Member Reputation and its Influence on Travel Decisions: A Case Study of an Online Travel Community
The purpose of this research was to investigate member reputation in an online travel community and its influence on different types of travel decisions. The research design employed a case study approach. In order to examine the influence of member reputation on travel decisions in this community, the members were divided into three groups according to their total number of postings: low-, medium-, and high-activity members. The results showed that medium-activity members were influential in accommodations, food and beverages, safety, money, destination information, and itinerary decisions; low-activity members were influential in food and beverages, transportation, destination information, and itinerary decisions; high-activity members were influential in food and beverages, destination information, and itinerary refinements.
Keywords: MEMBER REPUTATION; ONLINE TRAVEL COMMUNITY; TRAVEL DECISION
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 August 2009
- Information Technology & Tourism is the first scientific journal dealing with the exciting relationship between information technology and tourism. Information and communication systems embedded in a global net have profound influence on the tourism and travel industry. Reservation systems, distributed multimedia systems, highly mobile working places, electronic markets, and the dominant position of tourism applications in the Internet are noticeable results of this development. And the tourism industry poses several challenges to the IT field and its methodologies.
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