how travel guidebooks can better appeal to these needs and capture the attention of potential users.     

Does the Usability Experienced Performance of Travel Websites in China Meet Users' Expectation?

Despite the increasing use of the Internet in travel and tourism, the issue of usability on travel websites has been largely overlooked in the existing tourism literature in Mainland China (hereafter known as China), one of the world's largest markets for generating and receiving tourists. This paper reports on a study that investigated the perceptions of Internet users in China on China-based travel agency websites (henceforth referred to as travel websites). The expectancy disconfirmation theory was used to compare the expected performance and experienced performance of 24 usability attributes. Empirical results showed significant differences between perceived performance and expected performance for all included attributes.     

Seniors’ dual route of persuasive communications in mobile social media and the moderating role of discretionary time

More than two-thirds of seniors use smartphones and in South Korea, over half of all senior smartphone owners are mobile social media (MSM) users. This study tested two basic routes to persuasion in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), applying the new concepts of benefits and authentic experience among senior MSM users for travel- and tourism-related purposes, along with the moderating role of discretionary time spent on MSM. To this end, an online survey was conducted for senior MSM users for tourism activities, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data obtained from 500 study participants. Results reveal that argument quality had a stronger effect on benefit than source credibility. Benefits and authentic experience played important mediating roles in the ELM. Discretionary time on MSM played a significant moderating role in the central and peripheral routes. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the conclusions section.     

VACATION LIFESTYLE AND TRAVEL BEHAVIORS

In marketing research, tourism scholars have often developed a variety of scales and integrated them into segmentation studies. Since vacation lifestyle variables, which could be utilized as a base for marketing research, have not received much attention from market researchers, this article attempts to further purify the extant scale and use Taiwanese travelers as a case study. The study survey was conducted of 443 tourists staying at least one night at the Ken‐Ting National Park in Taiwan from April to May, 2002. This study collected 420 useful samples. Three groups of users merged from the cluster analysis: (a) Family Oriented Travelers, (b) Social Oriented Travelers, and (c) Stylish Travelers. The study shows that the differences in trip characteristics are the frequencies of domestic travel, the frequencies of international travel, the hotel preferences, and the average expenditure on accommodations. The variations in demographic characteristics relate to age, family life cycle, education, and household income. This study on vacation lifestyle subsequently renders a new assessment tool to tourism professionals in Taiwan to grasp the lifestyle profile of their customers and develop strategies to entice the travel market.     

Targeting Rural Tourists in the Internet: Comparing Travel Motivation and Activity-Based Segments

This study aims to compare activity-based segmentation and travel motivation segmentation from the perspective of information search behavior and online use behavior by comparing segment heterogeneity. The data were collected from users of three Finnish rural tourism websites with 1754 completed and usable questionnaires to create segmentation solutions based on travel activities and motivations using hierarchical cluster analysis and then comparing the results. The results indicate that travel activities are more useful than travel motivations in finding heterogeneous segmentation solutions, making the travel activity segments more heterogeneous than travel motivation segments as regards their information search behavior and Internet use. The results suggest that in this era of Internet marketing, travel activities are a better segmentation base than travel motivations in order to target different market segments as activities form more heterogeneous segmentation solutions.     

How does family influence the travel constraints of solo travelers? Construct specification and scale development

ABSTRACT

Attracting the solo travel market is increasingly important for destination marketing organizations. Despite the wealth of literature on travel motivations of solo travelers, a related domain of research that deserves more attention are the travel constraints that could hinder solo traveling. More specifically, although solo travelers may wish to embark on a journey alone, they must nevertheless address a number of constraints that oftentimes stem from their family’s concerns for them as family represents a critical influencer that could impact their travel decision. Yet, research measuring the influence of family remains under-studied. In order to address this gap, this study connects knowledge on travel constraints with literature on family dynamics to develop a valid and reliable measurement scale for assessing family pressures on solo travelers. Destination marketers can apply this scale to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies at easing the concerns of solo travelers as a result of family pressures.     

Travelers’ use of social media: A clustering approach

Research regarding the use of social media among travelers has mainly focused on its impact on travelers’ travel planning process and there is consensus that travel decisions are highly influenced by social media. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences among travelers regarding their use of social media for travel purposes. Based on the use of travel social media, cluster analysis was employed to identify different segments among travelers. Furthermore, the study profiles the clusters based on demographic and other travel related characteristics. The findings of this study are important to online marketers to better understand traveler’s use of social media and their characteristics, in order to adapt online marketing strategies according to the profile of each segment.     

