Collaboration and competition in the online travel industry: a comparative study of China and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

In the online travel industry, many hotels collaborate with online travel agencies (OTAs) to attract new customers to book hotels. Meanwhile, hotels and OTAs compete with each other for repeat customers because hoteliers are unwilling to pay a commission to OTAs for the same customers again. The purpose of this study is to investigate the collaboration and competition between OTAs and hotels. The quality of OTA websites and customer values of hotel booking services are key factors in attracting customers in the online-to-offline-to-online (O2O2O) commerce. In particular, the data were collected from China and Vietnam in the travel industry. The results compare the differences and similarities of cross-country customer perceptions and the behavioral intentions of OTAs and hotels. The findings provide insights into the collaboration and competition between OTAs and hotels from a global perspective. Managerial implications for hotels that partner with OTAs are also offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• competition
• cross-country
• O2O
• website quality
• perceived value

Disclosure statement

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