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The purpose of this paper is to reexamine several issues about disintermediation from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers (hotels) and traditional intermediaries (travel agencies), considering the move of the current distribution landscape toward disintermediation. Internet and mobile technologies offer various tools for consumers to search and purchase products/services from suppliers directly. Consequently, the necessity and role of traditional intermediaries in the industry become questionable.

In all, six focus group interviews were conducted to collect primary data from ten managers of three traditional travel agencies and 11 managers from three business hotels in Hong Kong, which is a major travel destination in Asia with many world-class hotels and tourism facilities.

Despite their different business backgrounds, the interviewees agreed on the increasing importance of Internet technology in the distribution of tourism products. The interviewees also posited that traditional travel agencies are still needed to serve certain customer groups, albeit their role may have little importance.

Practitioners should adapt to technologically induced changes to remain competitive in the e-business era.

This paper provides several original contributions. First, this paper supplements the extant literature by revealing how modern practitioners perceive disintermediation in the tourism and hospitality industry. Second, this paper is the first to investigate the disintermediation issue from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers and intermediaries. Finally, this paper provides a reference for industry practitioners to establish adequate strategies that take advantage of Internet technology.

The main goal of this study is to employ unsupervised (lexicon-based) learning approaches to identify readers' emotional dimensions and thumbs-up empathy reactions to reviews of online travel agency apps based on appraisal and stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theories.

Using the Google Play Scraper, we gathered a total of 402,431 reviews from the Google Play Store for two travel agency apps, Tripadvisor and Booking.com. Following the filtering and cleaning of user reviews, we used lexicon-based unsupervised machine learning algorithms to investigate the associations between various emotional dimensions of reviews and review readers' thumbs-up reactions.

The study's findings reveal that the sentiment of different sorts of reviews has a substantial influence on review readers' emotional experiences, causing them to give the app a thumbs up review. Furthermore, readers' thumbs-up responses to the text reviews differed depending on the eight emotional aspects of the reviews.

The results of this research can be applied in the development of online travel agency apps. The findings suggest that app developers can enhance users' emotional experiences by considering the sentiment and emotional aspects of reviews in their design and implementation. Additionally, the results can be used by travel agencies to improve their online reputation and attract more customers by providing a positive user experience.

The findings of this research have the potential to have a significant impact on society by providing insights into the emotional experiences of users when they engage with online travel agency apps. The study highlights the importance of considering the emotional aspect of user reviews, which can help app developers to create more user-friendly and empathetic products.

The current study is the first to evaluate the impact of users' thumbs-up empathetic reactions on user evaluations of online travel agency applications using unsupervised (lexicon-based) learning methodologies.

This paper examines tourist perceptions of the potential for the elimination of travel agencies in the presence of the Internet. The opinions of 413 tourists on making transactions through both Internet‐based (hereafter, online) and traditional distribution channels were analysed. Experimental results illustrated that tourists still used professional services and advice offered by travel agencies. Tourists also agreed that more information could be found through the Internet. Following the findings, the paper suggests that both online and traditional distributional channels can coexist in the future.

The purpose of the paper is to show that research on the internet's impact on B2B inter‐firm relations is limited, while findings are anecdotal and sometimes contradictory. This study investigates inter‐firm relations amongst Business Travel Management (BTM) firms and their clients by examining the impact of online BTM solutions on the creation and reinforcement of relational bonds.

The paper shows that two major approaches were combined for examining inter‐firm relations: economic (transaction costs economics) and socio‐psychological (social exchange; inter‐organisation; and industrial network) theories. A model illustrating the interrelations amongst the use of online BTM solutions, two structural (communication, dependence) and two social bonds (trust, satisfaction) was proposed for investigating the impact of online BTM solutions on BTM‐clients relations. Data were gathered from a convenience sample of BTM managers in the UK, Greece, and Cyprus and 194 usable responses were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The paper finds that the impact of online BTM solutions on trust, satisfaction and dependence was not confirmed. However, the hypotheses reflecting the interactions between structural and social bonds were supported, which confirmed the mediating impact of internet‐enabled communication on fostering inter‐firm relations.

