Assessing structure of online channel use By American travelers

1. Assessing structure of online channel use
By American travelers
Yeongbae Choe
Daniel R. Fesenmaier
National Laboratory of Tourism & eCommerce
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management
Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
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Slide Number 1

2. Introduction
Travelers
Internet
Suppliers
•
Obtaining
/ Sharing
Information
• DMOs,
Travel
Companies
•
Trip Planning
(pre-, during)
• Connecting the
industry and
travel markets
•
Purchasing
products/services
• Key components
The Internet has transformed travelers’ behaviors as well as the
distribution of the information in many different ways
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Slide Number 2

3. Introduction
• Consequently, a considerable amount of research have been
conducted to understand the use of Internet for trip planning.
– User characteristics, the impact, influencing factors, media repertoire etc.
– (e.g. Bieger & Laesser, 2004; Beritelli, Bieger, & Laesser, 2007; Gretzel, Hwang, &
Fesenmaier, 2012; Hsieh, & O’Leary, 1993; Hyde, 2007; Pan & Fesenmaier, 2006).
• However, relatively little of research has focused on the
hierarchical structure of online channel use for trip planning.
– Indeed, people only use a small number of information channels
based on their needs, a set of constraints and etc.
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Slide Number 3

4. Introduction
Hotel Websites
General Search
Portal Site
Online Review
Sites
Destination
Official Sites
Social Media
Sites
Various Internet
websites
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Slide Number 4

5. Research Objectives
• The objective of this study
– to identify how online trip planners combine the various online channels for
their trip planning, especially focusing on their structural relationships
– to categorize online trip planners according by the use of online channel
– to examine any differences in demographic, information, and online
behaviors between respective groups
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Slide Number 5

6. Methodology
• A national-wide online survey was conducted from January 7-9, 2013
– Population: Americans who had travelled and used the Internet during the
calendar year 2012
• Data collected 1,043 usable samples (total 1,184 respondents)
– Only used someone who used the Internet and had taken a trip 50 miles or
more, one-way from home or that included an overnight stay
– Respondents were asked which of the 14 online channels they
used
• Analysis
– Guttman scaling procedure, Cross-tabulation, ANOVA
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Slide Number 6

7. Respondents Characteristics
Variable
Gender:
Male
Female
Age:
18 - 21 years
22 - 29 years
30 - 39 years
40 - 49 years
50 - 59 years
60 - 69 years
70 and above
Current employment:
Employed full-time
Employed part-time
Retired
Not employed
Percentage Variable
Annual household income:
49.0
Less than $20,000
51.0
$20,000 - $29,999
$30,000 - $39,999
4.6
$40,000 - $49,999
16.8
$50,000 - $74,999
20.8
$75,000 - $99,999
17.6
$100,000 - $149,999
19.8
$150,000 - $199,999
16.2
$200,000 or more
4.2
Highest education level:
Less than high school
49.2
Completed high school
14.8
Some college, not completed
16.2
Completed college
18.5
Post graduate work
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Percentage
7.2
8.6
10.7
11.1
22.6
17.1
12.8
4.6
2.0
0.9
11.9
29.3
37.4
20.1
Slide Number 7

8. Use of online channels
Online Channel
Frequency %
Online travel agency sites (Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, or Orbitz.com)
707
69.0
Company sites (airlines, hotels, rental cars or tour operators)
635
62.0
Search engines (Yahoo!, Google or Bing)
592
57.8
Destination sites (provided by a city, state or attraction)
412
40.2
Travel Search Engines (Kayak)
268
26.1
Travel review sites (IGOUGO, Yelp! or TripAdvisor)
193
18.8
Social networking sites (Myspace, Facebook or Pinterest)
167
16.3
General travel sites (offering free travel brochures about destinations)
166
16.2
Travel guidebook sites (Fodors, Frommers or Lonely Planet)
123
12.0
Photo or video sharing sites (YouTube, Instagram, or Flickr)
113
11.0
Newspaper or magazine sites (New York Times or Conde Nast Traveler)
107
10.4
Special interest and online community sites
94
9.2
Personal blogs
64
6.2
Micro blogs (Twitter or Tumblr)
39
3.8
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Slide Number 8

