Electronic satisfaction in tourism industry

Abstract: Technology had a great impact on different industries. Tourism is not
exempted from that. Several firms have offered their tourism services
on-line and claim that they offer better services comparing with traditional
travel agencies. But what is important is the perception of their customers.
In this research different determinants of tourists' satisfaction in on-line
tourism will be investigated. Then this study will show how much e-tourism
could satisfy tourists in each of mentioned factors comparing with the
traditional travel agencies.

The data collection strategy of this research was Survey, and data
collection methods were both interview and mainly questionnaire. First of
all the literature was reviewed in order to find a suitable model. A model
named e-satisfaction was found. This model has five factors which are
important in satisfaction of customers while they are purchasing on-line.
In order to customize this model for e-tourism several phases were
implemented. First it was required that different items get gathered for
each determinant factor as questions in the questionnaire. In this phase
interviews were conducted with experts in tourism and people who had
experienced e-tourism before. Also different items were extracted from
questionnaires in the literature of tourism and satisfaction. By this task
E-satisfaction model (szymensky, Hise, 2000) was adjusted with tourism
context. The questionnaire was made at this stage.

Finally the data was analyzed by SPSS 13 and Factor analysis method was
used. This research yields rich insights for managers of e-tourism firms, by
introducing the factors site design, convenience, product information and
product offering and financial security, which are the predictors of e-
satisfaction in the tourism industry. It also, by the use of regression
analyze, demonstrates that site design and convenience of using e-tourism
are the two factors which could satisfy tourists the most.