Travel Consumers Research Articles

‘Are ad endorsements really annoying?’ The impact of advertising in short-form tourism videos on tourists’ information processing

ABSTRACT Short-form tourism videos show high effectiveness in online destination marketing. However, some disruptive factors (i.e. embedded endorsement advertisements) diminish their marketing effectiveness by burdening the viewer’s cognitive processing and breaking one’s online interactive experience with the original tourism-related content in the video. Using a between-subjects online experimental design and 354 valid data from short-form video users, this study explored the effect of interruption by advertisements on the cognitive experience evoked by information stimuli from the perspective of information processing. This study also assessed the difference in short-form tourism video information processing between disturbed and undisturbed situations. In general, results revealed that the formation of destination-related mental imagery in short-form tourism videos is influenced by information processing fluency, and co-predicted both the attitudes and behavioural intentions of travel consumers. Meanwhile, the presence of advertising information in short-form videos notably obstructed users’ information processing fluency as well as the formation of mental imagery, and it also attenuated their destination visit intentions. This study provides a theoretical basis for the moderate interpretation of endorsement advertisements in short-form tourism videos and sheds light on insights related to tourism marketing strategies for short-form tourism videos for relevant practising practitioners.

Proposed Service Quality Improvement at Aya Travel using SERVQUAL Method and Importance Performance Analysis

Intercity travel is a transportation service that facilitates movement between cities and cities. Aya Travel is here to facilitate transportation between Bandung and Depok. Aya Travel was established in 2005 with a fleet of 16 units. As time passes, there are travel competitors whose presence makes the sales of Aya travel departure tickets decline in 2016. This can be caused by the quality of other travel services being better than Aya Travel, so lately, people have switched from Aya Travel. The phenomenon is that what Aya travel consumers expect is not what they receive. Service quality measurement is carried out to respond to the above phenomenon using SERVQUAL. In the process, initial attributes from literature studies and Critical Incident Techniques were collected. After the attributes are collected, the questionnaire is distributed. The Factoring process is carried out to produce factors that are formed so that it is easier for Aya Travel to find out in which dimension it turns out that the quality of the service is inferior. After the SEVQUAL measurement process, an important Performance Analysis process was carried out to find improvement priorities from Aya Travel. The IPA method will map attributes into quadrants to produce priorities ranging from those that must be improved immediately to those that do not add value to the quality of Aya Travel's services. A Factor Analysis was produced from 22 attributes grouped into four factors, and it turned out that the display factor had the worst idea. The measurement of Aya travel service quality produces six attributes that need to be improved, which are those in the second quadrant (Consternate here) in the IPA diagram. For the proposed improvement, a discussion was carried out with Aya Travel so that the improvement proposal could be under the opinions and input of Aya Travel.

Online travel searches: From pandemic to endemicity

This research paper presents the core findings of a study on the impact of stringency of government policies on online travel search behaviour between 2020 and 2022, and how these measures were perceived by potential travellers concerning different destinations. This study also includes isolated effects, deaths, and vaccinations, which are representative of the level of risk of COVID-19. Results show that online travel searches do not cease during a health crisis, but fluctuate in response to perceived risks and travel friction factors until the recovery phase. It highlights the influence of online search engines as liminal systems that provide travel consumers with a transient means of contact with destinations in an unstable market environment, but which can materialize into consumption at any given moment perceived by consumers as viable. Findings also reveal that risk factors and stringency of policies among destinations were perceived unevenly by potential tourists.

The Influence of Online Reviews on the Purchasing Decisions of Travel Consumers

In this study, we investigate the impact of online review characteristics on consumers’ purchasing decisions in the context of spatial distance. We consider the product experience of online travel routes, geographical location characteristics, and price adjustment factors, as well as the dynamics between consumers and businesses during the booking of travel routes. Through empirical research and large-scale data simulation experiments, we have found that the variability in attributes of tourist routes significantly influences the user recommendation rate, while the overall rating has a positive moderating effect. Furthermore, the number of reviews negatively moderates the relationship between them. Additionally, the product information and service quality of tourist routes also significantly affect the recommendation rate. Finally, we propose a management strategy for tourism route managers to enhance user recommendation rates and achieve greater benefits.

