Hotel experience and positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM)

The tourism industry, specially, hotel industry is dramatically influenced by electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM). This study aimed to test which hotel experiences motivate customers to engage in positive (e-WOM) where the benefits, convenience and environment are the antecedent of e-WOM communication. A questionnaire was designed to collect data. A total of 150 questionnaires were obtained and the proposed hypothesis were tested by using the Lisrel technique. The results of this study suggest that perceived convenience positively triggers customers to spread positive e-WOM, motivated by their desire to help the other travelers and helping the hotel company; environment affected positive WOM, motivated by the need to help the other travelers; incentives did not drive hotel customers toward e-WOM. The findings emphasize the importance of e-WOM in hotel industry and provide practical implications for the marketers to promote online marketing.