How do online travel reviews facilitate informed purchase decisions?

ABSTRACT

We analysed the attributes of online travel reviews that facilitate online travel purchasing decisions. In Study 1, we developed and validated a scale for measuring the perceived value of online travel reviews (PVOTR). The PVOTR scale has six dimentions and was based on a literature review and Fuzzy Delphi Method. It was validated with data from 69 undergraduate students and 485 travelers in Taiwan. In Study 2, we examined the impact of PVOTR on the online travel purchasing attitudes of another 469 travelers in Taiwan. PVOTR significantly affected online travel purchasing attitudes through the mediation of reduced perceived complexity.

KEYWORDS:

• Online travel reviews
• scale development
• innovations diffusion theory
• fuzzy Delphi method
• online travel purchasing attitudes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics declarations

This research only conducts general consumer/tourist behavior surveys. It does not involve ethnic studies, or other sensitive issues. The respondents have been clearly informed of the purpose of the study, and there is no recruitment of participants. There is no data that can directly or indirectly identify individuals in the study. The Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council has waived the approval of ethical review for this research under Grant NSTC 108-2410-H-153-026.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council [grant number NSTC 108-2410-H-153-026].