AN INSIGHT INTO THE DRIVERS OF ELECTRONIC WORD OF MOUTH IN TOURISM

Abstract

There is a growing relevance for electronic word of mouth owing to the transformation induced by digital distribution of products and services. With the rising consumer trust on electronic word of mouth, one of the biggest challenges faced by companies is to motivate authentic customers to provide useful information in the form of reviews. This study has examined the various factors influencing tourist's intent to engage in electronic word of mouth. The results indicate that, belief in reciprocity has substantial influence on tourist's intent to engage in online word of mouth. The other factors which have an effect are tourist's sense of belonging to the online community and their satisfaction with destination attributes. Factors such as satisfaction with hotel attributes, pricing of hotel services, tourist personality score on extraversion scale and consumer involvement with tourism activity does not show any significant influence. Managers of tourism-based sites and tourism facilities need to focus on building appropriate mechanisms to cater to the underlying factors influencing electronic word of mouth intent to ensure that the sites get sustained contribution.