Online Travel Companies Research Articles

Benchmarking Travelling Reviews using Opinion Mining

Online travel reviews offer valuable data, yet it remains uncertain if those most influenced by these reviews actually read them. This research aims to uncover consistent patterns and explain variations in online travel ratings, comments, and reviews. To accomplish this, millions of reviews were collected from Pakistan's top online travel companies, Uber and Careem. Utilizing semantic affiliation analysis, subject terms were extracted, forming a semantic affiliation structure. The findings highlight significant differences among channels concerning topical vocabulary, subject distribution, structural traits, and community links. The network visualization results are particularly noteworthy, as they illustrate connections between key concepts and words within each topic, making them easily understandable. With the proposed logical method, we can better understand the strategic snafus in the travel sector and gain fresh insights into how to dig up popular assessments to better serve tourists, lodging establishments, and trade groups.

Challenges in Applying Saudi Arabian Tax Treaties: Digitalization, Withholding Tax, and Permanent Establishment of Non-residents

As part of Vision 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has begun implementing broad economic and legal reforms to improve its tax environment and create an amicable setting for international investors. However, there are challenges to this endeavour, which are not limited to Saudi rules. Digitalization is one such challenge in income taxation at the global level. This study investigates the challenges in taxation arising from digitalization that can potentially affect base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) mechanisms both internationally and in Saudi Arabia. One major problem in the Saudi tax judiciary is the interpretation of international tax treaties to determine the existence of a permanent establishment (PE) for the purpose of Saudi income tax for a non-resident providing remote services within Saudi territory. By examining contradictory decisions related to two typical digital services, namely online travel companies (OTCs) and international telecommunication, this study highlights the complexity involved in digitalization, withholding tax, and PE. By analysing Saudi practices against the context of international rules, this research also highlights the need to clearly define the meaning of a ‘permanent digital establishment’. Finally, it underscores the necessity of establishing a permanent higher chamber in the tax judiciary, which will make decisions on stable judicial tax principles. This will improve the Saudi legal tax environment and ensure its consistency with international practices. Saudi tax law, foreign income, digitalization, withholding tax, permanent establishment

The effect of novel coronavirus pandemic on tourism share prices

Purpose This paper aims to provide swift feedback to readers and investors on the early effect of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak on tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach Three leading consolidators of hotel accommodations, airline tickets and travel services in the tourism industry around the globe, namely, Booking Holdings Inc., Expedia Group and Trip.com Group Ltd. are chosen in this study. First, numerical description is performed on their shares prices and a set of control variables to compare their performances before and during the lockdown because of COVID-19 outbreak. Next, this paper estimates ordinary least squares models with and without exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic specification to establish the nature, significance and magnitude of the pandemic’s early effect on the shares performance of these online travel companies (OTCs). Findings This paper discovers a rapid decline in the performance of tourism industry amid the pandemic outbreak, from the perspective of three leading OTCs, which derive their profits from tourists by providing them online hotel reservation, air-ticketing and packaged-tour business services around the globe. These significant adverse direct and indirect effects testify that tourism-related businesses are extensively locked down by the pandemic outbreak. Research limitations/implications Future studies are encouraged to examine each of the tourism sectors for individual effects. Practical implications This paper provides implications for investors to protect their wealth, and for policymakers to ensure sustainability of tourism industry in the pandemic outbreak and in the future. Originality/value From the perspective of corporate finance, this paper empirically quantifies the early effect of COVID-19 on tourism industry for a quick snapshot.

