Suzanne Amaro

Online travel purchasing: A literature review

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing focus on the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), as well as the impact that they have had on the tourism industry and on travelers’ behaviors. However, research on what drives consumers to purchase travel online has typically been fragmented. In order to better understand consumers’ behavior toward online travel purchasing, this article offers a review of articles that were published in leading tourism and hospitality journals, the ENTER proceedings, and several articles from other peer-reviewed journals, found on the main academic search databases. The antecedents of online travel shopping found are classified into three main categories: Consumer Characteristics, Perceived Channel Characteristics, and Website and Product Characteristics. Finally, this study identifies several gaps and provides some orientation for future research.

Pilgrims’ Acceptance of a Mobile App for the Camino de Santiago

This study aims to identify which factors affect pilgrim’s intentions to use a pilgrimage app, based on the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2). The empirical results were obtained from a sample of 222 pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago (Saint James’s Way). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was applied to test the hypothesized relationships of the proposed model. The results indicate that the most important factor affecting intentions to use the app is performance expectancy. Effort expectancy, social influence and hedonic motivations are other determinants of intentions to use a pilgrimage app. Facilitating conditions and habit do not affect intentions to use the app. The results of this study are valuable for a successfully implementation of pilgrimage apps, providing useful insights for pilgrimage app designers.

Travel content creation: The influence of travelers’ innovativeness, involvement and use of social media

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine factors that affect the likelihood to create travel content online. Research has shown that there are far more people consuming social media than generating it. However, online travel marketers need to pay attention to travelers that share their experiences online, as they have the potential to drive sales. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted to collect data for this study, by sending e-mail invitations to colleagues, students, personal contacts and other email contacts composed of Portuguese Internet users. A total of 244 complete responses were considered valid to test the hypotheses through partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings – The results reveal that travelers’ level of involvement with tourism products, innovativeness and use of social media directly influences writing reviews about travel experiences online. Research limitations/implications – First, the data used in this study were based on a conveni...

Social media use for travel purposes: a cross cultural comparison between Portugal and the UK

Social media plays an important role in travelers’ planning and decision-making. Research has highlighted that the use of social media on travel planning may differ among countries, whereas culture may explain those differences. This article explores the use of social media for travel and compares United Kingdom and Portuguese citizens based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Results revealed that travelers from both countries use social media essentially before travelling yet, some differences were found regarding the use after traveling and between social media consumption and creation. Travel marketers can use this knowledge to adapt social media strategies to country specific situations.

Travellers’ intention to purchase travel online: integrating trust and risk to the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract This study aims to determine which factors influence travellers’ intentions to purchase travel online by proposing and empirically testing a new model grounded on the theory of planned behaviour. In order to validate the model, a web-based questionnaire was applied and a total of 1732 valid responses were obtained. The findings show that attitudes, perceived risk, and perceived behavioural control have significant effects on intentions to purchase travel online. However, contrary to what was expected, neither trust nor the influence of others seems to directly affect intentions to purchase travel online. Finally, the paper discusses the findings with the implications for theory and practice and makes several suggestions for future research.

Millenials’ intentions to book on Airbnb

ABSTRACT The sharing economy has witnessed a significant growth in recent years, enhanced by the development of online platforms. In particular, Airbnb has witnessed a significant worldwide year-on-year growth. Given the importance and popularity of Airbnb, it is crucial to examine which factors affect intentions to book on this website. This study proposes and tests a model based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, to examine millennials’ determinants of intentions to book on Airbnb. Based on two online surveys targeting millennials from Germany and China, the results show that intentions to book on Airbnb is mostly influenced by subjective norm, desire for unique accommodation and variety, attitude and economic benefits. Surprisingly, economic benefits have the smallest effect. Perceived risk with the purchase channel was found to have no impact on intentions to book on Airbnb. Managerial implications and theoretical contributions are provided.

Generation Y Travelers’ Intentions to Book Airbnb Accommodation: An Abstract

Sharing economy is affecting the global economy with increasing scale, as customers can exchange commodities in an organized way under the help of an enormous number of online platforms (Balck and Cracau 2015). In the context of holiday accommodation, Airbnb’ s growth has been stunning as now it has more available rooms than hotel giants like Marriott and Hilton (Weed 2015). In fact, research has highlighted Airbnb’s potential to disrupt the traditional accommodation sector (Guttentag 2013). Given the importance of Airbnb, it is crucial to examine which factors affect intentions to book an accommodation on Airbnb. This study proposes an integrative model based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) theory to examine which factors affect Generation Y travelers’ intentions to book on Airbnb. Consistent with intention-based models, attitude was found to be significantly associated with intentions to purchase travel online. Perceived usefulness was found to positively influence attitude towards Airbnb. However, perceived usefulness and perceived risk do not influence intentions to book on Airbnb. What really matters to book on Airbnb are the motivation factors. Indeed, the results indicate that this is the strongest predictor to book on Airbnb. One of the motivations to book on Airbnb is financial, since it offers quality accommodation with lower prices. This is even more important to younger people who are becoming more used to having access to more things than they could ever own. The second most important predictor of intentions to book on Airbnb is subjective norm. Attitude towards online shopping also affects intentions to book on Airbnb. Therefore, online marketing strategies should focus on fostering referents’ opinions and creating a favourable attitude toward Airbnb.

Travel Social Media Involvement: A Proposed Measure

This study proposes a measure to determine traveller’s level of involvement with travel social media websites. Social media involvement is defined as a person’s level of interest, emotional attachment or arousal with social media. This measure is important because understanding travellers’ level of involvement with social media is paramount, enabling social media marketers to personalize online marketing strategies and predict behaviours (e.g. online travel purchases). Therefore, this research contributes to the development of literature on travel related social media by providing an instrument to measure travellers’ involvement with travel related social media. A confirmatory factor analysis conducted with a sample of 1,732 respondents demonstrates that social media involvement can be conceptualized as a formative multidimensional construct, formed by interest in social media, social media consumption, social media creation and perceived playfulness with the use of social media (all for travel related purposes).

Comparing CB-SEM and PLS-SEM results: an empirical example

Many scholars view PLS-SEM as less rigorous than CB-SEM, namely due to is less restrictive assumptions. The main objective of this research is to compare the results of both approaches, for a given model, to examine if there are, indeed, noteworthy differences. The study shows that the results obtained in both approaches are very similar. These findings provide useful insights to researchers