1. Adaptive Strategies to Technological Change:
Understanding Travellers Using the Internet
for Trip Planning
Zheng Xiang
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA
Dan Wang
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Daniel R. Fesenmaier
Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
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2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Related Literature
• Research Goal
• Methods
• Findings
• Discussion
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3. Introduction
• Tremedous growth of the Internet and tools available to
travellers in the last decade:
– Search engines
– Social media
– Mobile computing
• Important to understand how ICT and travallers co-evolve,
particularly in travellers‘ use of the Internet for trip
planning purposes.
• Past studies were conducted at the early days of the
Internet, and they focused on user demographics and
characteristics that distinguish travellers from non-users.
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4. Related Literature
• Role of trip planning in travel decision making (Fodness &
Murray, 1997; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998; Gursoy &
McCleary 2004; Jeng & Fesenmaier, 2002; Bieger &
Laesser, 2004).
• Traveler characteristics (Bonn, Fur, & Susskind, 1998; Chu,
2001; Ip, Lee, & Law, 2010; Kim, Lehto, & Morrison, 2006;
Weber & Roehl, 1999).
• Other factors influencing trip planning such as trip
purpose, travel party, and travel experience (Luo, Feng, &
Cai, 2004; Jun, Vogt, & MacKay, 2007).
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5. Research Goal
• Goal of this study is to gain an understanding of the
strategies travellers developed as result of using the
Internet for travel planning. Specifically,
– what information sources and channels do travellers tend to use
more/less frequently for travel planning purposes?
– How does the use of Internet impact on certain behaviors, e.g.,
amount of money spent, number of choices considered?
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6. Methodology (1)
• On-going Internet-based surveys were conducted by
National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce at Temple
U in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2012 using a portion of an
online panel of 300,000 American consumers.
• Numbers of respondents from each survey ranged from
2,436 (in 2007) to 1,041 (in 2012) and were post hoc
weighted according to age, ethnicity, and gender in order
to represent the American population.
• Survey focused on three main areas related to travelers’
use of the Internet for trip planning: use, impact, and
satisfaction.
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7. Methodology (2)
• For this analysis survey questions in three domains
measuring travellers’ behavioral response to using the
Internet (14 items) including:
– changes in travel plan (five items)
– changes in information channels used (five items), and
– likelihood of calling to make reservations or for further
information (four items).
• Average scores for each domain were calculated and
rounded to the nearest integer so as to resemble the
original scale.
• Cluster analysis was then conducted based upon the
scores of the three domains using the K-means
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procedure.

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10. General Use/Attitude toward Technology by
American Travel Group
Agree or Disagree with the
Statement…
Super
Does Not
Planner Bother Me
Efficient
Mixed
Mixed I Mixed II
Planner
III
Skills of finding what I want
(strongly or somewhat agree)
91.1%
87.8%
77.8%
91.0%
88.3%
92.8%
Skilled at using Internet
(strongly or somewhat agree)
85.4%
73.3%
64.0%
79.5%
74.9%
77.3%
Internet gives people more
control with technology (Yes)
84.0%
65.5%
62.2%
77.6%
75.9%
80.7%
72.4%
35.7%
33.7%
41.9%
42.2%
43.7%
68.4%
33.8%
34.2%
38.7%
37.9%
43.2%
66.5%
26.5%
24.9%
28.5%
30.9%
37.8%
37.8%
15.5%
12.9%
20.7%
19.5%
21.0%
Used technology a lot
compared to my friends
(strongly or somewhat agree)
Know new tech before others
in social circle (strongly or
somewhat agree)
First to buy a new tech in my
circle (strongly or somewhat
agree)
Own tablet computer (e.g.,
iPad etc) (Yes)
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11. Websites Used in Online Travel Planning by
American Travel Group
Super
Planner
Does Not
Bother Me
Efficient
Planner
Mixed I
Online travel agencies
Search engines
Suppliers
Destination sites
Travel search engines
General travel sites
Travel guidebook sites
Travel review sites
71.4%
64.1%
55.7%
45.0%
37.6%
31.9%
26.6%
25.4%
56.2%
49.0%
54.6%
33.0%
19.0%
10.6%
8.1%
11.6%
44.8%
43.5%
51.6%
27.4%
10.5%
13.0%
7.7%
5.3%
68.3%
58.9%
66.5%
41.6%
25.0%
11.5%
10.3%
18.1%
64.7%
59.6%
60.8%
45.1%
24.0%
16.5%
17.6%
17.3%
74.5%
68.8%
67.0%
54.7%
30.6%
24.6%
11.2%
28.6%
Newspaper or magazines
23.4%
5.3%
4.5%
4.2%
7.7%
10.3%
Social networking
Online communities
19.8%
19.3%
3.9%
4.8%
5.8%
10.5%
4.6%
4.3%
5.9%
8.7%
5.6%
11.6%
Photo/video sharing sites
18.7%
2.9%
3.6%
3.2%
4.9%
5.0%
Personal blogs
13.3%
4.8%
5.3%
3.2%
5.6%
4.8%
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Mixed
II
Mixed
III
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12. Variation in Online Travel Planning
Activities by American Travel Group
Super
Planner
Request printed
materials/brochures
Print out travel
information/online brochures
Watch videos
Print out coupons
Read travel-related blogs
Look at comments/materials other
travellers have posted
Use interactive calendar of events
Use interactive trip planners to
create personal travel plans
Download videos
Use live chat to talk with travel
experts
Listen to travel-related audio files
Does Not
Bother
Me
Efficient
Planner
Mixed
Mixed II
I
Mixed
III
53.2%
29.3%
23.3%
27.3%
41.3%
52.2%
52.2%
35.7%
31.4%
40.3%
46.6%
57.1%
48.9%
48.1%
42.1%
11.9%
20.9%
12.1%
13.5%
26.0%
15.2%
15.8%
25.5%
19.1%
19.5%
28.5%
20.3%
23.1%
36.4%
26.8%
35.8%
24.1%
13.5%
40.1%
38.4%
50.2%
35.3%
13.9%
12.1%
19.4%
20.8%
29.7%
35.0%
11.9%
12.6%
15.6%
18.7%
26.2%
26.0%
3.1%
5.4%
2.4%
4.7%
4.6%
21.9%
2.9%
4.9%
2.5%
5.3%
4.7%
15.0%
2.1%
1.3%
1.6%
4.0%
4.0%
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13. Discussion
• Three “normative” strategies represent typical ways
people respond to technology within the travel context.
• Generally speaking, use of Internet has more significant
impact on travel plans than the other two areas.
• Seems travellers either take full advantage of
online/offline channels (super planners) or intentionally
reduce their use of these channels because they have
already “figured out” what to look for (efficient planners).
• Once a channel is built into one’s media repertoire, its use
in the future will remain stable.
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14. Conclusions and Future Research
• This paper paints a broad picture of how technology could
“drive” people to develop certain preferences and even
habits of use.
• Further analyses need to be done to examine other
variables such as demographics that distinguish these user
sectors.
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