A Netnographic and Regression Approach to Study Customer Skepticism towards Online Travel Companies

A Netnographic and Regression Approach to Study Customer Skepticism towards Online Travel Companies

Traveller’s Empowerment: Travelling website service quality, attitude towards UGC and booking intentions of travellers

The word of mouth is known to be the best resource for a traveller. For years, travelling companies are finding ways to promote review and user generated content to attract more future travellers. The Web 2.0 which is referred as next generation of the Internet characterized by the dynamic user-generated content facilitates users to create and share content and in consequence travellers are more empowered. This technological breakthrough has transformed customers into participative agents. The Travel & Tourism industry has been seriously challenged by Web 2.0 where travel customers are browsing websites for travel planning and hotel booking. Such travel agency websites provide information and booking facilities and travel customers also share their experiences, pictures and advice known as User-Generated Content (UGC). The same trend is approaching Pakistan having an immense potential for online travel companies. Travel & Tourism industry of Pakistan is experiencing a thriving growth since the terror attacks have reduced exponentially hence qualify for a scholarly attention. This study explores the effects of website quality of travel agencies through E-SERQUAL on the attitude of Pakistani travel customers towards UGC and hotel booking. It is a survey-based quantitative study. The data is collected through questionnaires from university 339 students and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used to provide insights into Pakistani customers’ attitude and behavior towards booking intentions. It is established that unlike other countries, Pakistani travellers are least concerned about website safety and security whereas website functionality, information content and quality are leading factors affecting attitude towards UGC followed by website appearance and presentation. It is concluded that website service quality plays a major role in adoption of UGC that directly affects the hotel a booking intentions of travel customers.

Exploring the ethical implications of business analytics with a business ethics canvas

The ethical aspects of data science and artificial intelligence have become a major issue. Organisations that deploy data scientists and operational researchers (OR) must address the ethical implications of their use of data and algorithms. We review the OR and data science literature on ethics and find that this work is pitched at the level of guiding principles and frameworks and fails to provide a practical and grounded approach that can be used by practitioners as part of the analytics development process. Further, given the advent of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) an ethical dimension is likely to become an increasingly important aspect of analytics development. Drawing on the business analytics methodology (BAM) developed by Hindle and Vidgen (2018) we tackle this challenge through action research with a pseudonymous online travel company, EuroTravel. The method that emerges uses an opportunity canvas and a business ethics canvas to explore value creation and ethical aspects jointly. The business ethics canvas draws on the Markkula Center's five ethical principles (utility, rights, justice, common good, and virtue) to which explicit consideration of stakeholders is added. A contribution of the paper is to show how an ethical dimension can be embedded in the everyday exploration of analytics development opportunities, as distinct from a stand-alone ethical decision-making tool or as an overlay of a general set of guiding principles. We also propose that value and ethics should not be viewed as separate entities, rather they should be seen as inseparable and intertwined.

