With the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the use of technology has accelerated in various fields, and products using technology are also appearing in the tourism industry. In addition, the use of mobile travel apps has increased as the ...
With the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the use of technology has accelerated in various fields, and products using technology are also appearing in the tourism industry. In addition, the use of mobile travel apps has increased as the demand for non-face-to-face technology and services has increased since COVID-19, and technology and domestic OTAs have further promoted changes in the way consumers travel by expanding their booking services to various fields such as accommodation, flights, and travel products, including non-face-to-face travel reservations and travel behaviors that minimize contact with others. Online travel agencies (OTAs) provide reservation services for various types of travel products related to transportation facilities such as hotels, airlines, car rentals, and tourism such as ski resort tickets and musical tickets, and have the advantage of enabling customers to filter their desired conditions such as price and location and compare them at a glance. As a result of these advantages, domestic OTAs are becoming increasingly popular and influential, while global OTAs have been dominant in the past. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that determine the value of using OTAs by using the Value-based Acceptance Model(VAM) to categorize the sub-factors of perceived benefits as usefulness, enjoyment, and economic benefits, and perceived sacrifices as security risk, financial risk, and service distrust, and to analyze the factors that have the greatest impact on the intention to continue using OTAs. At the same time, the Expectation Confirmation Model(ECM) is used to identify the factors that can lead to the continuous growth of OTAs, which depends on the user's satisfaction level with the information system, the degree of confidence in the actual performance that occurs as a result of use, and the perceived usefulness after use.
First, the study analyzed the relationship between perceived benefits of OTAs and perceived value, and found that information usefulness, enjoyment, and economic benefits all have a positive effect on perceived value. Second, among the sub-variables of perceived sacrifice, security risk, financial risk, and service distrust, only service distrust has a negative and significant effect on perceived value. Third, when the expectations of OTAs are met, positive confidence is generated, and the degree of confidence is a factor that affects the perceived usefulness of the information in the service, which leads to satisfaction. They also found that the perceived usefulness of OTAs is a significant predictor of satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction has a positive effect on the intention to continue using OTAs. Fourth, the perceived value of OTAs was found to have a positive effect on satisfaction. In order to satisfy consumers, OTAs should take into account the emotional aspect and the values that consumers seek, such as the benefit for the cost sacrificed. Finally, perceived value has a positive impact on continuous intention.
The academic implications of this study are summarized as follows. First, the Value-based Acceptance Model(VAM) was used to identify the factors that determine the value of using OTAs and the relationship between perceived value and continuous intention by categorizing the factors that have the greatest impact on continuous intention into benefit factors and sacrifice factors. Second, the Expectation Confirmation Model(ECM), which includes attitudinal variables such as satisfaction and trust, was used to identify the influence of OTA users' continuous intention. Third, the combination of the Value-based Acceptance Model(VAM) and the Expectation Confirmation Model(ECM) improved the explanatory power of OTA users' intention to continue using OTAs.
To summarize the practical implications. First, we found that perceived benefits had the greatest impact on perceived value, followed by perceived usefulness. This finding suggests that when using OTAs, customers perceive value in the information provided to them based on how useful it is, which in turn affects their intention to continue using them. Considering this, companies should understand what information customers want, not just basic product information, and provide useful information. Second, service distrust, a sub-variable of perceived sacrifice, has a negative and significant effect on perceived value. This means that people do not trust various business services that come from non-face-to-face services. In order to ensure trust in non-face-to-face services, relevant companies should provide immediate and accurate information to customers' inquiries or periodically advertise that they provide immediate and accurate information, so that the perception of non-face-to-face services is spread positively. Third, the sub-variables of perceived sacrifice, security risk and financial risk, do not have a significant negative effect on perceived value. In the case of security risk, it is believed that the lack of a significant effect is due to changes in consumer perceptions in recent years as they emphasize the importance of recognizing the risks of personal information leakage, personal location information leakage, anxiety over payment system security, and malicious attacks related to non-face-to-face services. This suggests that the strategy of emphasizing security reassurance may not be an important value for customers in the future development of OTA services. In addition, financial risk refers to the difficulty of changing or refunding a purchased product, and implies that people are willing to pay a somewhat exaggerated fee for their pleasure or value if the product has value. This suggests that when marketing OTA products in the future, rather than emphasizing flexible cancellation policies, it is worthwhile to focus on the usefulness of the information on the website, the enjoyment of the services offered on the site, and selling products at a discounted rate to positively influence perceived value.