Title: Effect of electronic word-of-mouth on customers' booking intention at online travel agencies: case in Vietnam

Authors: Nguyen Hong Quan; Bui Quang Thang

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam ' Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract: Consumers now have an intriguing approach to obtain information about products and services, known as e-WOM. Due to its rapid spread, e-WOM is both an excellent promotional tool and a burden for organisations not properly controlling this information channel. The study's goal was to highlight how e-WOM elements influence online booking intention and measure their impact in order to provide recommendations to help OTAs grow their business. The poll was based on 466 people living in Vietnam who used e-WOM as a source of information to refer to an online booking service via an OTA. SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 are used to analyse the information. According to the findings, online booking intention is influenced indirectly by six factors: tie strength, source credibility, e-WOM quality, e-WOM quantity, expertise, and participation, and is influenced directly by e-WOM acceptance. In fact, there are several other factors that make up e-WOM. Further research is recommended to measure the impact of more e-WOM factors on customers' booking intention at online travel agencies (OTA) with an expanded research scale in different Asian countries famous for tourism industry.

Keywords: e-WOM; online booking intention; tie strength; source credibility; e-WOM quality; e-WOM quantity; expertise; participation; e-WOM acceptance; Vietnam.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETRADE.2023.133347

International Journal of Electronic Trade, 2023 Vol.1 No.1, pp.74 - 92

Received: 04 Apr 2023
Accepted: 22 May 2023
Published online: 12 Sep 2023 *