Curvilinear effects of e-loyalty in China’s online tourism industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand e-loyalty in the travel industry. Specifically, this paper aims to examine the curvilinear relationship between predictors and e-loyalty.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study was conducted using an online survey with one of the largest travel companies in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the models, and pair-wise nested F-tests were used to compare the models.FindingsResults show that the curvilinear model has greater explanatory power of loyalty than traditional linear models. The results of pair-wise nested F-tests show that the loyalty model exhibits statistically significant R2 improvement compared to the linear model. However, the R2 improvement in the integrated model is not statistically different from that in the linear model. Confirmation and satisfaction are found to be salient factors influencing loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThis study makes important contributions to the online community literature by understanding the drivers of loyalty in the travel industry. However, there are limitations. First, this study addressed member loyalty of an online travel community with data collected from one company. Thus, generalizability is limited. Online communities and firms may have different characteristics, resulting in different factors influencing consumer loyalty. The authors plan in the future to collect data from other online travel companies and examine their model with different samples so as to check the generalizability of the current findings. Second, the authors collected a snapshot view on loyalty. Both researchers and managers note that small changes in loyalty and retention can yield disproportionately large changes in profitability (Reichheld et al., 2000). Consumer loyalty may change over time, so to maintain and increase profits, it is important to monitor such change. In the future, the authors plan to conduct a longitudinal study of community members to evaluate their loyalty over time.Practical implicationsAs China seeks to gain additional market share in the global tourism market, travel companies should make use of websites as a marketing tool to attract and retain customers. These actions enable a travel company to enhance its competitiveness. More and more people use the internet for tour deals, bookings and finding tour-related information. Effective use of websites can affect the competitiveness of ecommerce companies. E-vendors could assess and adopt the dimensions recommended in this paper to help better understand areas for improvement. It is common today for consumers to buy travel products online instead of going through a travel agent. Considering the importance of reciprocity in formulating consumer satisfaction and loyalty in the virtual environment, companies should monitor reciprocal behavior on the virtual community. With advancement in technologies, consumer behaviors have changed and more consumers prefer social interactions in the virtual world. Companies can analyze posts in the virtual environment to assess reciprocity and may design a mechanism to foster reciprocal behaviors. By leveraging reciprocity, firms can better connect satisfaction with loyalty. More than 70 per cent of executives surveyed by McKinsey (2012) said that they regularly generate value through their Web communities. In addition, to pay attention to consumer to consumer reciprocity in the virtual world, companies should listen to what customers say in their online community, as this attention is an indication of reciprocity between consumers and companies. The ideas and opinions expressed in the online community tell the company customers’ perception of the value of its products and customers’ needs. Such attention to the voices in the online community will help companies to better tailor products/services to meet customers’ needs. Furthermore, the voices expressed in the virtual community are also effective in developing and maintaining new internet marketing opportunities such as email marketing, giveaways, search engine optimization, pay per click and shopping comparison marketing. Companies interested in retaining and attracting customers should leverage their established virtual communities and pay close attention to online posts and evaluate members’ satisfaction. Such effort will provide tangible benefits. As shown in Ye et al.’s study, traveler reviews produce a significant impact on online sales (Ye et al., 2011), with a 10 per cent increase in traveler review ratings, boosting online bookings by more than 5 per cent. This finding suggests that businesses should link online user-generated reviews to business performance in tourism. Finding incentives for users to share might be one way to improve interactivity and further create stickiness on the part of the website.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the first studies to address the need to move beyond linear models of e-loyalty and to additionally examine potential curvilinear and interactive effects. This study also identifies key variables such as reciprocity and satisfaction as determinants of e-loyalty in the Chinese online travel and tourism industry.

Research on the Relationship between Enterprise Resource Integration and Enterprise Performance—Taking Online Travel Enterprises as an Example

At present, China’s online travel companies are expanding their market share by continuously burning money, and most enterprises are in a profit dilemma. Future tourism is the competition of comprehensive resources, and the process of resource integration is directly related to the performance of online tourism enterprises, and it is also the key for online travel enterprises to win in the fierce competition environment. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the competitive advantage of online tourism enterprises by optimizing the online tourism enterprise resource integration process, which brings high enterprise performance to online tourism enterprises.

The Roles of Website Characteristics and Social Network Communities in Developing Customer E-loyalty in the Online Travel Industry

Internet and social network communities have become the essential channel for people looking for tourism information and online purchases or reservations. The academic community strive to better understand which factors influence online satisfaction and loyalty in the online travel industry. Many antecedents to e-satisfaction have been identified in the literature, namely functional and relational website characteristics. While many studies have assessed the influence of functional characteristics on esatisfaction such as usability and security, few research focused on the influence of social and human dimensions of the interface, called relational characteristics, especially in the online travel context. In fact, the relational features have been studied as a part of the optimization of the website interface and not from the logic of loyalty and brand-customer relationships. Moreover, there is a call in the literature for more research on the impact of individual engagement on social networks sites on loyalty generation. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate how online attributes under the control of the cyber-merchant (website functional and relational attributes) and social networking sites where the firm has far less control, foster e-saisfaction and e-loyalty in the online travel industry. A self-administered survey was used and data were collected from university students who had shopped from an online travel company in the past year. By using SEM modelling, results show that usability, quality of support, and security/privacy positively impact e-satisfaction while e-satisfaction influences both cognitive and affective loyalty. Further analyses showed that personalization and online social network communities significantly influence both cognitive and affective loyalty while perceived social presence has a negative impact on cognitive loyalty. By understanding website drivers of online satisfaction and loyalty, this study contribute to help online travel companies develop strategies positioned to build long-term relationships, and thereby gain a competitive advantage.

