Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
Increased reliance on technology information throughout the decision-making and purchasing processes posed numerous challenges and opportunities for marketers in the tourism and hospitality industry (Buhalis and Law, 2008). In particular, the emergence of user-generated content (UGC) websites allowed consumers to obtain and share information about products and services with peers who can provide first-hand feedback with either positive or negative reviews. The reliance level on online information shared by peer customers is arguably greater when purchasing tourism and hospitality services mainly because of the intangible nature of these services (Litvin et al., 2008; Yang et al., 2018a, 2018b).
Tourism and hospitality services are among the most expensive services, which implies certain levels of risk and uncertainty during the travel-related decision-making process (Chung and Buhalis, 2008). Customers tend to examine online reviews about services they may purchase to reduce uncertainty and risk (Kim et al., 2011). The informal communication between customers about products, services or their providers that occur online is called electronic word of mouth or simply, word of mouse (Litvin et al., 2008). The interpersonal effect of word of mouse seems to be increasingly influential with the proliferation of online platforms where travelers can share and exchange their experiences with tourism services. A prominent example is TripAdvisor, one of the most popular UGC platforms that currently hosts 465 million reviews and is visited by an average of 390 million unique users monthly (TripAdvisor, 2017). With the exponential proliferation of these platforms within the tourism and hospitality, word of mouse has become a highly influential element of modern marketing strategy (Litvin et al., 2018).
The influence of online travel reviews seems to be greater for the hotel industry. Online reviews are consulted mostly for informed accommodation decisions (Gretzel and Yoo, 2008). Empirical evidence supports the positive relationship between the online reputation and financial performance of hotels, that is, hotels with higher ratings receive more reservations and gain more profits (Ye et al., 2011; Öğüt and Taş, 2012; Kim et al., 2015; Cezar and Ögüt, 2016). Therefore, hotel managers and marketers are recently challenged by new game rules, wherein access to information has placed greater power in the hands of customers. By contrast, online reviews constitute an...