Travel Service Providers Research Articles

Predicting Online Travel Adoption Intention of an Indian Consumer: A SEM-Neural Network Approach

Online channel has redefined the way businesses were conducted and many e-travel firms were the first to exemplify. The purpose of this paper is to determine the key factors that influence consumers’ intention to adopt online channel for train travel. The extended model incorporates the basic ingredients of TAM, TPB and Shim’s model along with several external variables such as trust, convenience and involvement. Data were collected from 514 online travel customers. In the first phase, structural equation modeling was employed to determine the significant variables and in the second phase, the neural network model was used to rank the relative importance of the significant predictors identified by SEM. The results indicated that Trust, Perceived Usefulness, Convenience and Website as significant factors. Among significant ones, neural networks suggested “convenience” as the highest importance. The study indicates few marketing approaches that can help travel service providers to formulate optimal marketing strategies.

The Difference of Travel Service Quality Attributes of Travel Service Provider According to Information Search Channel

The Difference of Travel Service Quality Attributes of Travel Service Provider According to Information Search Channel

Indian Monuments Classification using Support Vector Machine

Recently, Content-Based Image Retrieval is a widely popular and efficient searching and indexing approach used by knowledge seekers. Use of images by e-commerce sites, by product and by service industries is not new nowadays. Travel and tourism are the largest service industries in India. Every year people visit tourist places and upload pictures of their visit on social networking sites or share via the mobile device with friends and relatives. Classification of the monuments is helpful to hoteliers for the development of a new hotel with state of the art amenities, to travel service providers, to restaurant owners, to government agencies for security, etc.. The proposed system had extracted features and classified the Indian monuments visited by the tourists based on the linear Support Vector Machine (SVM). The proposed system was divided into 3 main phases: preprocessing, feature vector creation and classification. The extracted features are based on Local Binary Pattern, Histogram, Co-occurrence Matrix and Canny Edge Detection methods. Once the feature vector had been constructed, classification was performed using Linear SVM. The Database of 10 popular Indian monuments was generated with 50 images for each class. The proposed system is implemented in MATLAB and achieves very high accuracy. The proposed system was also tested on other popular benchmark databases.

A hybrid scheme for real‐time prediction of bus trajectories

SummaryThe uncertainty associated with public transport services can be partially counteracted by developing real‐time models to predict downstream service conditions. In this study, a hybrid approach for predicting bus trajectories by integrating multiple predictors is proposed. The prediction model combines schedule, instantaneous and historical data. The contribution of each predictor as well as values of respective parameters is estimated by minimizing the prediction error using a linear regression heuristic. The hybrid method was applied to five bus routes in Stockholm, Sweden, and Brisbane, Australia. The results indicate that the hybrid method consistently outperforms the timetable and delay conservation prediction method for different route layouts, passenger demands and operation practices. Model validation confirms model transferability and real‐time applicability. Generating more accurate predictions can help service users adjust their travel plans and service providers to deploy proactive management and control strategies to mitigate the negative effects of service disturbances. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

사례 연구를 통한 B2C 역경매 사업 모델의 성공 요인 분석

The purpose of the study is to derive success factors of B2C reverse auction business model, a business model contributes to the recent innovative practices in e-commerce and service sector. Electronic reverse auction has been traditionally used to ensure the procurement convenience and purchasing efficiency in B2B or B2G settings, however, e-RA is now expanding its basis toward B2C commerce industry along the huge success of an online e-RA travel service provider Priceline.com. Recently, B2C e-RA business model is getting the spotlight in the Korean venture industry with a variety of startups in diverse areas. However, e-RA does not work perfect in all kinds of trade settings. Therefore, we conducted a multiple case study to find out the success factors of B2C business model as follows : First, large supplier basis is an important factor that constructs a quasi-perfect competition environment. Second, the high online and mobile accessibility or e-readiness of Korean consumers was also a critical aspect of the success of e-RA. Lastly, e-RA performs best when the supplier switching cost is low and the trading occurs infrequently.

Khảo sát đánh giá hiện trạng sử dụng tiếng anh của các nhà cung cấp dịch vụ du lịch trong thị trấn Dương Đông, Phú Quốc, Kiên Giang

This research was conducted out to evaluate the status of using English of the local travel service providers in Duong Dong town, Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang province by directly interviewing 120 local travel service providers including the local food providers, the local shopping providers, the local transportation providers and foreign tourists within 5 days from 25 to 29 January 2016. The result showed that the current ability of using English of the local travel service providers was quite low: only 74,2% of the food service providers, 53,3% of shopping providers and 20% of transporters used to participate in English courses. The percentage of people who had English certificates was was low, with only 4,6% of the food service providers who used to live in English speaking countries and 9,1% of taxi drivers having certificates of level A in English (Vietnamese standards evaluation system). Local providers’ ability to communicate in English was not high and not equal between groups. The highest percent was found in the food service providers, namely 56.7%. While the transporters demonstrated the lowest ability (only 23%) to use English, they were thought the friendliest ones by the foreigners.

