- Web 2.0, Social Networking, Social Networks, Mobile Communications, Data Mining, Usability, and 29 moreUser interfaces, HCI, Accessibility, Cognitive Psychology, Metadata, Semantic Web, Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Identity, Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Business Administration, Economics, Entrepreneurship, European Union, Human Computer Interaction, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Information Technology, Social Media, Information Systems, Tourism Studies, Gamification, Gamification in Education, Environmental Preservation through Tourism, Sociology of Tourism, Tourism Planning, Green Hotels, Etourism, Sustainable Tourism, and Eco-Tourismedit
Vaccination is the most cost-effective way to maintain population health. However, it can only be effective if widespread acceptance is held. The efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines depends on their favor. When countries start to vaccinate... more
Vaccination is the most cost-effective way to maintain population health. However, it can only be effective if widespread acceptance is held. The efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines depends on their favor. When countries start to vaccinate their citizens, there is a certain level of skepticism about the effectiveness of the vaccines. The hesitancy study on vaccines has gained momentum following the pandemic. However, few studies have examined the link between the psychological and sociodemographic factors influencing the fit. This paper proposes integrating the concepts of the information systems success and stimulus–organism–response into a cognitive fit theory framework to explore the integration of psychological and sociodemographic factors in the receivers’ reactions (n = 1510). This study analyses the factors that influence the hesitancy of vaccines and the public’s refusal in Asia and Europe. Receivers’ reactions were assessed to various stimuli and we explored the link between psyc...
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Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has brought revolutionary changes to the world, enabling businesses to create new experiences by combining virtual and physical worlds. As the use of GAI grows along with the Metaverse, it is... more
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has brought revolutionary changes to the world, enabling businesses to create new experiences by combining virtual and physical worlds. As the use of GAI grows along with the Metaverse, it is explored by academics, researchers, and industry communities for its endless possibilities. From ChatGPT by OpenAI to Bard AI by Google, GAI is a leading technology in physical and virtual business platforms. This paper focuses on GAI’s economic and societal impact and the challenges it poses. Businesses must rethink their operations and strategies to create hybrid physical and virtual experiences using GAI. This study proposes a framework that can help business managers develop effective strategies to enhance their operations. It analyzes the initial applications of GAI in multiple sectors to promote the development of future customer solutions and explores how GAI can help businesses create new value propositions and experiences for their customers, an...
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Traveling and tourism are now an essential part of people’s life and have a big influence on society [...]
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The 2022–2023 winter period is alleged to be one of the toughest since World War II with respect to energy, especially electricity, natural gas and oil. The paper investigates the public discussions on Twitter in five widely spoken... more
The 2022–2023 winter period is alleged to be one of the toughest since World War II with respect to energy, especially electricity, natural gas and oil. The paper investigates the public discussions on Twitter in five widely spoken European languages and English. Networks of users are formed in order to locate possible important nodes that control the distribution of information. The networks are rather sparse and do not belong to the general class of ‘small worlds’. The communities of users seem to gather around one user; however, users also interact with others within the groups. Regarding the users’ sentiments, the negatives are definitely higher than the positive ones. Sentiments appear to be stable in their scores during the examined period and for each language; fear and sadness are dominant among them. Energy prices are frequently discussed in all languages, along with major political events. Findings may help governments to better understand public views and develop an effec...
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Blockchain and immersive technology are the pioneers in bringing digitalization to tourism, and researchers worldwide are exploring many facets of these techniques. This paper analyzes the various aspects of blockchain technology and its... more
Blockchain and immersive technology are the pioneers in bringing digitalization to tourism, and researchers worldwide are exploring many facets of these techniques. This paper analyzes the various aspects of blockchain technology and its potential use in tourism. We explore high-frequency keywords, perform network analysis of relevant publications to analyze patterns, and introduce machine learning techniques to facilitate systematic reviews. We focused on 94 publications from Web Science that dealt with blockchain implementation in tourism from 2017 to 2022. We used Vosviewer for network analysis and artificial intelligence models with the help of machine learning tools to predict the relevance of the work. Many reviewed articles mainly deal with blockchain in tourism and related terms such as smart tourism and crypto tourism. This study is the first attempt to use text analysis to improve the topic modeling of blockchain in tourism. It comprehensively analyzes the technology’s pot...
