{"title":"Travel Website Uses and Cultural Influence: A Comparison Between American and Chinese Travelers","authors":"R. Law, B. Bai, Bonnie Leung","doi":"10.3727/109830508787157326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508787157326","url":null,"abstract":"Since the early 1990s, the applications of Internet technologies have led to a large group of users for information search and online purchase of travel-related products or services. Despite this growth, the existing academic literature has a very limited number of, if ever any, published articles that investigated whether website quality would have any relationships with customer satisfaction, which, in turn, can stimulate the purchase intention of Internet users. The lack of prior studies to investigate such relationships is particularly true in the context of cultural comparison. This article reports on a study that examined the relationships between various factors of website quality, satisfaction, and online purchase from the perspectives of travelers from the US and China. These two countries have the largest number of Internet users in the world, yet they exhibit different behaviors. A survey of 249 Chinese travelers and 238 American travelers was conducted in the restricted Departure Lounge area of the Hong Kong International Airport in October 2005. Empirical findings showed significant differences between these two groups of travelers in most attributes.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"117 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127146694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Online Travel Information Search and Purchasing by Internet Use Experiences","authors":"J. Kah, C. Vogt, K. MacKay","doi":"10.3727/109830508787157353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508787157353","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115544292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marcel Riebeck, Annegret Stark, Marko Modsching, J. Kawalek
{"title":"Studying the User Acceptance of a Mobile Information System for Tourists in the Field","authors":"Marcel Riebeck, Annegret Stark, Marko Modsching, J. Kawalek","doi":"10.3727/109830508787157308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508787157308","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years several prototypes and concepts of location-based tourist guides have been developed. Only a few of them have been evaluated by actual users. This article presents the results of a field study in which the user acceptance of two kinds of mobile information systems for tourists was evaluated by means of a questionnaire survey and interviews. The first mode (Planner) provides tourists with a personalized tour, and besides multimedia-based information at the sights, it offers navigation instructions as well. The second mode (Explorer) shows nearby sights and offers multimedia-based information that can be requested manually. The results show that mobile information systems were the most relevant information sources for tourists during their city visits. Furthermore, it is shown that the acceptance of such systems is positive and significantly influenced by the quality (accuracy) of the pedestrian navigation.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127423577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forecasting Mobile Technology Use in Japanese Tourism","authors":"Takayuki Katsura, P. Sheldon","doi":"10.3727/109830508787157344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508787157344","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115478327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hotel Yield Management Practices Across Multiple Electronic Distribution Channels","authors":"P. O'Connor, Jamie Murphy","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913103","url":null,"abstract":"In the hotel sector, yield management traditionally balances a supply of perishable room nights against demand by manipulating price and time of consumption. While widely accepted, Internet-based distribution channels with different cost structures complicate the process. Hotels must not only manipulate price in response to supply and demand, but must also choose which portfolio of distribution channels to use. This study investigates whether up-market European hotels use three yield management practices: varying room rates with market demand; varying participation in Internet channels with market demand; and differentiating rates on Internet channels in times of high demand. Introducing the concept of a consumer price index for hotel rates, the study found that while one quarter use the first technique, use of the two other practices was considerably lower, suggesting a lack of sophisticated yield management among participants.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"2021 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115171784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Dorn, Peter Hrastnik, A. Rainer, Peter Starzacher
{"title":"Web Service-Based Meta-Search for Accommodations","authors":"J. Dorn, Peter Hrastnik, A. Rainer, Peter Starzacher","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913095","url":null,"abstract":"Information about available hotel rooms can be found in many different sites today. However, the problem is that first, a tourist does not know which site to access and second if she founds certain sites how to compare the results of these sites. We describe an advanced meta-search engine designed to search for available accommodation in different search portals. The engine can be accessed from different platforms such as Internet browser, public multimedia Internet terminals, or mobile devices such as PDAs or cell phones. The engine is applied in two different scenarios: a destination management system uses the meta-search to bundle the services of different search engines for a certain tourism destination or a service provider offers a mobile solution to its clients where dependent on the position of the mobile client or other context attributes an accommodation is searched for nearby. The solution is based on Web service interfaces to the individual search engines and the meta-search again is deployed as a Web service to enable the easy integration into other applications. This supports also the implementation for different client platforms, since only the presentation layer has to be adapted. The system solves problems of different representational concepts in different used search engines. The engine includes geographical services such as geo-coding or map representation delivered by external providers. Since the search engines use different data, different geographic concepts and different granularities of knowledge we use a domain-ontology to translate between concepts.