CONSUMER VALUE CO-CREATION IN ONLINE BUSINESS: THE CASE OF GLOBAL TRAVEL SERVICES

This paper aims to examine the application of value co-creation approach in online travel service based on service-dominant logic. Drawing on recent works, the research indicates travellers as co-creators of value and emphasizes the development of customer–supplier interaction. The paper presents three case studies to analyse global travel service suppliers’ (service providers) behaviour: CouchSurfing International, Inc.; TripAdvisor LLC, AirBnbINc. Case studies analysis is followed by netnographic research of 22 different discussions (1243 records) in online forums related to selected service suppliers. The research findings suggest that value co-creation approach can be effectively used to analyse processes in global online travel service section. The originality of the paper lies in exploring the contribution of co-creation approach which allowed to identify the patterns of actions and behaviour of the online travel service providers and their consumers. As an additional value of the research, it was found that the online travel service providers integrate customer-to-customer interactions as a value co-creation in their platforms using consumers’ resources such as time, knowledge and experience.

User categories of mobile travel services

Purpose – This study aims to identify user categories of mobile travel services and analyze the differences between the categories based on individual characteristics, the individuals' perceived barriers to use internet-/mobile services during a trip and the individuals' preferred channel strategies. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive online survey in Finland was conducted to collect the data and a cluster analysis is used to identify the user categories. Findings – The study indicates that there are four user categories of mobile travel services: “info-seekers”, “checkers”, “bookers” and “all-rounders” and one group of “non-users”. Research limitations/implications – Due to the online data collection method and the self-selective process, the sample may be biased towards respondents finding electronic travel services important. It would be of value to conduct similar studies on a representative sample of the total population of different countries. Practical implications – The identified categories can be seen as consumer segments for which travel service providers can target mobile services. Originality/value – This study contributes with a categorization of mobile travelers and provides insights on the diffusion of mobile travel services.

Traveler Acceptance of an App-Based Mobile Tour Guide

This study aims to identify antecedents and determinants affecting travelers’ technological acceptance of an app-based mobile tour guide (AMTG). Informativeness (IF) and entertainment (EN) are amended as antecedents apart from performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), and facilitating conditions (FC) suggested by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. The empirical results were obtained in a sample of 205 travelers visiting Macau. Structural equation modeling is used to evaluate the relationships among the antecedents and determinants of the proposed model. The results indicate that IF and EN have direct effects on PE and EE. All factors except EN have significant effects on the behavioral intention of a traveler to use an AMTG. The results of this study provide implications for travel app designers and service providers to formulate business strategies to encourage travelers to adopt the AMTGs.

Buyer Subsidies in Two-Sided Markets: Evidence from Online Travel Agents

Platforms in two-sided markets are known to provide subsidies to either buyers or sellers, in order to take advantage of cross-group externalities inherent in such industries. Online travel agents can be thought of as platforms facilitating trade between passengers and travel service providers (airlines). This chapter evaluates the effects of a buyer subsidy provided by one major US online travel agent – a low-price guarantee offered by Orbitz. We find evidence consistent with increased airline participation with this travel agent upon implementation of the low-price guarantee policy. Our results also confirm the theoretical claims that most-favored customer low-price guarantee policies are procompetitive.

The influence of travel agents on travel expenditures

Travel agents work as intermediaries who stand between visitors and travel service providers, bringing travel related products and services to customers on behalf of the hospitality industry. Reece (2008) suggests that travel agencies can reduce consumers’ monetary and opportunity costs when searching for the best deals (i.e., lowest prices, highest quality travel packages). Because travel agents receive commissions for their services, either from the producers or from the consumers, economic theory suggests that rational consumers will only purchase travel agents’ services if the marginal revenue from the purchase is larger than the additional costs of the commission. However, little is known about how consumers define the marginal revenue of hiring travel agents. While some consumers measure marginal revenue by the sum of cost reduction in travel-related expenses, others may care more about the overall travel experience than the cost. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between travel agents and visitors’ travel expenditures in order to understand consumers’ decision-making process when purchasing travel agents’ service. Previous research has discussed topics regarding the selection criteria of agents (Meidan, 1979), the effects of travel agents on visitors’ behaviors (Baloglu & Mangaloglu, 2001), and the characteristics of people who purchase travel agents’ services (Dolnicar & Laesser, 2007). This study analyzed Taiwan’s tourism data and concluded that travel agents’ services contribute to consumers’ marginal revenue differently, depending on the amount of total travel expenditures. While the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation provides the mean marginal effects of travel agents’ services on visitors’ travel expenditures, this paper contributes to the literature by adding the quantile regression analysis to highlight the heterogeneity in travel agents’ effects on travel expenditures across consumers with different levels of travel expenditures.