Korelasi Atribut Produk Dan Performa Karyawan Terhadap Kepuasan Konsumen Fazza T&T

This study aims to determine the impact that product attributes and employee performance have on customer satisfaction in companies in the tourism sector that are returning after the COVID-19 pandemic. The research method uses associative quantitative methods with data collection methods using questionnaires to Fazza Tour and Travel consumers, with as many as 300 respondents through accidental sampling techniques during May–July 2023. Meanwhile, the hypothesis analysis uses Spearman's rank correlation analysis. The results showed that product attributes had a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction as evidenced by a correlation value of 0.791 and a significance value below 5%, which meant that the correlation was in the strong category, and employee performance had a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction as evidenced by a correlation value of 0.672 and a significance value below 5%, which meant that the correlation was in the strong category.

PENGARUH BAURAN PEMASARAN TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN PRODUK WISATA DI BLIBLI TRAVEL PADA MASA PANDEMI COVID-19

This research is conducted because the marketing mix strategy applied by Blibli Travel was ineffective. This study aims to determine the effect of the 7P marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) and which marketing mix had the most significant influence on tourism products purchasing decisions at Blibli Travel during the Covid-19 pandemic. This sample is determined by purposive sampling method with total sample of 125 respondents. Data collection uses questionnaires distributed online through social media, interviews with Blibli Travel management and several Blibli Travel consumers, observations, literature studies, and documentation. The data analysis technique is descriptive quantitative with validity test, reliability test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression analysis, t test, F test, and coefficient of determination test. This study uses the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 for MacOS program. The results indicate that product and physical evidence partially have a significant effect on tourism products purchase decision at Blibli Travel while price, place, promotion, people, and process partially have no significant effect on tourism products purchase decision at Blibli Travel. Meanwhile, simultaneously, the marketing mix has a significant effect on tourism products purchase decision at Blibli Travel with a coefficient of determination of 69%.

A social media analysis of travel preferences and attitudes, before and during Covid-19

Covid-19 created tremendous uncertainty in the tourism industry; in this study, we use social media data to explore differences in the preferences and attitudes of tourism consumers, both before and during the pandemic. We use natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze over one million Reddit posts on travel-related subreddits. We investigate the preference for city and nature-oriented tourism in selected destinations; the analysis demonstrates that nature tourism gained interest during Covid-19 in destinations with rich nature resources, whereas city tourism lost interest in destinations known for city tourism. We also classify Reddit authors into two categories: conservation and openness, according to a psychological theory of personal values, and show that this is predictive, with openness associated with positive travel sentiment and low risk awareness. This points to the potential for value-based segmentation of travel consumers based on theoretically-grounded NLP analysis of social media data.

The Impact of Perceived Quality of Government Subsidies on Residents’ Travel Intention Post-COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

To stimulate tourism demand and promote internal circulation, government subsidy policies have been introduced in many places in recent years due to public health concerns. In this paper, we propose a mechanistic model of the impact of the perceived quality of government subsidies on the travel intentions of residents based on consumer perception. Data were collected from Wuhan, China for empirical analysis. The results of this study showed that the perceived quality of government subsidies influenced travel intentions through the perceived behavioral control of travel consumers. Government subsidies were more likely to promote perceived behavioral control among residents with higher public health concerns, and their willingness to travel was stronger. Predicted risks undermine the positive effect of the perceived quality of government subsidies on travel intentions. The analysis suggested that a precise implementation of subsidy policies can enhance the efficiency of effects. We are keen to help China’s tourism market sustain growth in the post-COVID-19 period.

Big Data and Cloud Computing-Integrated Tourism Decision-Making in Smart Logistics Technologies

Since technology allows tourist companies to replace expensive human labor with electronic labor, labor expenses are reduced, yet customer service concerns are often avoided. Companies and organizations face new challenges daily. Increased consumer demands and global competition result in significant adjustments in the industrialized world. On the other hand, technology can bring forth entirely new types of unintended effects. There are new prospects for the tourist sector with the rise of big data. Data mining and cloud computing are widely used in the tourist sector to extract useful information from vast quantities of data. A new tourism marketing management model based on big data can be developed with this function. This research thus presents a big data and cloud computing-integrated tourism decision-making (BC2TDM) paradigm to analyze the behavior of travel consumers. This model uses the deep learning model to forecast the travel consumer behavior to ensure a personalized tourism experience.