9. Structure of Online channel use
• Guttman Scaling
– The goal of the analysis is to derive a single dimension that can be used to
position both the questions and the subjects
– In this study, it is used to examine the cumulative structure of online
channel use during an online trip planning stage
• Procedure
–
–
–
–
1) construct a scalogram based on the number of online channel use
2) derive the ideal patterns and actual patterns from raw data
3) calculate the amount of error (differences between two patterns)
4) check the criteria (i.e. CR, MMR, and CS)
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Slide Number 9

10. Structure of Online channel use
Online travel agency sites
Company sites
Search engines
Destination sites
Travel Search Engines
Travel review sites
Social networking sites
Photo or video sharing sites
General travel sites
Newspaper or magazine sites
Travel guidebook sites
Special interest and online community
Personal blogs
Micro blogs
Number of responses
Number of online channel use
1
2
3
4
5
48
64
69
73
31
53
67
72
10
49
63
73
3
17
38
55
2
7
18
33
2
2
8
20
1
4
9
18
0
1
4
12
1
2
10
14
2
1
6
6
1
1
4
11
1
1
4
8
1
1
2
5
0
0
1
0
200 200 200 147
6
80
76
82
69
40
25
28
19
31
12
15
14
4
4
99
7
79
83
87
79
60
63
37
16
30
11
32
13
6
3
63
8+
92
82
88
78
66
52
34
20
58
32
38
28
20
12
50
Coefficient of reproducibility (CR) =0.89; Minimum marginal reproducibility (MMR) =0.67;
Percentage improvement=0.22; Coefficient of Scalability (CS) =0.67.
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Slide Number 10
95
91
97
89
82
77
62
70
65
74
70
53
50
38
66

11. Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Core
Travel
Search
Enhanced
Travel
Search
Travel
Focused
Search
Comprehensive
Search
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Slide Number 11

12. Differences in demographic char.
Core
Current employment:
Employed full-time
Employed part-time
Retired
Not employed
Education:
Less than high school
Completed high school
Some college, not completed
Completed college
Post graduate
Age Generation
Young (1990 ~ 1994)
Gen Y (1981 ~ 1989)
Gen X (1965 ~ 1980)
Baby Boomers (1946 ~ 1964)
Greatest (1924 ~ 1945)
Enhanced
43.8
14.3
19.0
21.3
.8
17.5
32.5
34.8
14.3
9.0
18.0
25.8
38.8
8.5
48.4
15.3
16.1
18.7
1.2
8.1
29.1
38.6
22.2
6.3
19.0
30.0
38.6
6.1
Travel
Focused
58.0
13.2
12.3
16.5
.9
9.9
23.1
37.7
28.3
5.2
21.7
29.2
40.1
3.8
Compre
hensive
60.6
21.2
12.1
6.1
3.0
28.8
45.5
22.7
9.1
30.3
36.4
19.7
4.5
X2
26.753**
45.158***
22.785*
Note: Age, Gender, and Household Income are not significantly different
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Slide Number 12