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The ongoing financial crisis in Greece has significant negative impact on almost all aspects of socio-economic life. The paper aims at investigating the impact of the financial crisis on students studying at the Technological Educational... more
The ongoing financial crisis in Greece has significant negative impact on almost all aspects of socio-economic life. The paper aims at investigating the impact of the financial crisis on students studying at the Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia **(TEICM), Greece. A research study was conducted and the results revealed the following: on the one hand, increased effect of the financial crisis on a) students' life, in general, and b) students' decision to acquire higher qualifications than the Bachelor's degree from TEICM, and, on the other hand, moderate effect of the financial crisis on issues regarding i) university studies, and ii) students' career prospects.
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Selection of hotel is of high priority and significance for tourists and entails a complicated decision-making process. The paper aims at identifying the most significant hotel selection factors taken into account by Greek customers. An... more
Selection of hotel is of high priority and significance for tourists and entails a complicated decision-making process. The paper aims at identifying the most significant hotel selection factors taken into account by Greek customers. An empirical research study was conducted using an online survey. Ten factors identified by literature review included in the investigation. The findings indicate that Cleanliness is the most important factor in the selection of accommodation, followed by Price and Staff. Considering the priorities of tourists, hotel managers may design more effectively their segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy to ensure that their offerings match the needs and wants of their guests.
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Twitter offers tremendous opportunities for people to engage in discussion regarding the Oscars awards through information sharing, expressing opinions, disappointment or enthusiasm on movies, casts, and productions. Despite the huge... more
Twitter offers tremendous opportunities for people to engage in discussion regarding the Oscars awards through information sharing, expressing opinions, disappointment or enthusiasm on movies, casts, and productions. Despite the huge number of tweets generated and the notable excitement about the Oscars, there is a void in the literature about the dynamic interconnections of users interacting in Twitter. In this paper, we use social network analytic techniques to record and create networks of users discussing and interacting in Twitter around the search term 'Oscars'. We subsequently present and study the users' networks gaining insights regarding their clusterability in communities and some of their discussion topics. We also study the macroscopic structure of the users' network and prove that they belong to a class of networks bearing the scale-free topology. Finally, we create new networks based on the actual content of the tweets, based on word adjacencies and we proceed with a similar investigation on these semantic networks.
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One of the major roles of governments is to create a favorable business environment for fostering entrepreneurial activities, including good infrastructure and a culture that encourages the adoption of technologies. In such a policy... more
One of the major roles of governments is to create a favorable business environment for fostering entrepreneurial activities, including good infrastructure and a culture that encourages the adoption of technologies. In such a policy context, the Greek National Electronic Public Procurement System (ESIDIS) was developed. The use of ESIDIS is mandatory for the employees, and its success depends on users' satisfaction. The chapter investigates the factors influencing employees' satisfaction when using the system. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, perceived risk, and willingness to learn were investigated using empirical research. Structural equation modeling was used for the analysis of the data. Perceived usefulness has the most significant role in determining user satisfaction while risks importance is diminished when users understand the usefulness of the system for their job performance. Managers and policymakers should take these factors into consideration in or...
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Social media marketing is a connection between brands and consumers, offering a personal channel for user centered networking and social interaction. The research employs constructs adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model, integrates... more
Social media marketing is a connection between brands and consumers, offering a personal channel for user centered networking and social interaction. The research employs constructs adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model, integrates them with other constructs and investigates factors affecting Greek consumers’ acceptance of social media marketing in the hotel industry. The conceptual model is tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The study identifies six factors that directly or indirectly influence intention to perform Social Media Marketing Activities. These factors are: Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Permission Based Acceptance, Fear about social media marketing, Social media Use, and Attitudes towards marketing with social media. The model raises fundamental issues that hotel managers, decision-makers and social media specialists should take into account to increase customers’ intention to perform social media marketing activities, like booking, using social media applications.
