ENTER2017 eTourism Conference presentation

1. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 1
Channels for Searching Hotel and
Travel Information
Sunny Suna
,
Rob Lawa
,
Chris Luka
,
Lawrence Hoc Nang Fongb
a
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
15901578r@connect.polyu.hk, rob.law@polyu.edu.hk,
chris.luk@polyu.edu.hk,
b
University of Macau, Macau
lawrencefong@umac.mo

2. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 2
Introduction
• Marketers should understand the travel
decisions of tourists, in particular, the
channels that tourists use in searching for
relevant information
– Retrieved information can significantly
influence the decision making of tourists (Law
& Hsu, 2006; Amaro, Duarte, & Henriques,
2016).

3. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 3
Introduction

4. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 4
Literature review
• Channels for searching hotel-related and
travel-related information:
– Offline channels or destination promotion web
sites
– Online Travel Agents [OTAs]
– Social media sites

5. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 5
Literature review
OTAs
Social media
sites
Offline
channels

6. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 6
Literature review
• Factors that affect the use of different
channels
Previous studies
Factors References
ease of finding (Miller, 2004 ）
information quality (Wong and Law, 2005)
past experiences (Jun et al., 2007)
socio-demographics (Kim et al., 2007; Xiang et al.,
2015)

7. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 7
Literature review
• Web search skills are also considered
important factors that affect the
information search behavior of tourists
(Feufel & Stahl, 2012).

8. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 8
Objectives
• To identify the importance and performance of
these channels in searching hotel-related and
travel-related information
• To investigate the factors that affect the use of
these channels
• To examine the relationship between web search
skill and information search behavior

9. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 9
Method
• A quantitative study through a questionnaire
survey
• Valid sample: 141/161
• Data analysis:
– Paired samples t-tests
– Independent samples t-tests
– Binary logit model
– One-way ANOVA

10. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 10
Findings and Discussions
Channels for
searching hotel
information
Importance
(mean)*
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
Mean
Performance
(mean)*
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
Mean
p
Offline
channels
3.39 0.960 0.094 3.33 0.939 0.092 0.365
International
OTAs
4.11 0.748 0.065 3.97 0.709 0.062 0.009
Regional
OTAs
3.31 0.946 0.096 3.31 0.842 0.085 1.000
Social Media
Sites
3.93 0.818 0.072 3.84 0.833 0.073 0.128
Table 1. Channels for searching hotel information
Note: *The value ranges from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high)

11. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 11
Findings and Discussions
Channels for
searching
travel-
related
information
Importance
(mean)*
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
Mean
Performance
(mean)*
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
Mean
p
Offline
channels
3.67 0.906 0.088 3.54 0.931 0.091 0.032
International
OTAs
3.84 0.852 0.082 3.78 0.854 0.082 0.145
Regional
OTAs
3.52 0.861 0.085 3.45 0.837 0.082 0.260
Social Media
Sites
4.10 0.859 0.076 4.01 0.808 0.071 0.134
Table 2. Channels for searching travel-related information
Note: *The value ranges from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high)

12. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 12
Findings and Discussions
Factors that affect the use of offline channels
to search for hotel information
Factors that affect the use of offline channels
to search for travel-related information
Ba
Sigb
Exp (B) Ba
Sigb
Exp (B)
Skillful at
using the
web
1.151 0.034 3.161 Skillful at
using the
Web
0.428 0.380 1.534
Good search
techniques
on the web
-0.706 0.190 0.493 Good search
techniques
on the Web
-0.890 0.110 0.411
Capability
of finding
the required
information
0.555 0.512 1.743 Capability of
finding the
required
information
1.083 0.043 2.954
Table 3. Factors that affect the use of offline
channels to search information

13. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 13
Findings and Discussions
Table 4. Factors that affect the use of social
media to search information
Factors that affect the use of social
media to search for hotel information
Factors that affect the use of social media to
search for travel-related information
B Sig Exp (B) B Sig Exp (B)
Skillful at
using the
web
-1.137 0.005 0.321 Skillful at using
the Web
-0.878 0.029 0.416
Capability of
finding the
required
information
-0.694 0.067 0.500 Capability of
finding the
required
information
-0.822 0.036 0.439

14. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 14
Findings and Discussions
Hotel
information
search behavior
Offline channels International
OTAs
Regional
OTAs
Social Media Sites
df F df F df F df F
Skillful at using
the web
140 8.656*** 140 7.620** 140 1.053 140 2.884
Good search
techniques on the
web
140 7.954** 140 0.134 140 0.882 140 0.982
Capability of
finding the
required
information
140 10.538** 140 3.180 140 0.726 140 3.881
Gender 140 0.000 140 5.652* 140 1.724 140 0.238
Table 5. The relationship between web-using
skill and hotel information search behavior
Note: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001

15. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 15
Findings and Discussions
Travel
information
search behavior
Offline channels International
OTAs
Regional OTAs Social Media Sites
df F df F df F df F
Skillful at using
the web
140 5.248* 140 2.23 140 0.923 140 3.618
Good search
techniques on the
web
140 3.781 140 0.362 140 0.479 140 0.233
Capability of
finding the
required
information
140 8.236** 140 0.181 140 0.473 140 1.682
Gender 140 1.346 140 2.237 140 7.498** 140 4.832*
Table 6. Relationship between web-using skill and
travel information search behavior
Note: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001

16. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 16
Implications
• Hotel and tourism practitioners can target
their market/s more precisely.
• Hotel and tourism websites can highlight
hotel and travel information for tourists on
social media sites.

17. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 17
Conclusions and future research
• Tourists perceive international OTAs as the
most important channels in searching for
hotel-related information; and social media
sites for travel-related information.
• Web search skill also affects the channels
that tourists use to search for hotel-related
and travel-related information.
• Limitation: limited sample size.

18. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 18