New digital tourism ecosystem: understanding the relationship between information sources and sharing economy platforms

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study resides in a better understanding of the relationship between the use of traditional operators, online travel agencies, such as Booking.com and Expedia, comparators, tour operators and traditional travel agencies, airlines, new non-tourist companies like Google and the use of sharing economy platforms to obtain information about a travel destination. Design/methodology/approach Applying an analysis to 13,243 tourists from 19 European countries, a binomial logit analysis was carried out with the latest version of the SPSS statistical analysis program. Findings The use of Expedia and Booking.com has a positive effect on the use of sharing economy platforms to obtain information about travel destinations. However, it can also be observed how the use of Google, Facebook, tour operators and travel agencies, airlines and Twitter can have a negative effect. Practical implications The study provides interesting recommendations for destinations to be able to design better marketing strategies which focus on cognitive components of the destination image in different information sources. Originality/value Tourists search for information that helps them make better decisions when it comes to choosing a travel destination and they do so using different channels that have evolved over time. The proliferation of internet platforms has transformed the way tourists search for information and consequently the way the secondary image of destination is formed. The sharing economy plays an important role in this new tourism ecosystem. These new business models, based on platforms, coexist with other traditional information sources, tour operators and travel agencies and airlines. However, previous studies have not inquired about the relationship between them all.