Determinants of Electronic word of mouth (EWOM)‎ influence on hotel customers' purchasing decision

Abstract EN

Research has widely demonstrated that personal sources of information like EWOM are more influential than traditional advertising.

The potential impact of others' opinions has dramatically increased with the development of the internet.

Since the hospitality and tourism products and services contain more interpersonal interaction that needs to be experienced by consumers, the influence of EWOM in hospitality industry is more significant than in other industries.

However, very little is known about what makes certain opinions more influential than other.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of electronic word of mouth influence on hotel customer purchasing decision.

To achieve this goal, the study used a questionnaire to collect data from 500 hotel customers in Sharm-elshikh as one of the touristic destinations in Egypt.

It has employed linear regression to measure the influence of EWOM determinants on hotel customer purchasing decision.

The study results show that the influence of EWOM depends on source credibility, valence, and volume of information obtained from EWOM.

Also we find that there is a relationship between receiver characteristics like receiver expertise and EWOM influence.

The results further indicate that the type of website and type of the product which EWOM are about has a significant impact on EWOM influence.

The findings of the paper provide information to managers and marketers from hotels as to why there is a necessity to pay close attention to what being said about them via EWOM and also how to effectively manage their online presence