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Social media marketing is a connection between brands and consumers, offering a personal channel for user centered networking and social interaction. The research employs constructs adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model, integrates... more
Social media marketing is a connection between brands and consumers, offering a personal channel for user centered networking and social interaction. The research employs constructs adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model, integrates them with other constructs and investigates factors affecting Greek consumers’ acceptance of social media marketing in the hotel industry. The conceptual model is tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The study identifies six factors that directly or indirectly influence intention to perform Social Media Marketing Activities. These factors are: Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Permission Based Acceptance, Fear about social media marketing, Social media Use, and Attitudes towards marketing with social media. The model raises fundamental issues that hotel managers, decision-makers and social media specialists should take into account to increase customers’ intention to perform social media marketing activities, like booking, using social media applications.
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Increasing numbers of museums use Twitter to attract visitors, engage effectively with them and facilitate the construction and strengthening of communities, where visitors are creating their own a...
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E-government in Greece lacks a customer-centric view in its implementation. Government is driving its development agenda and investment on electronic services without measuring what increases customers' willingness to adopt offered... more
E-government in Greece lacks a customer-centric view in its implementation. Government is driving its development agenda and investment on electronic services without measuring what increases customers' willingness to adopt offered services. The study has taken a lead in understanding the factors that affect e-government adoption by teachers in Greece. It uses constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the theoretical extension of the TAM (TAM2), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and integrates the constructs of perceived behavioral control, trust in e-government, perceived risk, personal innovativeness and awareness in a model. The validated model offers a starting point for the investigation of factors affecting the adoption of e-government services and can be extended by using domain-specific constructs to fit all Greek governmental organizations.
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Abstract. Supervised Work Experience (SWE) is an important part of most undergraduate programs in many universities world wide. The students of the Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece have to complete a six-month period of... more
Abstract. Supervised Work Experience (SWE) is an important part of most undergraduate programs in many universities world wide. The students of the Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece have to complete a six-month period of SWE. The paper reports findings from a survey addressed to companies, which offer SWE to students. The objective of the survey is to investigate the attitudes of business towards SWE, skills and knowledge development of students and to investigate companies' intention to employ students after ...
The level of interactivity is one of the most important design elements of commercial websites. The paper measures features interactivity, adopts a framework for measuring how consumers' prior expectations of interactivity of the web... more
The level of interactivity is one of the most important design elements of commercial websites. The paper measures features interactivity, adopts a framework for measuring how consumers' prior expectations of interactivity of the web differentiate from their perceptions of the interactivity for specific websites. Dimensions of differentiation between expected and perceived interactivity, are used to calculate the interactivity indices. Finally the paper searches for associations among features, expected and perceived ...
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Publikationsansicht. 39678891. Student satisfaction e qualità del servizio nelle università: un'analisi trasnazionale Italia-Grecia (2006). ...
The impact of political events on blog conversational patterns: two cases from Greece. K Zafiropoulos, V Vrana Quad. Del CAC 33, 77-85, 2009.
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The Cyprus Journal of Sciences Vol. 5, summer 2007 From the Editor Dear Readers, I acknowledge the worthy contribution of all the authors and friends of our Journal. Their commitment to the Journal has been expressed in variegated forms... more
The Cyprus Journal of Sciences Vol. 5, summer 2007 From the Editor Dear Readers, I acknowledge the worthy contribution of all the authors and friends of our Journal. Their commitment to the Journal has been expressed in variegated forms throughout the development of this academic journal edition summer 2007. A special “thank you” is extended to the many academics who consciously serve in the Editorial Board. Appreciating the role of the Editorial Board for the successful development of our Journal, I am alert in continuously enriching the Editorial Board with academics ...
