Comments and responses' combination: tourist destination's moderating effect
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
ISSN: 0263-4503
Article publication date: 22 June 2022
Issue publication date: 6 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the relationship between online comments, merchant replies and online sales of tourism products and focus on the moderating role of tourist destination.
Design/methodology/approach
This article uses crawler technology and regression analysis methods.
Findings
The researchers found the following: (1) The number of pictures uploaded with online comments, the number of merchant replies and the length of merchant replies have a significant positive effect on sales of tourism products, while the length of comments and the similarity of merchant replies negatively affect sales of tourism products. The emotional scores of the reviews do not significantly affect sales of tourism products. (2) Tourist destination moderates the relationship between user comments and sales of tourism products. The length of comments has a greater negative effect on sales of domestic tourism products, while the number of comments has a greater positive effect on sales of overseas tourism products. (3) Tourist destination moderates the relationship between merchant replies and sales of tourism products. Consumers who choose domestic tourism products pay more attention to the interactivity reflected by merchant replies (e.g. number and length of merchant replies), while consumers who choose overseas tourism products hope to receive replies that are more useful, such as reply similarity.
Originality/value
The research conclusions enrich the relevant research in the field of online review research and has practical significance for how companies increase sales of tourism products.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71662004; No. 71872055; No. 72062003; No. 72162002); Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences in Guangxi Universities and the Project of Guangxi Development Strategy Institute in China (No. 2022GDSIYB14; No. 2022GDSIQM06); Guangxi philosophy and Social Science Planning Research Project in China (No. 21FMZ050); Relationship Between Customers Satisfaction and the Online Sales of Tourism Products in 7-11 Application supported by Panyapiwat Institute of Management in Thailand [contract No. L2 (PIM) 005/2565].
Citation
Wei, H., Shan, D., Zhu, S., Wu, D. and Lyu, B. (2022), "Comments and responses' combination: tourist destination's moderating effect", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 40 No. 7, pp. 914-928. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-01-2022-0016
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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