The Role of Brand Awareness and Integrated Marketing Communication on Consumer Purchase Decision of Online Travel Consumers

The purpose of this research is to explore and assess the deployment of integrated marketing communications in order to increase brand recognition and its impact on purchase decisions. Purposive sampling was utilized in this work as a non-probability sampling strategy. The researchers considered numerous sample characteristics in this study, including age (17-50) and having utilized travel agency services at least once to book aircraft tickets, trains, events, or hotel reservations. The purposive sampling technique was applied, and 100 samples were collected. SmartPLS was utilized to do partial least squares analysis. According to the findings of the study, integrated marketing communication has a direct effect on brand awareness; integrated marketing communication has a direct effect on purchasing decisions; brand awareness has a direct effect on purchase decisions; and integrated marketing communication influences purchase decisions indirectly through brand awareness.

Incentive Travellers’ Preference and Their Influence on Destination Choice in Nakuru County, Kenya

Incentive travel mostly addressed under MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) tourism, is widely considered a cornerstone of niche tourism, which combines both leisure and traveller’s needs. This study was carried out with the aim of identifying and exploring incentive travellers’ preferences and, most especially, how they influence the choice of Nakuru County in Kenya as a destination. Findings from the research were to be used as a reference basis for incentive travel promotion and development. Adopting a descriptive research design, the study sought to achieve the following objectives; (i) To profile incentive tourism dynamics in Nakuru County, Kenya, (ii) To assess whether preset tourism conditions in Nakuru County had a positive influence on incentive travellers’ preference for choice of destination, (iii) To determine the potential difference in preference among incentive travel earners and incentive travel earners’ manages for choice of Nakuru County as a destination and (iv) To derive strategic options for promotion and development of incentive tourism in Nakuru County and Kenya by extension. In addition, the correlational research design was employed to identify whether there was an association between variables as enlisted in the study objectives, for instance, incentive traveller’s choice and preset conditions in Nakuru County as a destination choice. Considering the study was based on existing incentive travel consumers’ decision-making process, the stratified sampling method of data collection was adopted, with the respondents classified into three strata; (i) incentive travel earners, (ii) incentive travel earners’ managers and (iii) destination management organisations’ managers. Based on the research findings, the study concluded that uniquely diversified programs, activities as well as quality amenities play a key role in the consumer decision-making process on the choice of destination. In line with its purpose, the study generated strategic and progressive recommendations for the promotion and development of incentive tourism as a niche product in Kenya

Consumer engagement and place identity in online travel forums

ABSTRACT The quest to understand the formation and management of relationships between a firm and consumers in online contexts represents a priority for both researchers and practitioners. Consumer engagement is central to furthering such understanding and encouraging satisfaction, commitment, and trust, as popular enabling variables. Recent calls to broaden and deepen consumer engagement nomological networks motivate the current study, which aims to include place identity (PI) as a promising feature. Because it is integral to individual self-identity, PI could provide a stable, enduring complement to attitudinal constructs. Amos 25 was used to analyze survey data from 250 online travel consumers in Taiwan, and the results reveal that PI fully mediates the effects of engagement, commitment, and satisfaction on loyalty intentions; in particular, it explains an additional 24% of the variance in this outcome. The effects of consumer engagement and PI on satisfaction and loyalty, respectively, also grow significantly stronger at low levels of consumer trust. Taken together, these findings establish the important, unique role of PI for facilitating loyalty intentions in online travel contexts.

What influences the purchase intention of online travel consumers?

Despite its increase in recent years, e-commerce is far from surpassing traditional trade, and the online purchase of travel arrangements is no exception. Using an integrated model founded in theory about consumers’ attitude and behaviour, we studied the behaviour intention of online purchasers of travel services, based on an online questionnaire and the responses of 251 respondents. The results indicate that loading time, security, and visual appeal have a positive influence on website quality and suggest that website quality, trust, and brand image explain behaviour intention. The mediation, moderation, and direct effect are studied, offering insights and both theoretical and practical implications.

