• Title/Summary/Keyword: Online Travel Community

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A Study on the Effect of Online Travel Distribution's Brand Community Characteristics on Product Purchase Intention

  • LU, Lianghui;KANG, Min-Jung;SUN, Pengchang
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.107-117
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    • 2023
  • Purpose: This study attempted to confirm the mediating effect of brand experience and to travel brand community satisfaction in the relationship between the characteristics of brand community contents and travel product purchase intention. This study also investigated the moderating role of consumer characteristics. Research design, data and methodology: Based on a total of 381 bytes of data, hypothesis verification was conducted using Smart-PLS 3.2.8 statistical package programs. Results: First, the content community travel brand attributes, personal affordability and creativity are a lingering fragrances on the intended consumers ' shopping trip. Second, information provision, interaction, and creativity, which are the characteristics of travel brand community content, influenced consumers' intention to purchase travel products through brand community satisfaction. Third, playfulness, vitality, and creativity, which are the characteristics of travel brand community content, influenced consumers' intention to purchase travel products through double mediation of the experience and community satisfaction of brand. Conclusions: Tourism industry managers should be able to market content by forming their own brand community. It is necessary to create an environment in which tourism industry managers can use social media travel brand community content to give discounts to consumers, provide creative, playful and vivid travel information.

Tourists' Behavioral Changes According to the Type of Communication in Online Travel Communities (온라인 여행 커뮤니티에서 커뮤니케이션 유형에 따른 관광객의 행동 변화)

  • Chung, Namho;Han, Heejeong;Park, Sang Cheol;Koo, Chulmo
    • Knowledge Management Research
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.45-63
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    • 2014
  • Due to advance in Internet technology, most tourists tend to search travel information in the Online Travel Communities(OTC). Given this new paradigm in terms of finding travel information, most of relevant studies in this area are still dealt with explaining tourists' behaviors regardless of the types of communications. Therefore, to overcome some limitations in previous studies, we attempt to examine the relationships between both formal and informal communications and tourists' behavioral changes in the OTC context. Specifically, we developed a research model by employing the PPM(push-pull-mooring) framework and tested it to understand why and how tourists' behaviors might be changed. Survey data collected from 323 online tourists were used to test the model the model using SEM(structural equation modeling). The implications of our empirical findings for both research and practice are discussed.

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Credibility of e-WOM in Travel Industry, and Its Influence in WOM Effect (온라인 구전 여행정보의 신뢰와 구전효과 연구)

  • Chun, Min-Ho
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.11 no.5
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    • pp.424-432
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    • 2011
  • Today's wide-spread Internet technology allowed consumers to access much Word-of-Mouth information through an online board. As communication and exchanging information between travelers becomes easier and faster, e-WOM (Electronic Word-of-Mouth) is recognized as one of the most influencing communication methods in today's society. This new trend implies a significant impact to travel industry. This study focuses on interaction between Credibility on e-WOM, brand attitude, WOM acceptance, WOM activity and purchasing intention of travel product. The result of this study suggests: (1) Credibility in e-WOM provides positive effect in brand attitude, (2) Brand Attitude gives positive effect on WOM acceptance, WOM activity and purchasing intention of travel product, (3) WOM acceptance gives positive effect on WOM activity, but it is not effective on purchasing intention of travel product. Regarding e-WOM management of travel agencies through its website or online community, authors would like to argue that travel agencies need to build positive brand attitude based on Credibility in brand, which would lead consumers to positively acknowledge its brand and spread words out to other consumers.

Exploring the Movements of Chinese Free Independent Travelers in the U.S.: A Social Network Analysis Approach

  • Lin Li;Yoonjae Nam;Sung-Byung Yang
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.448-467
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    • 2019
  • In a new age of smart tourism, free independent travelers (FITs) choose their travel routes in a more diversified and less predictable way with the aid of smart services. This paper focuses on the movements of Chinese outbound FITs in the U.S. in the year of 2018. 110 places to visit (destinations) extracted from 122 travel routes recommendations on Qyer.com, a major online travel community in China, are analyzed with social network analysis (SNA). Based on the results of SNA, employing degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality, network visualization, and cluster diagram methods, some preferred cities and natural attractions outside city centers (i.e., New York City (NYC), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Niagara Falls) are identified. Moreover, it is found that NYC in the East and Los Angeles in the West play a major role in the movements of Chinese FITs. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on tourist destination movements and provides valuable implications for smart service development in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Electronic Word-of-Mouth in B2C Virtual Communities: An Empirical Study from CTrip.com (B2C허의사구중적전자구비(B2C虚拟社区中的电子口碑): 관우휴정려유망적실증연구(关于携程旅游网的实证研究))