Cities versus Online Travel Companies

This article examines suits by municipalities against online travel companies (OTCs) for not remitting the appropriate room occupancy tax. At issue is whether OTCs should collect tax on the amount they pay hotels for rooms or on the higher amount charged consumers. This article describes the business structure of OTCs as related to tax collection and discusses legal issues and recent court decisions as well as state and federal legislative proposals to address occupancy tax issues. At this time, it is not possible to cite a single rule that applies in all situations due to the numerous state and local laws and court holdings in relation to this matter. A key question involves whether OTCs are agents for hotels, as argued by many municipalities, or if instead the OTC acts as a personal shopper for would-be guests. In the agency model, the OTCs are in effect selling rooms subject to occupancy tax; while in the merchant model, the OTC would be providing a service, rather than rooms themselves, and the service would not be subject to occupancy taxes. A key element in the tax liability determination is the physical presence of a business. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has issued holdings on physical presence and other issues relating to occupancy taxes, the Court has not spoken on what constitutes physical presence. Lower courts have been divided on matters relating to occupancy taxes. Given conflicting holdings, the matter’s resolution may rest with the Supreme Court, if it chooses to hear this matter.

Determinants of e-loyalty-related behavioural intentions of online travel companies in India: an SEM study with Indian consumers

The issue of perceptions of buyers and browsers on quality of online travel websites and its relationship with behavioural intentions have rarely been investigated by tourism and hospitality researchers. This paper aims to examine the consumer consequences of these users? perceived service quality of online travel companies and its relationship with their level of satisfaction, value perceptions and behavioural intention. Empirical findings indicated that online travel companies users viewed two dimensions of e-service quality factors as important, i.e. customer service quality and website quality, and they were generally satisfied with travel websites. These two e-service quality dimensions had significant direct and indirect effect on loyalty-related behavioural intentions. This paper should be of interest to tourism and hospitality practitioners as well as academic researchers to better understand e-consumers? behaviour.

The Great American Staycation and the Risk of Stillness

The Great American Staycation and the Risk of Stillness

ZUJI Today Represents Asia Pacific

No accessInternational Journal of e-Business ManagementOther Journal Article01 May 2008ZUJI Today Represents Asia Pacific Authors: Kim Stockham Authors: Kim Stockham ZUJI Google Scholar More articles by this author SectionsAboutPDF/EPUBExport CitationsAdd to FavouriteAdd to FavouriteCreate a New ListNameCancelCreate ToolsTrack CitationsCreate Clip ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedIn COPY LINK Abstract ZUJI was the brainchild of 16 Asia Pacific airlines and Travelocity, a US-leader in online travel, which came together at the turn of the millennium with a vision to create a regional online travel company, where none had existed before. It was a grand and innovative project at a time when consumers in Asia Pacific had only just begun to become net-connected, most airlines did not have online booking functionality on their branded websites, and travel was still an expensive luxury for most people. Since then the online travel landscape has changed, and the ZUJI business has evolved to become the leading online travel company in Asia Pacific, as awarded by two independent sources. ZUJI has online travel sites, teams and B2B travel services in seven Asia Pacific countries, including Australia. Travelocity, a Sabre company, fully acquired 100 per cent ownership of the highly successful brand and business in January 2006. Full Text DOI Previous article RelatedDetails View PUBLICATION DETAILSDate of Publication:May 2008Journal:International Journal of e-Business ManagementISSN:1835-5412Volume:2Issue:1Page Range:51-55First Page:51Last Page:55Source:International Journal of e-Business Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, May 2008, 51-55Availability:Informit, Melbourne (Vic)Date Created:19 May 2008 00:00Date Last Revised:06 October 2012 13:45Date Last Modified:13 June 2019 16:18SubjectElectronic commerceTravel--Computer network resources METRICS Downloaded 0 times Copyright© RMIT PublishingDownload PDFLoading ...

