Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

Morosan, Cristian; DeFranco, Agnes

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0049

Cyber-attacks on hotel information systems could threaten the privacy of consumers and the integrity of the data they exchange upon connecting their mobile devices to hotel networks. As the perceived cyber-security risk may be reflected heterogeneously within the US consumer population traveling internationally, the purpose of this study is to examine such heterogeneity to uncover classes of US consumers based on their perceptions of risk of using tablets for various tasks when staying in hotels abroad.Design/methodology/approachUsing data collected from 1,016 US consumers who stayed in hotels abroad, this study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to classify the consumers based on their perceptions of risk associated with several tablet use behaviors in hotels.FindingsThe analysis uncovered four latent classes and produced a characterization of these classes according to several common behavioral (frequency of travel, the continent of the destination, duration of stay and purpose of travel) and demographic (gender, age, income and education) consumer characteristics.Originality/valueBeing the first study that classifies consumers based on the risk of using tablets in hotels while traveling internationally, this study brings the following contributions: offers a methodology of classifying (segmenting) consumer markets based on their cyber-security risk perceptions, uses LPA, which provides opportunities for an accurate and generalizable characterization of multivariate data that comprehensively illustrate consumer behavior and broadens the perspective offered by the current literature by focusing on consumers who travel from their US residence location to international destinations.

Erdem, Mehmet; Atadil, Hilmi A.; Nasoz, Pelin

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-06-2018-0046

The purpose of this study is to examine hotel guests’ attitudes toward guest room technologies (GRTs) and determine whether hotel guests’ characteristics and attitudes regarding GRTs vary according to hotel guest typologies.Design/methodology/approachThe data were gathered from a sample of 508 hotel guests who had stayed in a hotel in the past 12 months via a self-administered survey on Qualtrics survey software. The analysis of the study consisted of two main research steps: identification of cluster groups via the K-means cluster analysis algorithm and discriminant analysis; and performing a series of chi-square analyses to determine whether hotel guests’ characteristics and attitudes vary according to obtained hotel guest typologies.FindingsResults indicated significant attitudinal (e.g. internet payment preference) and demographic (e.g. age) differences among the obtained hotel guest typologies regarding their attitudes toward GRTs.Practical implicationsThe results provide valuable guidance and a pragmatic approach for those hotel managers that aim to generate tailored marketing strategies for guest segments that are interested in GRTs.Originality/valueThis study concentrates on GRTs with a market segmentation approach by using advanced statistical procedures. It contributes to the body of related research literature by offering empirical evidence where the study evaluates the impact of the availability of new GRTs on guest decision-making based on the principles of the theory of planned behavior. Practitioners will be able to use the presented findings to generate marketing and pricing strategies with respect to the technological needs and wants of each typology.

Douglas, Anneli

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-01-2018-0002

Research abounds highlighting the differences between males and females when they travel. Even in business travel, these differences have been acknowledged, with suppliers and marketers spending significant money to develop and market products to accommodate them. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether differences exist in terms of mobile application usage between male and female business travellers.Design/methodology/approachA mixed method approach is followed. An internet-based survey is distributed and in-depth interviews conducted with South African business travellers. The Mann–Whitney U-test is used to test the differences between males and females and their mobile application usage. Content analysis is used to analyse the interviews.FindingsThe results show that mobile applications are perceived as more important by females than males in all the phases of the travel cycle, although most of these differences in perceived importance were not significant.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to the online data-collection method and the self-selective process, the findings cannot be generalised to the global population of business travellers who use mobile applications.Practical implicationsThe results should caution corporate organisations, travel management companies and their application developers not to spend unnecessary technological and financial resources on developing applications to accommodate differences between males and females, which might not exist. Companies should rather spend money on developing applications that will enhance and add convenience to the business traveller’s experience.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this study lies in investigating the applications market, particularly in the context of business travel. Applications focussed on specific sectors of the tourism industry, such as business travel applications, serve business travellers differently from generic travel applications. This research examines business travel-specific applications and expands the scale and scope of the enquiry, concentrating on the travellers’ view.

