Online consumer behavior : investigating study on Egyptian hotel customers’ information search

Abstract EN

At the turn of a new millennium, the business environment has imdergone a rapid transformation with the Intemet, making it possible for a large number of users to access vast amounts of information through a diverse array of technical tools and services.

Information search is an integral part of the consumer decision making process.

There is no doubt that the Intemet contributes to, and will continue to affect, this function.

Moreover, the continued success of online hotel selling will be determined by the degree io which consumers utilize the Intemet during their decision making process, mainly the acquisition of hotel services and facilities information.

However, a comprehensive understanding of what caiises, motivates, and mediates information search behavior on the Intemet is relatively lacking.

So, this research addresses consumers’ goal-directed information search in the online marketplace to understand consumer search behavior in this unique environment.

The research collected data from 276 hotel customers by using two data collection techniques including questionnaire forms and semi-structured interviews with the selected hotel customers.