The antecedents of customer satisfaction with online travel services: a conceptual model

PurposeThe purpose of this study is: to examine the travel web sites quality dimensions that ultimately influence customers' satisfaction; and to conduct content analyses on the five prominent travel web sites.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis was conducted on the six prominent travel web sites as ranked by J.D. Power Consumer Report. A list of 53 attributes were selected, named, and categorized around the six web quality dimensions explored in this study.FindingsThe findings of the content analysis provide evidence to suggest that online travel companies are underperforming in terms of providing web service quality attributes that enhance customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsThe focus of this study was only on the six prominent travel sites. However, the results cannot be generalized to all travel services. Additionally, only 53 attributes were extracted from the six web quality dimensions. There is a possibility that this study did not cover all the attributes that are part of the six dimensions.Practical implicationsOnline travel companies can use the quality measurement tool developed in this study to detect service quality weaknesses and strengths. Moreover, travel businesses need to consider integrating features that make shopping experiences more enjoyable.Originality/valueThis study finding contributes to the present body of knowledge and also highlights web site quality dimensions that customers utilize in their assessment of overall online satisfaction.

USER SATISFACTION IN DATAWAREHOUSING: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SALIENT VARIABLES

Corporations are increasingly turning to data warehouses for support of critical corporate decision-making; however, much remains to be learned about the success of data warehousing. Building a data warehouse is no small endeavor, requiring considerable resources from the corporation in terms of both time and money. Ensuring the success of the system will generate for the firm a return on its considerable investment. The research presented in this article investigated success in data warehousing as measured by user satisfaction. Data warehouse users at an online travel company were asked to complete a quantitative survey exploring their satisfaction with the company’s data warehouse system. Individual differences were explored to determine what variables influenced the satisfaction of users of differing education levels, computer expertise, data warehousing expertise, job classification, and tenure with the firm. Results of the research will assist organizations in maximizing the potential returns from the significant investment required to build a data warehouse.

Information architecture: IA and RIAs — You know more than you think you do

Information architecture: IA and RIAs — You know more than you think you do

Segmenting the older consumer for online travel

Older consumers represent nowadays a considerable and growing business opportunity to many businesses and industries worldwide, which is being ignored. The objective of this article is to grasp the real opportunity that such a segment represents for on-line companies providing travel products and services. Socio-demographic segmentation on age alone is unworkable, for, these consumers are aged from fifty years of age and upwards with no ceiling. As this sector of the population increases in size while still possessing the greatest personal disposable income, they are consumers to court. The importance of lifestyle segmentation in attempting to analyse the older consumer will be discussed. Finally, two lifestyle segmentation approaches for the older consumer, by Gabriel (1990) and by Moschis (1992), will be described, analysed, and compared, in order to capture the real marketing value that each offers to on-line travel companies.

The world at our fingertips — How online travel companies can turn clicks into bookings

Even just a few decades ago, the thought of arranging and booking a major holiday merely by making a couple of quick clicks on a mouse, would have been inconceivable. Now, it is increasingly common both to plan and to book a trip online. But many travel firms are not making the most of these opportunities. Their websites make it difficult for users to find information quickly. These businesses could boost sales by following straightforward best practices regarding design and navigation. Travel companies must learn how to prevent potential customers from giving up on their website, or becoming frustrated at chaotic pre- or post-sales support. The last year has seen a generally unsettled market, hit by terrorism, SARS and an overall economic turndown, resulting in a fiercely competitive arena. In this environment, providing exceptional online end-to-end user experience is not an added extra; it is vital. Failing this, surfing elsewhere online will ultimately lead online customers to ride the waves at someone else’s resort.