In this paper the sample is convenient, while data are gathered only from the buyer‐traveller perspective. Larger scale, cross‐industry studies that also combine buyers' and sellers' perspectives are required.

The paper shows that the internet's ability to foster relational bonds was found to be dependent on its exploitation for enhancing inter‐firm communications. When using the internet for enhancing clients' relations and satisfaction, firms should exploit the internet's communication tools and identify clients' information needs for customising the communications' content.

The paper sees that the internet's impact on forming relational bonds and building B2B relations in the BTM context has not been previously researched.

Corporate travel represents a significant source of revenue for the tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of service is essential for maintaining and expanding corporate cliental bases. Despite the importance, the extant literature has yet sufficiently examined corporate travel service quality (SQ) and its impact. To make up for the drawback, this study aims to differentiate the impact of SQ perceptions on customer satisfaction between the online and off-line contexts through an empirical investigation in one of the top five corporate travel agencies in North America.

The well-established SERVQUAL measurement is applied in differentiating the impact of SQ dimensions between the online and off-line context. To empirically test the proposed corporate travel agency (CTA) SQ conceptual model, a set of survey data of “Welcome Back Survey” from HRG (a top five CTA in North America) was examined.

The study finds that for online services, assurance, responsiveness and empathy affect perceived SQ, whereas for off-line services, assurance, empathy and tangible are the three dimensions of perceived SQ.

By relying on the existing survey, the off-line context has one less dimension than the online context. Yet as an early effort in differentiating the differences in the impact of SQ between two service contexts, the study offers insightful findings.

The findings will be helpful for business managers of CTAs to identify the factors that influence SQ in both online booking and off-line booking context. In particular, assurance and empathy are two dimensions that exert a significant impact on customer satisfaction.

This paper is the first to compare the differences of the SQ of online and off-line corporate travel.

This study aims to assess how continuous outcomes of brand personality vary as a function of time and other predictors. Specifically, the author investigates the roles of brand trust on the direct influence of brand personality, resulting in brand loyalty.

Using a longitudinal study of online travel consumers, the author demonstrates that the process of brand evolution is related to the investigation of both temporal and carryover effects.

The findings show that the effect of the brand personality–brand trust linkage decreases over time and leads to the re-evaluation of three dimensions of brand personality when changes in consumers’ perceptions are involved in brand evaluations. Another interesting finding is that the carryover effects of these three dimensions of brand personality are much stronger and stable than the effects of brand personality and brand loyalty. Furthermore, this research uncovers the important boundary conditions for the effects of brand trust on the brand personality–brand loyalty linkage.

This study contributes to the growing literature on tourism management by examining both temporal and carryover effects and using the longitudinal approach. Thus, our study extends prior findings by examining the dynamics of brand personality as determinants of brand loyalty as they develop over time.

The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the factors that influence cancellation behaviour with respect to hotel bookings. The data are based on individual bookings drawn from a hotel reservation system database comprising nine hotels.

The determinants of cancellation probability are estimated using a probit model with cluster adjusted standard errors at the hotel level. Separate estimates are provided for rooms booked offline, through online travel agencies and through traditional travel agencies.

Evidence based on 233,000 bookings shows that the overall cancellation rate is 8 per cent. Cancellation rates are highest for online bookings (17 per cent), followed by offline bookings (12 per cent) and travel agency bookings (4 per cent). Probit estimations show that the probability of cancelling a booking is significantly higher for early bookings, large groups that book offline, offline bookings during high seasons, bookings not involving children and bookings made by guests from specific countries (e.g. China and Russia). Among the factors, booking lead time and country of residence play the largest role, particularly for online bookings.

The analysis is based on individual-level booking data from one hotel chain in Finland, and therefore cannot be generalised for the total population of hotels in the country under observation.

The main contribution of this paper is a thorough investigation of the factors that influence cancellation behaviour at both the theoretical and empirical levels. Detailed and unique data from a hotel reservation system allow for new empirical insights into this behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer engagement technologies impact service innovation in a network of travel agencies, analyzing the effects on sales channels, customer relationships and retail marketing policies.