Sustainability paralysis in travel consumption: A Reddit study

Sustainability remains at the centre of debates around the impacts of travel and tourism. This study uses Reddit travel forums to understand the complexities of negotiating the meaning and practice of sustainability in travel contexts. Specifically, we focus on the emergence of “ sustainability paralysis”, a form of “analysis paralysis” where travel consumers struggle to (i) articulate what sustainability means, or (ii) to find a (perfect) solution to the various sustainability crises associated with travel (e.g. overtourism and climate change), or (iii) to fashion a compromise they can rationalise and live with. The analysis reveals that sustainability paralysis can lead to tourists feeling overwhelmed, accepting defeat, “tuning out”, and in some cases, resorting to conspiracy theories about who is responsible. Our findings have important implications for how we frame and communicate the sustainability agenda, and suggest that misinformation and over-information may be crippling our effectiveness to face the wicked problem of climate change and other environmental challenges where travel consumption is implicated.

Development and Operation of the Dalian Cruise Port in China

China's cruise industry has developed rapidly in the past ten years, and China's cruise port construction has flourished. A total of 20 cities along the coast of mainland China have built or planned to build cruise terminals. According to WTO estimates, China will gradually become the world's largest source country of cruise passengers and cruise travel consumers in the future. Due to different national conditions, the business model and development prospects of Chinese cruise ports are different from those of foreign ports. It requires finding the pioneers of domestic cruise ports to take the lead, providing advice on the development and operation of cruise ports. Dalian Cruise Port is actively formulating its cruise industry development plan, expanding the cruise port, and improving the supporting facilities in the cruise port area. Based on the characteristics of the operation of the Dalian cruise port, we use the gray model to make a vague prediction of the future development of the cruise port. It reflects the advanced operation mode of Dalian Port. This research systematically analyzed cruise port operations and maritime cruise transportation. Because the cruise port's business model and prospects are essential to the cruise port industry, China's cruise ports must learn more advanced operating models.

Pengaruh Standarisasi dan Sertifikasi Halal terhadap Tingkat Kepercayaan Konsumen pada Biro Perjalanan Wisata Halal

At this time in Indonesia there are already many halal travel companies that provide halal tourism programs, with services that refer to Islamic rules and the halal travel agency is obliged to provide convenience in the implementation of worship while on a tour. and in this case of course standardization and certification are very important to the level of consumer confidence in the halal travel company to prevent fraud cases like those that have happened before. This study aims to see the effect of standardization and halal certification on consumer confidence in Rizkia Tour & Travel. The method used in this study is the quantity, The population in this study is Rizkia Tour & Travel consumers using non-probability sampling and using the Slovin rule of a questionnaire collection of data analysis technique used is the Partial Least Square (PLS). The results of this study indicate that halal standardization and certification have a positive and significant effect on consumer confidence in Rizkia Tour & Travel. to Rizkia Tour & Travel so that they can continue to maintain and improve halal standardization and certification so that consumer confidence can be maintained properly.At this time in Indonesia there are already many halal travel companies that provide halal tourism programs, with services that refer to Islamic rules and the halal travel agency is obliged to provide convenience in the implementation of worship while on a tour. and in this case of course standardization and certification are very important to the level of consumer confidence in the halal travel company to prevent fraud cases like those that have happened before. This study aims to see the effect of standardization and halal certification on consumer confidence in Rizkia Tour & Travel. The method used in this study is the quantity, The population in this study is Rizkia Tour & Travel consumers using non-probability sampling and using the Slovin rule of a questionnaire collection of data analysis technique used is the Partial Least Square (PLS). The results of this study indicate that halal standardization and certification have a positive and significant effect on consumer confidence in Rizkia Tour & Travel. to Rizkia Tour & Travel so that they can continue to maintain and improve halal standardization and certification so that consumer confidence can be maintained properly.Keyword: certification, standardization, halal tourism, halal travel

Brace for impact! COVID-19, lockdown and the initial reaction and adaptability of Flemish travel consumers

