Tourists’ Travel-Related Information Search Channels

ABSTRACT

The increase in Internet use for travel-related information search has elicited considerable attention from scholars. However, prior studies on the channels that tourists use for such a search and the impact of Internet experience as a crucial factor on tourists’ online information search behavior are limited. Thus, this study investigates the diverse channels for travel-related information search from the perspective of consumers by conducting a questionnaire survey among Generation Y respondents. Then, the impact of Internet use on tourists’ perception is analyzed through cluster analysis and one-way ANOVA. Results show that international online travel agencies are perceived as the most important channel for searching hotel information. Meanwhile, social media sites are perceived as the most important channel for searching travel information (e.g., destination selection).

KEYWORDS:

• Internet experience
• channels
• travel-related information
• cluster analysis

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at

Additional information

Funding

This research was partly supported by the grant funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University [Grant Number: UAFX].