Alsetoohy, Omar; Ayoun, Baker; Arous, Saleh; Megahed, Farida; Nabil, Gihan

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-01-2018-0005

The study adopted a conceptualized technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) model to empirically investigate the factors affecting hotel managers’ attitudes toward intelligent agent technology (IAT) adoption in the hotel food supply chain management (HFSCM) and their intentions for future adoption.Design/methodology/approachIn-person survey was carried out in luxury hotels in Florida.FindingsThe findings indicated that merely 5.7 per cent of hotels are fully implementing IAT. Perceived benefits, reliability, quality of human resources, information intensity and market capabilities had a statistically significant positive impact on hotel managers’ attitudes. However, complexity and cost had a negative influence on hotel managers’ attitudes toward IAT adoption in the HFSCM. Managers’ attitude further positively influences their intention to adopt.Practical implicationsThe validated model helps guide hotel decision makers who are considering IAT adoption in the HFSCM. Hotels that are seeking sources for competitive advantages would better consider the TOE factors in IAT adoption prior to making a decision.Originality/valueThis is the first study that examined IAT adoption in the hotel industry from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The validated model proposed for the adoption of IAT in HFSCM enriched the TOE model and the diffusion of innovations theory.

Cassidy, Leonie; Pabel, Anja

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-01-2018-0003

This study aims to investigate tourists’ propensity to use travel review websites (TRWs) during the pre- and post-travel stages from a cultural perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis quantitative study is guided by the positivist paradigm. Data were obtained from an online survey, focussing on Australia, Canada, India and Malaysia.FindingsThe results indicate significant relationships between country of residence and the time research begins prior to an international or domestic holiday being undertaken; between country of residence and trust levels for information on TRWs; and country of residence and whether or not respondents post reviews on TRWs. These results are discussed using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Long-term orientation shows a moderate cultural influence of respondents’ trust of information on TRWs, while a country’s individualistic or collectivist orientation has a strong influence on respondents’ posting/not posting a review on a TRW.Research limitations/implicationsCare should be taken when generalising the findings beyond the study population, as no randomisation occurred with survey distribution.Practical implicationsThe results of this study have implications for managers of tourism businesses wishing to better facilitate information-sharing behaviours of their customers through TRWs.Social implicationsThe cross-cultural comparisons used in this study add value to tourism studies, particularly when comparing Eastern and Western societies.Originality/valueThe study adds to the knowledge base on consumer pre- and post-trip online behaviours, considering the effect of country of residence and any influence from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

Kim, Jungsun (Sunny); Gatling, Anthony

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-04-2018-0029

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three person-environment (PE) fit dimensions (i.e. person-job, person-organizational and person-technology [PT] fit) on employees’ engagement and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) dimensions (i.e. loyalty, service delivery and participation).Design/methodology/approachBoth online and on-site surveys were used to collect data from customer-contact employees working at a resort-style hotel in the USA. A total of 290 complete responses were collected, and the results were analyzed using a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results revealed that the three PE fit dimensions positively influenced employee engagement. The results also showed that the three PE fit dimensions had significant indirect effects on the three OCB dimensions via engagement, except for the relationship between PT fit and participation. PT fit only had a significant direct effect on participation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the current PE fit, engagement and OCB literature by adding PT fit and testing the effects of the three PE fit dimensions on service-oriented OCB via engagement. This study recommends that hospitality companies develop strategies and tactics to improve their employees’ PE fit and engagement because they are the key determinants of service-oriented OCB.

Mellinas, Juan Pedro; Reino, Sofia

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2017-0050

Evidence suggests that electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) plays a highly influential role in decision-making when booking hotel rooms. The number of online sources where consumers can obtain information on hotel ratings provided has grown exponentially. Hence, a number of companies have developed average scores to summarize this information and to make it more easily available to consumers. Furthermore, official star rating schemes are starting to provide these commercially developed average scores to complement the information their schemes offer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the robustness of these systems.Design/methodology/approachAverage scores from different systems, and the scores provided by one rating site were collected for 200 hotels and compared.FindingsFindings suggested important differences in the ratings and assigned descriptive word across websites.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that the application of average scores by official organizations is not legitimate and identifies a research gap in the area of consumer and star rating standardization.Originality/valueThe paper is of value to the industry and academia related to the examination of rating scales adopted by major online review tourism providers. Evidence of malpractice has been identified and the adoption of this type of scales by official star rating schemes is questioned.