  • Li, Guoxin;Elliot, Statia;Choi, Chris
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.262-268
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    • 2010
  • Virtual communities (VCs) have developed rapidly, with more and more people participating in them to exchange information and opinions. A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. A business-to-consumer virtual community (B2CVC) is a commercial group that creates a trustworthy environment intended to motivate consumers to be more willing to buy from an online store. B2CVCs create a social atmosphere through information contribution such as recommendations, reviews, and ratings of buyers and sellers. Although the importance of B2CVCs has been recognized, few studies have been conducted to examine members' word-of-mouth behavior within these communities. This study proposes a model of involvement, statistics, trust, "stickiness," and word-of-mouth in a B2CVC and explores the relationships among these elements based on empirical data. The objectives are threefold: (i) to empirically test a B2CVC model that integrates measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; (ii) to better understand the nature of these relationships, specifically through word-of-mouth as a measure of revenue generation; and (iii) to better understand the role of stickiness of B2CVC in CRM marketing. The model incorporates three key elements concerning community members: (i) their beliefs, measured in terms of their involvement assessment; (ii) their attitudes, measured in terms of their satisfaction and trust; and, (iii) their behavior, measured in terms of site stickiness and their word-of-mouth. Involvement is considered the motivation for consumers to participate in a virtual community. For B2CVC members, information searching and posting have been proposed as the main purpose for their involvement. Satisfaction has been reviewed as an important indicator of a member's overall community evaluation, and conceptualized by different levels of member interactions with their VC. The formation and expansion of a VC depends on the willingness of members to share information and services. Researchers have found that trust is a core component facilitating the anonymous interaction in VCs and e-commerce, and therefore trust-building in VCs has been a common research topic. It is clear that the success of a B2CVC depends on the stickiness of its members to enhance purchasing potential. Opinions communicated and information exchanged between members may represent a type of written word-of-mouth. Therefore, word-of-mouth is one of the primary factors driving the diffusion of B2CVCs across the Internet. Figure 1 presents the research model and hypotheses. The model was tested through the implementation of an online survey of CTrip Travel VC members. A total of 243 collected questionnaires was reduced to 204 usable questionnaires through an empirical process of data cleaning. The study's hypotheses examined the extent to which involvement, satisfaction, and trust influence B2CVC stickiness and members' word-of-mouth. Structural Equation Modeling tested the hypotheses in the analysis, and the structural model fit indices were within accepted thresholds: ${\chi}^2^$/df was 2.76, NFI was .904, IFI was .931, CFI was .930, and RMSEA was .017. Results indicated that involvement has a significant influence on satisfaction (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.809). The proportion of variance in satisfaction explained by members' involvement was over half (adjusted $R^2$=0.654), reflecting a strong association. The effect of involvement on trust was also statistically significant (p<0.001, ${\beta}$=0.751), with 57 percent of the variance in trust explained by involvement (adjusted $R^2$=0.563). When the construct "stickiness" was treated as a dependent variable, the proportion of variance explained by the variables of trust and satisfaction was relatively low (adjusted $R^2$=0.331). Satisfaction did have a significant influence on stickiness, with ${\beta}$=0.514. However, unexpectedly, the influence of trust was not even significant (p=0.231, t=1.197), rejecting that proposed hypothesis. The importance of stickiness in the model was more significant because of its effect on e-WOM with ${\beta}$=0.920 (p<0.001). Here, the measures of Stickiness explain over eighty of the variance in e-WOM (Adjusted $R^2$=0.846). Overall, the results of the study supported the hypothesized relationships between members' involvement in a B2CVC and their satisfaction with and trust of it. However, trust, as a traditional measure in behavioral models, has no significant influence on stickiness in the B2CVC environment. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on B2CVCs, specifically addressing gaps in the academic research by integrating measures of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in one model. The results provide additional insights to behavioral factors in a B2CVC environment, helping to sort out relationships between traditional measures and relatively new measures. For practitioners, the identification of factors, such as member involvement, that strongly influence B2CVC member satisfaction can help focus technological resources in key areas. Global e-marketers can develop marketing strategies directly targeting B2CVC members. In the global tourism business, they can target Chinese members of a B2CVC by providing special discounts for active community members or developing early adopter programs to encourage stickiness in the community. Future studies are called for, and more sophisticated modeling, to expand the measurement of B2CVC member behavior and to conduct experiments across industries, communities, and cultures.