Purpose: To determine the influence of COVID-19 and the first 2020 lockdown on Flemish people's initial travel behaviour perceptions, a hypothetical scenario was posed to respondents where they were asked to keep in mind a situation where they might be able to travel again during the summer of 2020 (July/August). This research had two main aims: i) the pre-lockdown travel plans for summer 2020 were determined; ii) the extent to which respondents would adapt their travel behaviour if they were hypothetically allowed to travel again by summer 2020. Methods: This exploratory research was done by means of an online quantitative questionnaire of which 1803(n) complete responses were obtained through convenience and snowball sampling. Results: The results revealed that respondents did have initial travel plans for the 2020 summer (July/August) period, but that they adjusted their planning to mostly travelling nationally/locally, potentially benefitting the local tourism industry. These findings (i) indicate the importance of directing marketing efforts towards the local travel market and (ii) contribute to literature regarding the resilience of the (local) tourism industry. Additionally, the research unveils how the industry should do long-term planning by taking the immediate travel behaviour changes of the Flemish travel consumers into account through regular intervals of consumer research so that it can pick up on possible behavioural trends and ready itself. Implications: Government, together with the industry, can work towards policies that act as a safety net during possible future industry disasters to minimize the negative impacts and foster a swift recovery.

Analyzing the Sociodemographic Aspects and Characteristics of Honeymoon Trips

Honeymoon travel is an important sector in the field of tourism due to its growing economic impact on host destinations. The objective of this research was to identify the profile and preferences of honeymoon travel consumers, their sociodemographic variables, consumption trend, tourist spending and the attributes that the destination must have to be chosen. The study was carried out in the city of Guayaquil-Ecuador, through the application of a questionnaire. Variant and bivariate techniques were used to analyze the data. The results showed that most of this market segment were young people with tertiary education and good economic income who generally chose Caribbean tourist destinations as a travel option, that is, sun and beach tourism. They also indicated that "romantic", "pleasant climate", "good accommodation" and "affordable prices" were the most important attributes for choosing a honeymoon destination. This study provides useful information for countries, operators, and wholesalers of tourism that work on developing tourism products and promotion strategies focused on attracting this consumer profile.

Cultural Dimensions and Social Media Empowerment in Digital Era: Travel-Related Continuance Usage Intention

In this digital age, technological advancements have dramatically transformed consumers′ travel behavior. Among these, social media has been identified as the most notable and popular digital platform which appeals to consumers from different cultures, mindsets, and demographics. Culture may stimulate individuals’ attitudes and subsequent behavior. Thus, prior research concentrated on technology adoption in the cross-cultural perspectives, rather than the influence of technological empowerment in an individual context. The significance of the cultural dimensions in shaping behavioral patterns of travel consumers has long been recognized, but the topic remains understudied. Moreover, the usage of social media has seen exponential growth in popularity, but little research has incorporated cultural values at an individual level, mostly for travel purposes. Hence, this current study aims to examine cultural values and their impact on social media continuance usage intention from a travel viewpoint. Therefore, an integrated framework is proposed, grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), and extended by cultural values (i.e., collectivism, long-term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance), and social media self-efficacy. A cross-sectional data survey (n = 346) was conducted on travel consumers and a structural equation modeling (SEM) was carried out. Results show that collectivism and long-term orientation are significantly linked with the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, which influences the social media continuance usage intention, whereas uncertainty avoidance does not have any relevance. Moreover, social media self-efficacy significantly (though indirectly) affects the continuance usage intention via perceived usefulness. From our findings, travel providers are encouraged to follow the cultural effects and individuals’ continuance usage intention while providing tourism services on social media. The theoretical and practical implications of these results have also been an area of focus of this paper.

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Online Travel Consumers' Brand Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Flow Experience

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has developed vigorously, and how to make good use of virtual reality technology to create virtual tourism has become an important topic for tourism ecommerce. Previous studies have shown that creating a good online experience for consumers is an effective way for e-commerce to establish consumer brand loyalty, but there are few literatures focusing on the special group of online travel consumers. Based on the flow theory, the article uses Chinese online travel consumers as a sample to conduct empirical research, focusing on exploring the relationship between consumer perception of VR technology and brand loyalty, and testing the mediating effect of flow experience. The results show that: (1) the perceived usefulness and ease of use of VR technology have a significant positive impact on consumers' online experience; (2)the flow experience of travel consumers has a significant positive impact on their brand loyalty; (3) the perceived usefulness and ease of use of VR technology have a significant positive impact on consumers' brand loyalty;(4)the flow experience has a mediating effect between the perception of VR technology and brand loyalty of travel consumers.