Lo Duca, Angelica; Marchetti, Andrea

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-07-2017-0042

PurposeThis paper aims to describe Tourpedia, a website about tourism, built on open data provided by official government agencies. Tourpedia provides data under a public license.Design/methodology/approachTourpedia is built upon a modular architecture, which allows a developer to add a new source of data easily. This is achieved through a simple mapping language, namely, Tourpedia mapping language, which maps the original open data set model to the Tourpedia data model.FindingsTourpedia contains more than 70.000 accommodations, downloaded from open data provided by Italian, French and Spanish regions.Research limitations/implicationsTourpedia presents some limitations. First, extracted data are not homogeneous and often they are incomplete or wrong. Second, Tourpedia contains only accommodations. Finally, at the moment Tourpedia covers only some Italian, French and Spanish regions.Practical implicationsThe most important implication of Tourpedia concerns the construction of a single access point for all Italian, French and Spanish open data about accommodations. In addition, a simple mechanism for the integration of new sources of open data is defined.Social implicationsThe current version of Tourpedia opens also the road to three new possible social scenarios. First, Tourpedia could be transformed into an open source of updated information about tourism. Second, Tourpedia could be empowered to support tours, which include some tourist attractions and/or events and suggest the nearest accommodations. Finally, Tourpedia may help tourists to discover unknown places.Originality/valueTourpedia constitutes an access point for data sets providers, application developers and tourists because it provides a unique website.

Huang, Dan; Liu, Xinyi; Lai, Dan; Li, Zhiyong

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-06-2017-0037

To better understand what inhibits people from participating in collaborative consumption, this paper aims to develop research models of users and non-users to examine the relationship between perceived risks and intentions to use peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation. Moreover, differences of risk perceptions and behavioral intentions between P2P accommodation users and non-users were identified.Design/methodology/approachThe method of convenience sampling was used to collect data. Excluding the invalid questionnaires, 520 were kept for further analysis. In this paper, SPSS and partial least squares (PLS) were used to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings highlighted the important role of perceived risks in determining tourists’ intentions to use P2P accommodation. The results showed that non-users have higher perceived risks in regards to all four risk dimensions (psychological risk, physical risk, performance risk and social risk), and they also have significantly lower behavioral intentions to use P2P accommodation than the users. For users, only the psychological risk has significant negative effects on behavioral intentions, while for non-users, both psychological and physical risks are important inhibitors.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to a better understanding of the antecedents that influence consumers’ participation in collaborative consumption in the P2P accommodation domain. Second, it extends the literature on perceived risk by discussing users and non-users in this market. Finally, this research provides insights into the P2P accommodation market in China, which enables online travel platforms to develop targeted marketing strategies.

Jeon, Jiyeon; Yoo, Myongjee; Christodoulidou, Natasa

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-11-2017-0133

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of Wi-Fi service on the millennial generation’s loyalty to restaurants. Additionally, this study examines the impact of Wi-Fi service on three different types of restaurants (coffee shops, fast-food restaurants and casual dining restaurants). Furthermore, this study examines the similarities and differences that exist cross-culturally between Americans and Koreans.Design/methodology/approachA total number of 480 questionnaires were collected to empirically test the study model. A factor analysis that used a principal components analysis with varimax rotation was performed to condense the loyalty items into a few underlying constructs, and the Cronbach’s alpha was checked to test for reliability. A multiple regression analysis and t-test were performed to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that Wi-Fi service has a significant impact on millennials’ loyalty behavior on all three types of restaurants in this study. However, the differences between Americans and Koreans on how they perceive the Wi-Fi services turned out to be significant only for coffee shops.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors used a non-probability convenience sampling method for data collection. The findings cannot be generalized to other types of restaurants, such as fine dining and luxury restaurants. Although the results indicate a positive relation between Wi-Fi usage and a customer’s loyalty, loyalty is a multifaceted concept where a variety of factors, such as frequency or convenience can have an impact.Practical implicationsThe findings should encourage marketers in the restaurant industry to use Wi-Fi as a value-added service for their customers.Originality/valueThere are limited studies on how significant Wi-Fi service is for the hospitality industry, and in particular, for restaurants. This study builds on the scholarship of Cobanoglu et al. (2012) on the value of the customer loyalty by providing new insights into customers’ views on Wi-Fi service in the restaurant industry.