Using a qualitative single case study approach and triangulating the data from different sources (documents, semi-structured interviews and in-store observations), this paper investigates the Robintur Group, a large Italian network of travel agencies operating in the leisure travel, business travel and organized tourism segments.

This study highlights three core areas of service innovation that have interrelated effects on travel agency management in coherence with the omni-channel strategy: synergetic channel integration, dynamic customer relationships and dynamic retail marketing.

This study is based on a single case study in Italy. Future research could extend the framework to other travel agencies and foreign markets where the diversification process of large grocery retailers is more diffused, and investigate the omni-channel approach in relation to other information and communication technologies and the implications on travel agency management.

Presenting a conceptual framework to exploit new technologies and revitalize the scope and functions of travel agencies, the case study offers insights contributing to the literature on service innovation in travel agencies. The data highlight the adoption of an omni-channel approach to facilitate the customer experience. This case study is also one of the first to empirically investigate the challenges of a large-scale retail group when diversifying to the travel industry and adopting an omni-channel strategy.

本论文旨在探究顾客参与技术（CETs）如何在旅游社网络中影响服务创新, 并分析其对于销售渠道、顾客关系、以及零售营销政策的影响。

本论文采用定性分析方法, 单一案例样本源, 并合多种采样渠道（文本、半结构化访问、和店内观察）来丰富样本数据。本论文研究了Robintur集团, 一家意大利大型旅行社网路, 主要经营休闲旅游、商务旅行、以及组织型旅游产品模块。

本论文结果强调了服务创新的三大核心：协同渠道整合、多样化顾客关系、和多样化零售营销, 其三大核心对旅行社管理有着紧密联系, 符合全渠道战略的主体思想。

本案例分析展示了一个探索新科技和复兴旅行社范围和功能的理论模型, 对旅行社服务创新有着重大理论贡献。样本数据强调了采取全渠道战略以增强顾客体验。同时, 本论文也是首个实际检测了大型零售集团在面对旅行市场多样化和全渠道战略的挑战。

本论文仅取样了意大利的单一案例。未来研究应该拓宽模型到其他旅行产业以及国际市场, 其对大型零售厂商的多样化进程更加深入, 同时, 未来研究应该讲全渠道战略与其他信息与通信技术结合来研究, 对旅行社管理有深入的启示。

关键词 旅行社 服务创新 全渠道 CET ICT 意大利

研究型论文

This study targeted members of online travel communities to explore the factors that affect the experience of flow and how flow affects the transaction intentions of these members.

In order to test this model, data were collected via an online questionnaire, with a total of 286 survey instruments available. The data were analyzed using structural equations modeling with AMOS.

The empirical findings showed that, first, as far as the online travel communities members are concerned, both interactivity and trust do affect each other. Second, interactivity is the key factor for the members to have flow experience in online travel communities. Third, the experience of flow can enhance the transaction intentions of members while they are in the online travel communities.

Web site administrators should improve the interactivity with the members, so that they can have flow experience, and further strengthen their transaction intentions.

This paper provides a model to understand online travel communities members who place their trust in the online travel agencies and, interacting with the web sites in ways that result in a flow experience, ultimately intensify their transaction intentions.

Online customer relationship management (CRM) is an important issue for implementing digital marketing of electronic commerce or social commerce. The purpose of this study is to establish valuable markets for discovering customer knowledge from data-driven CRM systems for enhancing growth rates of businesses. Airline or travel agency industries are online businesses in the world. Therefore, the industries in Taiwan will be an empirical case for this study.

This research applied a procedure with an applied proposed model for establishing valuable markets from data-driven CRM systems. However, the study used a proposed customer value model (recency, frequency and monetary [RFM]; RFM model-based), the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) procedure and a proposed equation for estimating customer values.

For enhancing the data-driven CRM marketing of the industries, in this research, the market of air travelers can be partitioned into eight markets by the proposed model. As well, the markets can be ranked by the AHP procedure. Furthermore, the travelers’ customer values can be estimated by a proposed customer value equation.

Via the applied proposed procedure, online airlines, travel agencies or other online businesses can implement the research procedure as their data-driven marketing strategy on their online large-scale or Big Data customers’ databases for enhancing sales rates.