Analyzing channel choice: Direct and indirect e-Tourism distribution

ABSTRACT

An increasing number of tourism service providers are involved in multichannel operations, combining online direct and indirect channels. Service providers and intermediaries need to know what drivers lead consumers to purchase on both channels in order to discover their own potential for differentiation and develop appropriate strategies. This research presents and tests a distribution channel choice model applied to data obtained by a survey aimed at online tourism purchasers. Not surprisingly, the results find that the Internet mitigates the differences between direct and indirect online channels from the demand perspective. Only one variable, information provided, has a positive effect on the choice of the direct channel, while two variables, assortment and basket size, have a positive effect on the choice of the indirect channel.

KEYWORDS:

• Channel attributes
• online channel choice
• online tourism
• situational variables

Acknowledgments

We also acknowledge the support of the Crevalor Research Group.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy of Spain under Grant ECO2015-65393-R, and by the University of Zaragoza under Grant UZ2018-SOC-04.

Notes on contributors

J.M. Múgica

J.M. Múgica is Full Professor of Marketing at the Public University of Navarra (Spain). He has held previous teaching positions at the Autonomous University (Madrid) and at the Carlos III University (Madrid). His main research interest is on distribution channels, retail and consumer behavior. He has been a visiting researcher at the Universities of Wisconsin (USA), Oxford (United Kingdom) and Stirling (United Kingdom).

C. Berné

C. Berné is Full Professor of Marketing at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). He has published several researches, mainly on marketing productivity, retail, consumer behavior and tourism. She has been a visiting researcher at several universities, such as Oxford (United Kingdom), Cassino and Southern Lazio (Italy), and Nord University (Norway).