The Role of Trust in Explaining Tourists’ Behavioral Intention to Use E-booking Services in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The tourism industry now allows the booking of rooms and itineraries via the internet; online bookings have become very important for both domestic and international businesses, leading to the emergence of online booking companies. This study has two research objectives: to identify the factors and their degree of influence on the intention to use e-booking services, and to identify the factors with the highest degree of influence on the intention to use e-booking among Taiwan users. We found that trust has a significant and positive relationship with perceived usefulness and ease of use. In turn, perceived usefulness positively influences intention to use and is positively related to behavioral intention to use information technology for travel; perceived ease of use positively relates to perceived usefulness; and behavioral intention positively influences the usage of information technology for travel. The empirical evidence from this study can be used to verify the importance of e-tourism and to support government efforts in developing the e-tourism platform and infrastructure.

摘要

在线预订已经成为国内和国际旅游的重要因素，游客可以通过互联网预订房间和行程，导致在线预订公司的蓬勃发展。本研究有两个目标：确定影响使用电子预订服务意图的因素及其影响程度，并确定对台湾用户使用电子预订意图影响程度最高的因素。我们发现，信任与感知有用性和感知易用性之间存在显著且正向的关系。另一方面，感知有用性亦正向影响信息技术的使用意图，并且与使用信息技术进行旅行的行为意图有正相关，感知易用性与感知有用性彼此具正相关，并且行为意图正向影响使用信息技术来进行旅行。本研究的实证证据可用于验证电子旅游的重要性，并支持政府在开发电子旅游平台和基础设施方面的努力。

KEYWORDS:

• E-tourism
• smart tourism
• information technology
• technology acceptance model
• theory of reasoned action
• behavioral intention to use

关键词:

• ：电子旅游、聪明旅游、信息科技、科技接受模式、合理行动理论、行为意图

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chi-Ruey Jeng

Chi-Ruey Jeng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leisure and Tourism Management at Shu-Te University, Taiwan. He received his PhD in Transportation Management from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He has research interests in the optimization of transportation systems, in aviation management and in tourism management (E-mail: [email protected]).