From a managerial perspective, this research would assist hotel managers to understand what factors of EWOM influencing hotel booking intention of a hotel room. In this research, three out of the four independent variables including Perceived EWOM Credibility, Positive EWOM and EWOM User's Involvement have significant and positive effects on hotel booking intention. Furthermore, this research explored the important role of Attitude of Tourists toward Reviews which mediated those effects of independent variables on Booking Intention.
Positive EWOM refers to the positive reviews of the hotel. Based on this research, positive EWOM is one of major factors that influences hotel customer to book a hotel room. Positive reviews of a hotel on booking…show more content… Therefore, the management team of hotel should ensure all customers’ interests are prior served and their needs are reached to. This can only be achieved when customers actively discuss and involve in giving their opinions to those reviews and suggestions on the hotels. Furthermore, hotel managers should be attentive to customers’ problems and try their best to solve it as soon as possible. This will make the hotel customers feel that they are heard and this will leave a positive impression on them. In addition, hotels should invest more on marketing online such as social network advertisements or managers can also help to build online tourism communities. The main forum for discussions or reviews about hotels to exchange information online is in the space of the tourism service’s website; as travelers may communicate freely about their own travel feelings and factors such as the service provided by a restaurant or hotel. The EWOM information in such communities differs from that on the tourist enterprise’s own website in that they facilitate multi-directional information exchange and generally lack commercial motivation (Zhu & Lai, 2009). These are reasons why tourists believe more on EWOM shared by other tourists than the tourism…show more content… Therefore, it needs to be considered more carefully. Managers should encourage travelers to take part in the online communities such as social networks (Facebook, Instagram…), forums or blogs because a high number of reviews of a hotel will lead to travelers can evaluate its credibility and reliability easier which is simultaneously being disseminated among potential tourists, which will increase the likelihood of them selecting that hotel. Given that EWOM as a key player as the source of data or information could affect tourists’ perceptual evaluations, tourism services should identify ways to facilitate tourists’ use of EWOM. The shift in consumer’s behavior – also because of intangible characteristic of service products - that is, consumers now wiser, more active to search for information of products before consumption in order to reduce risks - has made it even more important for marketing communication to understand EWOM communication. Marketers in tourism sector should recognize that their potential consumers are increasingly using online resources and are therefore should consider it seriously in their marketing