Factors Affecting Online Tourism Services in Israel

Authors: Shlomit Hon-Snir, Shosh Shahrabai, Sharon Teitler Regev, Anabel Friedlander-Lifszyc

Abstract:

Today, online travel sites account for a large share of the orders for tourism services, leading to the expectation that many traditional travel agencies will become redundant in the future. Technological changes are offering customers a wider variety and better prices, and the improved competition in the industry has increased customer well-being significantly. Therefore, the question is whether all customers can enjoy this change, specifically whether different groups in the Israeli population enjoy the changes similarly. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that affect the collection of data and the purchase of tourism products online and in particular to identify the barriers and limitations of technology usage among the population. The results of the current research are of great importance both economically and socially. The theory of Reasoned Action assumes that actual behavior is based on intention. Volitional behavior is predicted by individuals' attitudes to that behavior and by the way they think other people will look at them. Two cognitive variables regarding the use of technology are: perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use. Moreover, early adopters of innovations have different characteristics than people that adopt an innovation at a later stage. In the study, we analyze four groups of factors: Customer characteristics, internet usage, technology acceptance and product characteristics. Some of the parameters are gender, age, income level, frequency and type of internet use, proficiency in English, traveler type, number of trips abroad, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risk, perceived trust and product type. We investigate online purchasing and online information search separately. Data will be collected using an online questionnaire distributed among a representative sample of 600 citizens in Israel. Some of the research questions will be based on previous research studies (that underwent reliability and validity testing). Those questions will be translated into Hebrew and adjusted for the tested population.

Keywords: customer characteristics, online travel sites, technology acceptance, tourism