VITRO: a flexible and innovative architecture for virtual travel agent information systems

Travel agents have helped for many decades billions of travellers to organise their trips, increasing in parallel the accessibility to the travel service providers and accelerating the evolution of the tourism industry. Moreover, as the internet applications in everyday life continue to proliferate, a new model of tourism enterprises, known as virtual tourism enterprises, have started to flourish in the tourism industry, the operation of which requires the existence of a flexible virtual travel agent (VTA) information system. However, there are some issues, which are extremely vital for the VTAs involvement in the tourism management system, the most important of which is the flexibility of the VTA architecture. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define a flexible and innovative architecture of a VTA called VITRO. This architecture is going to serve as a paradigm for the analysis, design and implementation of efficient and flexible VTA information systems, which are going to support the development of virtual tourism enterprises.

Internet and Tourism—Part XXVIII: Travelzoo

This article reports a review of Travelzoo (URL: http://www.travelzoo.com), a website which serves as an online travel service provider for users to search and reserve travel‐related services. The ...

여행업 종사원의 감정노동과 서비스 제공 수준과의 영향관계

현재 감정노동에 관한 수많은 이론적 연구와 실증적 연구가 진행되고 있으며, 감정노동의 선행요인과 결과요인에 대한 연구도 많이 진행되고 있다. 그러나 이러한 감정노동의 개념이나 영향요인과 결과요인에 대한 이론 확립이나 실증적인 연구가 부족하므로 체계적인 접근과 연구가 필요하다. 본 연구의 목적은 감정노동의 이론적 정립, 영향요인과 결과요인으로서 서비스 제공수준과의 관계를 파악하는데 있다. 본 연구의 실증분석 결과, 영향변수인 직무관련 요인과 표현 규칙이 감정노동에 유의한 영향을 미치고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 감정노동의 표면적 행동(SA)과 내면적 행동(DA)은 종사원의 서비스 제공수준에 유의한 영향관계를 갖으며, 특히 DA는 여행서비스 제공자의 서비스 태도에 SA보다 영향력이 강한 것으로 나타났다. 따라서, 여행업계에서는 직무환경 등을 고려한 회사차원의 인센티브 프로그램의 교육 훈련 등이 필요한 것으로 분석된다 이러한 연구에도 불구하고 본 연구는 한계를 갖게 되므로, 향후 연구에서는 감정노동과 이를 제어할 수 있는 변수들과의 관계를 심층적으로 파악하는 시도가 진행되어야 할 것이다. A considerable amount of theoretical and empirical research has been done on the conceptualization of emotional labor, as well as its antecedents and consequences. The field, however, is lacking consistency respect to theory building and empirical findings, which suggests the need for more programmatic research. The main objective of this study is to build on prior research and further examine the theory, antecedents and consequences(service delivery level) of emotional labor, and to find out the relationship. In the results of empirical research, I found that two antecedent variables, job-related characters and display rules, influenced significantly employee perceived emotional labor. And both surface acting and deep acting have been found to have a influence on employees' service deliverly level, deep acting is more likely than surface acting to lead to service attitude of travel service provider. In business practices, more attention is needed in organizations' incentive programme and training considerations in jobs that have high demands. Despite these results, current studdy has its limitations. So, it may be interesting to further examine the relationship between emotional labor and control variables.

Predicting Travelers’ Choice of Information Sources and Information Channels

Disintermediation is often portrayed as a choice between travel agents and the Internet. This simplification ignores the facts that many Web sites marketing travel services are run by travel agents and many businesses offering travel services online also offer these services through other channels. This article considers disintermediation from an information search perspective and explores the issue both as a choice between two information sources (travel agents vs. service providers) and as a choice between two information channels (face to face vs. the Internet). Using binomial logistical regression, sets of variables are identified that seem particularly relevant for predicting the outcome of these choices. Travel style, age, and nationality were found to be particularly good predictors of travelers’ predisposition to search for information from a travel agent face to face rather than consulting a tourism service provider directly online.

What Motivates Consumers to Write Online Travel Reviews?

The Web provides a fertile ground for word-of-mouth communication and more and more consumers write about and share product-related experiences online. Given the experiential nature of tourism, such first-hand knowledge communicated by other travelers is especially useful for travel decision making. However, very little is known about what motivates consumers to write online travel reviews. A Web-based survey using an online consumer panel was conducted to investigate consumers' motivations to write online travel reviews. Measurement scales to gauge the motivations to contribute online travel reviews were developed and tested. The results indicate that online travel review writers are mostly motivated by helping a travel service provider, concerns for other consumers, and needs for enjoyment/positive self-enhancement. Venting negative feelings through postings is clearly not seen as an important motive. Motivational differences were found for gender and income level. Implications of the findings for online travel communities and tourism marketers are discussed.