Tourism and online photography

This paper documents the use of online travel photo-sharing technologies among Hong Kong residents. The advent of Web 2.0 is changing fundamentally the tourist information search and destination choice process. Yet, to date, no study has documented Web 2.0 usage levels and preferences for certain media for posting travel photographs across an entire community. This study reveals that some 89% of pleasure travelers take photographs and that 41% of them posted their photographs online. Social network sites (SNSs), instant messaging, online photo albums and personal blogs were the most popular media used. In general, people who post photographs online tend to be younger, better educated, and earn a higher income than those who do not. The study determined that most people also use multiple media platforms to disseminate their images. Cluster analysis based on the four major styles of online platform identified five cohorts of users who differed in number and type of media used, demographic profile and travel motive. Implications for destination promotion are discussed.     

Relationships of Perceived Justice to Service Recovery,Service Failure Attributions,Recovery Satisfaction,and Loyalty in the Context of Airline Travelers

In recent years, hospitality and tourism researchers have presented their findings of many studies on website performance and evaluations. Although these prior studies have achieved a certain degree of success for assisting industrial practitioners to develop and maintain their websites, it remains largely unknown how consumers find a specific travel or hotel website. This paper reports a study that investigated the perceived importance of different channels for finding travel or hotel websites from an international travelers' perspective. Empirical results from 153 travel or hotel website users indicated that the Google search engine was the only channel that was perceived as important, and 47.4% of the respondents viewed up to three screens in the list of search results when using search engines. The paper should be of interest to industrial practitioners and academic researchers to understand better the behavior of users of travel and hotel websites during their website search procedure.     

Sustaining urban place-making

Educational travel, a neglected area of study in sustainable tourism, has grown substantially over the last 20 years in part as a response to institutional missions to promote international education, but also as a result of the USA's national security concerns to nurture a global citizenry. Considerable future growth is predicted following the bipartisan Lincoln Commission report and under the pending new legislation in the USA. Our pre-test/post-test study of almost 5% (n = 651 US students) of the entire short-term, US educational travel market to Australia and New Zealand between 2008 and 2009 revealed significant differences between the cohorts of the two programs, both of which focused on sustainable development. The Australia program not only produced significant increases in global citizenship (as measured by scores on consumer behaviors, support for environmental policies, and environmental citizenship) beyond that of the New Zealand program, but any initial differences between the programs were erased following participation. Reasons for the differences in attitude change are discussed. Analysis also noted key differences between students with different political orientations, but no gender differences. Implications for managing educational travel, marketing Australia's and New Zealand's tourism, sustainable tourism planning, and theory advancements are discussed.     

Exploring hotel guests' perceptions of using robot assistants

The growing popularity of robot services blurs the boundaries of robotics and human life. Concomitant to the trend, many hotel brands have adopted a robot-based automation system in their properties. This study attempted to understand the underlying perceptions of the hotel guests' robot-using behaviors. A sample of 494 potential users of a hotel robot assistant was examined and analyzed. The result showed six factors, including three functional aspects (i.e., facilitating conditions, performance expectancy, and innovativeness) and three emotional aspects (i.e., social presence, hedonic motivation, and perceived importance). Moreover, this study categorized the respondents into cohesive groups that show similar characteristics. Based on different levels of perceptions and demographic information, four clusters were named as ‘The ordinary,’ ‘Enthusiastic adopter,’ ‘Tech laggard,’ and ‘Value seeker.’ The result of this study is expected to help the hotel industry to better target potential customers by understanding the different types of users of robotic technology.     

Consumer perception of knowledge-sharing in travel-related Online Social Networks

Consumers trust the Internet for advice. Online Social Networks (OSNs) are creating collective knowledge and becoming major information gathering sources among tourists when making travel decisions and purchasing travel-related products and services. The aim of the current study is to develop a theoretical model that tests the precursors of “intention to share knowledge” behaviors in the context of OSNs. Based on the previous literature, a theoretical model was developed and tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling with a sample of travel-related OSN users who had at least one year of online travel shopping experience. Study results show that both perceived ease of use and belief in integrity positively influence knowledge sharing behaviors. Utilitarian beliefs and subjective norms positively influence belief in integrity. This is one of the few research studies within this field and study results present clear theoretical and practical implications for the travel and tourism industry.     

Analyzing travel mobility patterns in city destinations: Implications for destination design

Understanding the features of travel activities is important in elaborating travel behaviors and segmenting travelers based on the similarity of activity patterns. This research applying mobile big data analytics suggests a novel method to classify travelers by considering the sequences of travel activity with individuals' trajectories. The result revealed five distinct travel types visiting city destinations and demonstrated dynamic travel flow among different mobility types. Recognizing that different types of travel patterns present important information in understanding destinations’ roles (or functions), this study attempts to characterize the functionality dynamics of city destinations based on travel activity types. As a result, the findings of this research provide insights into the demand-driven construct (or flow-based) of destination planning, which is the foundation of smart destination design. In addition, important methodological and practical implications that could be useful for city destination planners/designers are suggested.