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The uniqueness of the web lies in its interactivity. Interactivity refers to the reciprocity provided by a site during the process of using it and it has been positioned conceptually as a process, a function and a perception. Implemented... more
The uniqueness of the web lies in its interactivity. Interactivity refers to the reciprocity provided by a site during the process of using it and it has been positioned conceptually as a process, a function and a perception. Implemented appropriately may affect the success or failure of commercial websites. Perceived interactivity should be based on consumers’ actual interactions with the stimulus and means that consumers have perceived control over information and communication flow. Expected interactivity is the extent of interactivity that a person expects to experience during a prospective interaction with a medium. The paper explores the differentiations between consumers’ expected interactivity towards the web, and their perceived interactivity of hotel websites. The top25 hotel websites are used for the analysis. A group of users rate both expected interactivity towards the web and perceived interactivity of the hotel websites. Recently developed scales of perceived interact...
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The Greek National Electronic Public Procurement System (ESIDIS) was developed with the aim to provide direct supplies of goods and services for the public administration more effectively and efficiently. The paper aims at investigating... more
The Greek National Electronic Public Procurement System (ESIDIS) was developed with the aim to provide direct supplies of goods and services for the public administration more effectively and efficiently. The paper aims at investigating the factors that influence users’ satisfaction from ESIDIS. Usefulness, ease-of-use, risk perception and willingness-to-learn were investigated. A structured questionnaire was used for empirical research. The regression model shows the existence of an important prediction model between three independent variables (usefulness, ease-of-use, and willingness-to-learn) and user satisfaction (dependent variable). The resulting regression model can be used to predict user satisfaction when interacting with ESIDIS.
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Instagram, the photo and video sharing social network platform, has enjoyed exponential growth since its launch. As Instagram’s popularity is growing fast, museums are moving quickly to integrate it into their marketing strategies,... more
Instagram, the photo and video sharing social network platform, has enjoyed exponential growth since its launch. As Instagram’s popularity is growing fast, museums are moving quickly to integrate it into their marketing strategies, provide information about exhibitions and objects, engage with audience and connect to other museums Instagram accounts. This paper aims at investing the interconnections among the Instagram accounts of the most visited museums worldwide. The analysis uses techniques from Social Network Analysis, including visualization algorithms and calculations of well-established metrics. The research shows that the network formed by the museum Instagram accounts is a scale-free small world network and reveals the most important nodes of the network. Depending or their marketing policies, other museums may follow the most important in the network, be aware of the information that flows in the network and also to be motivated and inspired by them.
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Introduction Web 2.0 Applications Blogs Analysis of Blogs Communications Patterns A Social Networking Theory Approach Exploring Blogs Communication Patterns Conclusion.
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Travel blogs are C2C online diaries publishing personal stories and experiences, providing thoughts, commentaries, suggestions, advice and details of trips. In tourism, one of the most important information sources for travel planning is... more
Travel blogs are C2C online diaries publishing personal stories and experiences, providing thoughts, commentaries, suggestions, advice and details of trips. In tourism, one of the most important information sources for travel planning is word of mouth. Travel blogs, a practiced form of word of mouth, play a crucial role in traveler’s purchase decision. The paper aims to provide a methodology to locate central groups of travelers and to locate travelers that link to them. The paper also finds connectivity patterns between these groups of travelers: patterns of central travelers and patterns of travelers linking to them. It uses TravelPod (www.travelpod.com), the most popular travel blog, and studies incoming links between travelers through “favorite travelers” list, which is equivalent to a blogroll. The paper records 563 travelers. By using Social Networking theory, Multidimensional Scaling, and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, the paper identifies central travelers’ groups. Their imp...