13. Differences in information searching
Core
Information Types
Hotel prices or places to stay
Info. about a particular destination
Airline fares and schedules/flight times
Things to do at the destination
Potential destinations to visit
Rental car prices and availability
Travel discount or promotion
Dining and entertainment
Maps and/or driving directions
Local event calendars at the destination
Travel packages for resorts, etc.
Stores or other places to shop
Cruises
Sites that distribute travel brochures
800 numbers
Number of information searched
Travel
Focused
Enhanced
Compre
hensive
Total
55.8
53.0abc
53.5abc
23.0abc
26.0abc
29.8abc
20.3abc
16.3abc
15.5abc
8.3abc
11.0abc
11.8abc
9.0abc
1.0abc
1.8bc
3.36abc
74.6
72.6ade
65.7de
53.3ade
48.4ade
38.0de
39.8ade
39.2ade
32.6ade
26.8ade
27.1ade
26.8ade
21.0ade
8.1ade
2.3de
5.76ade
85.4
87.3bd
74.1b
72.6bdf
70.3bd
57.1bdf
61.3bd
64.6bdf
50.5bd
46.2bdf
40.6bdf
38.2bdf
33.0bdf
20.8bdf
10.8bdf
8.13bdf
89.4
93.9ce
86.4ce
89.4cef
80.3ce
81.8cef
74.2ce
83.3cef
63.6ce
69.7cef
66.7cef
68.2cef
56.1cef
53.0cef
34.8cef
10.91cef
abc
ad
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bd
c
70.4
69.4
64.0
47.8
46.2
41.6
38.8
38.3
31.6
26.3
26.1
26.0
21.1
10.8
6.0
5.64
F-value
28.225***
37.965***
14.979***
83.027***
56.836***
32.677***
53.064***
83.087***
42.744***
69.903***
47.971***
45.099***
37.536***
75.503***
48.742***
253.078***
Slide Number 13

14. Differences in product purchasing
Core
Online Trip products purchases
Travel
Focused
Enhanced
Compre
hensive
Total
F-value
59.8abc
75.9a
77.0b
89.1c
70.8
13.722***
Airline tickets
68.2c
61.3de
78.0cd
89.1e
69.3
9.856***
Car Rental
35.3bc
40.9de
55.5bdf
79.7cef
44.4
19.811***
Tickets to attractions/events
22.6abc
44.9ade
60.5bdf
78.1cef
41.8
45.894***
Travel package
8.2abc
17.6ae
21.5bf
53.1cef
17.2
29.734***
Cruise Reservations
5.7bc
10.2e
13.5bf
40.6cef
11.2
24.394***
Sport activity reservations
1.9abc
8.7ae
13.0bf
34.4cef
8.7
28.688***
0.5c
2.5e
2.5f
21.9cef
3.0
31.149***
2.17abc
2.91ade
3.97bdf
6.70cef
3.10
137.979***
Pleasure trips
1737abc
2289ade
3193bdf
4272cef 2409
30.457***
Business trips
1803c
2353e
2543f
3721cef 2420
5.053**
Lodging accommodations
RV rental/purchase
Average number of purchased product
Average spending on trips
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Slide Number 14

15. Conclusions
• The results of this study confirm that there is a strong hierarchical
pattern in the use of online channels for trip planning by American
travellers.
– Online travel agency sites are “essential” for all travellers and build the
foundation for all other channels
• Online trip planners differ
– in terms of demographic, information searching behaviour, trip product
purchasing behaviour, and spending on trip
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Slide Number 15

16. Discussion
• Theoretical Contributions
– Identifies the use of information channels is uni-dimensional
– Travellers can be categorized into several groups based on the level of
media use
• Practical Implications
– DMOs and tourism suppliers could allocate their resources and turn their
attentions to highly profitable channel
– This study reveals ‘progression of sophistication’ in online travel planning
• There are important differences between those that use only one channel and those that
use, for example, five channels.
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Slide Number 16

17. Thank you for your attention
Questions and comments?
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Slide Number 17

18. What types of Websites have you used when you planned a trip over the past 12
months (January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013)? (Please select all that apply)
Online travel agency sites such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, or Orbitz.com
Company sites such as airlines, hotels, rental cars or tour operators
Search engines such as Yahoo!, Google or Bing
Destination sites such as those provided by a city, state or attraction
General travel sites that specialize in offering free travel brochures about destinations
Travel guidebook sites such as Fodors, Frommers or Lonely Planet
Newspaper or magazine sites such as the New York Times or Conde Nast Traveler
Travel Search Engines such as Kayak
Travel review sites such as HoboTraveler, IGOUGO, Yelp! or TripAdvisor
Photo or video sharing sites such as YouTube, Instagram, or Flickr
Social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook or Pinterest
Personal blogs
Special interest and online community sites
Microblogs such as Twitter or Tumblr
I do not know
None of the above
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Slide Number 18