Karin Teichmann

Expertise, experience and self‐confidence in consumers' travel information search

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer self‐confidence, product expertise, and travel experience in the context of travel information search during vacation planning.Design/methodology/approach – The research design is based on a panel study to monitor trip planning processes of Austrian travelers. A structural model is used to assess to what degree consumer self‐confidence, product expertise, and travel experience affect travel information search and to examine the influence of consumer self‐confidence on product expertise.Findings – Findings from the study show that consumer self‐confidence significantly affects product expertise. Travel experience, on the other hand, positively influences product expertise that again is positively related to travel information search. No significant relationship is established between travel experience and travel information search.Research limitations/implications – While most of the previous studies investigated informatio...

Online Destination Marketing: Do Local DMOs Consider International Guidelines for Their Website Design?

Websites of destination management organisations (DMOs) have to meet certain criteria in order to guarantee high quality of tourism-related information. The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) developed guidelines for DMOs to improve the quality and effectiveness of their presentation on the Internet. This study applies a content analysis to evaluate 80 local DMO-websites in Austria concerning the implementation of the guidelines from UNWTO/IFITT. Furthermore, due to the growing importance of Web 2.0 applications, it is assessesed if Web 2.0 features are implemented on websites of local DMOs. The study reveals gaps between the recommendations for the design of DMO-websites and their actual implementation. Results show that the guidelines compiled by UNWTO/IFITT receive limited or no attention for the design of DMO websites. Moreover, it is detected that Web 2.0 applications are entirely absent on all of the 80 investigated local DMO-websites.

Information Elements on DMO-Websites: Alternative Approaches for Measuring Perceived Utility

Information utility has become a major issue in consumer research since providing useful and relevant information is a key factor for the success of destination marketing organisations (DMO). This study compared six different approaches for measuring perceived utility (importance) of information elements on city tourism (CTO) organization websites: group discussion, rating, partial ranking, choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC), adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA) and maximum difference method (MaxDiff). Results showed that simple, compositional methods achieved a more consistent weight pattern compared to the conjoint approaches. The degree of complexity and level of abstraction seem to be responsible for the biases occurring in these techniques. On the other hand, the quality and content of CTO web sites vary to a large extent. Despite different weighting schemes for eight different content areas, by and large, the best and worst web sites remain the same.

The role of message strategies in promoting eco-friendly accommodations

Purpose This paper aims to examine how different levels of message appeals, message sources and social norms influence the purchase (i.e. booking) intention of eco-accommodations. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypothesis was tested using a 2 (message appeal; rational vs emotional) × 2 (message source; expert vs blogger) × 2 (social norm; injunctive vs descriptive) between-subject experimental online design. Findings Advertising appeals and social norms are major predictors of eco-accommodation’s ad effectiveness and message appeals, sources and social norms, and their classifications interrelate with each other. The highest intention to purchase an eco-accommodation was found for a promotional message, which is sent by an expert, expresses a rational appeal and includes a descriptive social norm. Perceived emotional value in contrast was increased with a blogger statement including an emotional appeal and an injunctive social norm. Research limitations/implications The used experiment only focused on one product, namely, eco-friendly accommodations. The impacts of different message contents might vary as a function of the promoted product. Practical implications To develop persuasive messages which combine all three message contents, experts should craft messages with rational characteristics and address a descriptive social norm. Originality/value Although consumers show a desire to buy eco-friendly tourism products, it seems that supply actually overweighs demand. As research in the field of eco-accommodations is still limited, this study examines the role of different combined promotional message contents to further clarify the apparent gap in green consumption.