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This paper describes a quantitative method of measurement and evaluation of the information provided by hotel websites. It aims to measure the richness of specific and comprehensive information dimensions, which as a whole constitute the... more
This paper describes a quantitative method of measurement and evaluation of the information provided by hotel websites. It aims to measure the richness of specific and comprehensive information dimensions, which as a whole constitute the information services offered through the web. Data from an extended web search along with responses of hotel managers regarding the importance of the offered information services are used. A conceptual model that describes the hotel web sites information features is used in order to summarize the data and to present the overall information volume offered. The applied model combines seven data dimensions: facilities information, customer contact information, reservation and prices information, surrounding area information, management of the web site, company information and communication. Hotel managers’ perceptions are used to weight the relative importance of both the information services and the seven dimensions. We apply the model to Greek hotel ...
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Social media promote destination image as they allow users to create and share travel-related information. This study based on Social Network Analytics and influence indicators, investigates the levels of adoption and information... more
Social media promote destination image as they allow users to create and share travel-related information. This study based on Social Network Analytics and influence indicators, investigates the levels of adoption and information diffusion by Destination Management Organizations of European Countries in Facebook, and Twitter. It records the exact number of web 2.0 applications used by European countries DMO, and uses indicators of activity and influence on Facebook and Twitter. The study measures the level of information diffusion in relation to the electronic world of mouth dimension. A ranking of the countries on the basis of influence and activity is attempted.
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ICT, use of web and web 2.0 applications have deeply affected the way travel and tourism organizations distribute up-to-date content and their products in the marketplace. Traditional intermediaries, like travel agents, tour operators or... more
ICT, use of web and web 2.0 applications have deeply affected the way travel and tourism organizations distribute up-to-date content and their products in the marketplace. Traditional intermediaries, like travel agents, tour operators or even the Global Distribution Systems are progressively disappearing. Consumers undertake their entire tourism product search and booking on-line and therefore a wide range of new tourism e-Mediaries emerge, like single supplier provisions, web-based travel agencies, portals and hotel booking websites. Twitter allow hotel e-Mediaries to spread information and deals, to listen to customers, increase customer engagement, enhance customer satisfaction and obtain deeper insight into the customers’ experiences. Up to now, no research has been devoted at investigating the use of Twitter by hotel e-Mediaries. The paper fills this gap and records major hotel e-Mediaries websites and their Twitter accounts. Twitter performance indexes are used to describe the activity and performance of these accounts. Statistical analysis investigates if significant differentiations among hotel booking websites exists, regarding Twitter performance. It is investigated whether Twitter performance is in accordance with hotel booking websites’ web traffic data and analytics.
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The paper explores the mentions/replies networks of 56 ministries Twitter accounts in 17 EU countries to find out whether followers of governmental accounts form communities. By recording clustering coefficient, degree-skewness, average... more
The paper explores the mentions/replies networks of 56 ministries Twitter accounts in 17 EU countries to find out whether followers of governmental accounts form communities. By recording clustering coefficient, degree-skewness, average shortest path and assortativity, this research explores whether the properties of small-worlds, scale-free networks and homophily are present. These indices are then associated with Twitter performance of the accounts in order to distinguish which accounts present community properties to a higher degree. The m/r networks generally are not small-worlds. While the average shortest paths are small, skewness is moderate and clustering coefficients are zero. Assortativity is negative; less active followers mention/reply to more active followers, who serve as authorities in this context. Accounts of high Twitter performance also have higher skewness. However in general, the specific Twitter accounts almost uniformly are not associated with the formation of communities of followers, failing in this way to meet a desirable property of e-government adoption, consultation and discussion.
