Drivers of the formation of e-loyalty towards tourism destinations

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to determine the drivers of the formation of e-loyalty in a tourist destination, providing a model composed of variables that are under the control of the firm along with others that are not fully controllable by professionals. Design/methodology/approach-The study was carried out with a sample of 497 subjects, university students and online consumers, and with the use of structural equations (partial least squares). Findings-Results show that young people give a high valuation to all the variables used in the research. These results contribute to the literature on e-loyalty in tourism destinations and improve tourism loyalty in this population segment. Research limitations/implications-The main limitation of this research has been related to the number of variables and measurement indicators that, according to the literature review, influence e-loyalty. Finally, a balanced and statistically significant model has been developed that has practical utility and analyzes online purchase of tourism products from a process perspective that includes variables that are internal and external to the firm. Practical implications-The study suggests that young people have a favourable attitude and predisposition towards e-commerce, which, in turn, favours firms' efforts to promote consumption and loyalty within the framework of the model's variables. Originality/value-This research paper has important value by analysing the initiating variables to determine how e-loyalty can be managed in tourist destinations, in addition to analysing an important segment for future tourism development.

Influence of Site Personalization and First Impression on Young Consumers’ Loyalty to Tourism Websites

“…Regarding responses to items, it can be confirmed that young people give importance to all the variables presented in this study, thus, confirming the "technological" nature of this population segment [23]. The results are in line with other studies in which young people value more than 50% of the items related to the design and the personalization of the website in the market orientation framework [13,83].…”

“…Numerous authors have also studied website design quality and its influence both in tourism and in other sectors [4,83]. The model of website quality by DeLone and McLean [84][85][86] included system quality, information quality, and service quality.…”

Boosting Customer E-Loyalty: An Extended Scale of Online Service Quality

“…Alam and Yasin [12] state that when customers are satisfied, and their expectations have been met or exceeded by the service provider, the customer's intention to repurchase is most likely to reinforced. Thus, e-satisfaction is a fundamental factor when it comes to retaining customers, and subsequently this has a direct effect on customer loyalty [13][14][15].…”

Online presence, visibility and reputation: a systematic literature review in management studies

“…Within the third perspective ( objective perspective ), fall all the authors focusing their attention on the main objectives recognized to the online reputation, such as inducing cooperation (Bakos and Dellarocas, 2011); mitigating information asymmetry (Novotny and Spiekermann, 2017; Lin et al , 2016); influencing customers during their online purchasing (Singh et al , 2016a); reducing transaction risks (Novotny and Spiekermann, 2017); capturing clients and reaching sales goals and higher prices (Díaz and Rodríguez, 2018; Diana-Jens and Ruibal, 2015; Yoganarasimhan, 2013); influencing the firms’ value perceived by users (Parra-Lopez et al , 2018); helping community members make decisions (Dellarocas, 2010).…”