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121721527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Influence of Perceived Credibility on Preferences for Recommender Systems as Sources of Advice","authors":"K. Yoo, U. Gretzel","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913059","url":null,"abstract":"Recommender systems promise to support travelers in complex decision-making processes; however, whether a recommendation is seen as credible advice and actually taken into account not only depends on travelers' perceptions of the recommendation but also of the system as the advice giver. A scale to measure recommender system credibility was developed and tested. The results confirm that credibility has two dimensions: expertise and trustworthiness. Further, significant gender differences in credibility perceptions were found. The findings also indicate that respondents prefer humans as recommendation sources and that this preference is influenced by perceptions of lack of credibility of recommender systems as well as gender-specific preferences. Implications for future research and for recommender system design are discussed.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122319576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Analysis of Travel Information Searching on the Web","authors":"B. Jansen, Christopher C. Ciamacca, A. Spink","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913121","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the phenomenon of searching for travel information on the Web is reported. The issues of how predominant travel searching is on the Web, how people are searching for travel information on the Web, and what terms people are using to express their travel-related information needs are investigated. In this research, 2,465,145 interactions from 534,507 users of the commercial Web search engine, Dogpile.com, on May 6, 2005 are analyzed employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Findings show that, at most, approximately 6.5% of Web queries are for travel searching. Geographical information accounts for nearly 50% of this travel searching, with general travel information accounting for just less than 10%. An analysis of individual terms in travel queries shows there is substantial searching for travel-specific websites such as mapquest, travelocity, and orbitz. Travel searchers appear to be target-specific events, again showing a strong geographical bias along with a temporal component of the underlying information intent. The distribution of travel topics is skewed, with several topics being “very focused” and others being “very general.” A classification scheme for travel-related Web queries was developed, which should be helpful for other researchers in the online travel searching area. The implications for both content providers of travel information and for searchers of travel information on the Web are discussed.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125800421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Comparative Study of Information Needs of City Travelers in Europe","authors":"A. Wolk, K. Wöber","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913077","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on understanding users’ interests in European cities based on log file analysis of keywords entered by users on www.visiteuropeancities.info. It applies various text analysis steps in order to extract significant patterns from the queries made by the users. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is used for constructing a map of similarities based on the unaided responses gained from the users’ information requests. Multiple regression analysis between the most frequently used terms entered by the users and the geometrical representation generated by the MDS provides additional insights in the semantics defining competitive differences between 32 city break destinations in Europe. Findings comprise information on cities that can be considered as kindred in regard to the information demanded by the users of the Web portal. As it becomes clear in which areas cities are perceived as similar, this findings can be used by city (tourism) managers in order to revise their communication plan regarding their own city if desired.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125975196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Podcasting and Tourism: An Exploratory Study of Types, Approaches, and Content","authors":"P. Xie, A. Lew","doi":"10.3727/109830508784913040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3727/109830508784913040","url":null,"abstract":"This research note explores the current issue of using podcasting as a resource for tourism marketing. It investigates the websites of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVB) in US cities for the use of podcasting to promote tourism. The findings show that only five CVBs currently use the technology of podcasting and the application is varied in form, approach and content. Many more travel and destination podcasts exist separate from CVB sponsorship. The conclusions suggest that podcasting will become an important marketing tool for tourist destinations and merits study by tourism researchers and practitioners.","PeriodicalId":306718,"journal":{"name":"J. Inf. Technol. Tour.","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131263613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}