Traveler preferences from online reviews: Role of travel goals, class and culture

Abstract

Along with being critical performance indicators as well as a rich source of information for potential customers, the overall rating and recommendation behavior also work as a crucial information source for managers of airlines for customer segmentation, service design, and post-purchase evaluation management. In this study, we explore how customer preferences, behavior and post-purchase evaluations differ for travelers depending on their respective travel goals, travel class, and the culture of their native country. Based on the frameworks of the construal level theory and expectation disconfirmation theory, we provide a psychological explanation of why specific service attributes, categorized in process-outcome and tangible—intangible dimensions, get higher importance than others for a particular set of customers. We analyzed consumer review data of 28,341 reviews for 345 airlines by customers from 132 countries. The results yielded critical theoretical contributions to extant literature on airline evaluations and recommendations, construal levels, airline customer segmentation, etc. Moreover, the results also helped managers of an airline to package design, segment customers, enhance targeted communication, and customer relationship management overall. The limitations and future scope of the study have also been discussed.