Title: What do buyers really want when shopping for travel online? The relationship between travel product attributes and online buyer behaviour

Authors: Gregory Dunn, Seyhmus Baloglu, Katerina Annaraud, Pearl Brewer

Addresses: School of Hotel Restaurant Management, University of South Florida (Sarasota-Manatee), Sarasota, FL 34243, USA. ' School of Hotel Restaurant Management, University of South Florida (Sarasota-Manatee), Sarasota, FL 34243, USA. ' School of Hotel Restaurant Management, University of South Florida (Sarasota-Manatee), Sarasota, FL 34243, USA. ' School of Hotel Restaurant Management, University of South Florida (Sarasota-Manatee), Sarasota, FL 34243, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative importance of online travel product selection attributes and examine the variations in their importance due to travel buying behaviour and demographic characteristics. The reliability and validity of the instrument were assessed prior to the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA and t-tests. The results showed interesting variations due to both online travel buying behaviour and consumer characteristics. The relative importance of travel product selection attributes differed with regard to consumers| frequency of purchase, channel of purchase, amount spent on travel and gender. Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research ideas are discussed.

Keywords: online shopping; e-shopping; electronic shopping; travel purchases; travel industry; websites; internet; world wide web; consumer behaviour; marketing; purchasing preferences; buyer behaviour; product attributes; demographic characteristics; descriptive statistics; MANOVA; t-tests; multivariate analysis; variance; purchase frequency; purchase channels; gender; expenditure; USA; United States; revenue management; hospitality management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRM.2010.035961

International Journal of Revenue Management, 2010 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.344 - 362

Published online: 11 Oct 2010 *

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