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Information offered through museums websites may serve as a means to expand their reach and increase the likelihood of a visit. The paper aims at investing quantity and type of information provided by Greek museum websites. The recorded... more
Information offered through museums websites may serve as a means to expand their reach and increase the likelihood of a visit. The paper aims at investing quantity and type of information provided by Greek museum websites. The recorded information features were divided in six dimensions according to their thematic similarity: Contact-Communication, Visit the museum, The museum, Education, Website features and Use of social media. Museums ‘thematics’ is taken into consideration. Greek museums make limited use of the web and do not take advantage of the possibilities offered. The majority of Greek museums use their websites like brochures as ‘Contact- Communication’ and ‘visit to the museum’ are the information richest dimensions. Museum ‘thematics’ have impact only on the information provided on ‘Content-Communication’ and ‘The museum’ dimensions. Impact of other managerial characteristics of the museums on provision of information features should be further investigated.
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Internet has tremendous potential for creating business opportunities. Travel agencies should take advantage of the Internet and refocus their business strategies to maintain their competitiveness in order to avoid being replaced. The... more
Internet has tremendous potential for creating business opportunities. Travel agencies should take advantage of the Internet and refocus their business strategies to maintain their competitiveness in order to avoid being replaced. The purpose of this study is to explore agents’ attitudes towards Internet applications and also to find out the current state of Internet use and the relative maturity of the websites among travel agencies in Greece. An on-line survey addressed to all tourism agencies which are members of Official Greek web directories, provides the attitudes of travel agents. The findings of the study indicate that Greek travel agencies consider Internet as a means to expand and complete online business, keep up with competition, and do more effective marketing. However security issues and lack of interpersonal communication are the main barriers for Internet adoption. Findings suggest that the current delay regarding full use of Internet adoption will probably last for ...
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During the time of the coronavirus, strict prevention policies, social distancing, and limited contact with others were enforced in Greece. As a result, Twitter and other social media became an important place of interaction, and... more
During the time of the coronavirus, strict prevention policies, social distancing, and limited contact with others were enforced in Greece. As a result, Twitter and other social media became an important place of interaction, and conversation became online. The aim of this study is to examine Twitter discussions around COVID-19 in Greece. Twitter was chosen because of the critical role it played during the global health crisis. Tweets were recorded over four time periods. NodeXL Pro was used to identify word pairs, create semantic networks, and analyze them. A lexicon-based sentiment analysis was also performed. The main topics of conversation were extracted. “New cases” are heavily discussed throughout, showing fear of transmission of the virus in the community. Mood analysis showed fluctuations in mood over time. Positive emotions weakened and negative emotions increased. Fear is the dominant sentiment. Timely knowledge of people’s sentiment can be valuable for government agencies...
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In this research article, we aim to study the proposed role of human–machine interactive (HMI) technologies, including both artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR)-enabled applications, for the post-COVID-19 revival of the... more
In this research article, we aim to study the proposed role of human–machine interactive (HMI) technologies, including both artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR)-enabled applications, for the post-COVID-19 revival of the already depleted tourism industry in Vietnam’s major tourist destination and business hub of Ho Chi Minh City. The researchers aim to gather practical knowledge regarding tourists’ intentions for such service enhancements, which may drive the sector to adopt a better conclusive growth pattern in post-COVID-19 times. In this study, we attempt to focus on travelers who look for paramount safety with the assurance of empathetic, personalized care in post-COVID-19 times. In the current study, the authors employ structural equation modeling to evaluate the intentions of tourists both structurally and empirically for destination tourism with data collected from tourists with previous exposure to various kinds of these devices. The study shows that human–ma...
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Today, social media have become a major trend, and consumers are engaging more and more in the social media platforms used by hotels. This does not mean that they book a hotel room via social media, as the booking process is a complex... more
Today, social media have become a major trend, and consumers are engaging more and more in the social media platforms used by hotels. This does not mean that they book a hotel room via social media, as the booking process is a complex one. The paper investigates the factors that affect users’ intention to book a hotel room using social media applications. The recent enforcement of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in California may have an impact on consumers’ behavior. To investigate this further, the study integrates into a model the following constructs: Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, trust in online hoteliers, social media use, and permission-based-acceptance. The survey was conducted on Greek users of social media. An online questionnaire was used for data collection. The conceptual model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The study identified four factors that dire...