A Study on Relationship of Electronic Word of Mouth and Consumer Behaviour With Reference to Travel Industry

Abstract

The advancement in the field of internet and telecommunications has shifted the purchase pattern of consumer. The consumers are aware about these changes and ready to move ahead with the times. This shift has increased the pressure on marketers to evaluate the perception of customers towards their products or services. Ease of access to information through blogs, consumer reviews, social media websites and the like have impacted the consummation of information among consumers. Consumers now rely on the product or service reviews before making their purchase. Considering the need of hour, this study focuses on understanding the recent scenario of consumer s choice of online hotel booking and how it is affected by electronic word of mouth. The data was collected online using self-administered questionnaire. The data was collected in two rounds and 310 usable responses were received. PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. The results of study show that good quality reviews which have photo are considered to be credible and lead to purchase. newline