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Insights into Online Reviews of Hotel Service Attributes: A Cross-National Study of Selected Countries in Africa

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018

Abstract

Online travel reviews are paramount to trip planning because they help consumers’ form images of destinations. Despite ample studies on hotel service attributes, knowledge is scarce regarding culturally nuanced attributes, including security perceptions. This study examines consumers’ perceptions of service attributes and security/safety concerns of hotels in Africa. Data were extracted from three hotel categories (3, 4, and 5-stars), which were based on TripAdvisor rankings from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. A hybrid analysis revealed that hotel service attributes and security/safety are cardinal evaluation criteria for visitors to Africa. Additionally, our study reveals that most negative reviews were from 5-star hotels and Egypt received more positive reviews in all the service attributes than other countries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Dandison Ukpabi & Heikki Karjaluoto

  2. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Sunday Olaleye

  3. University of Greenwich, Greenwich, UK

    Emmanuel Mogaji

Authors
  1. Dandison Ukpabi
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  2. Sunday Olaleye
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  3. Emmanuel Mogaji
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  4. Heikki Karjaluoto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dandison Ukpabi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

    Brigitte Stangl

  2. Business School, Centre for Tourism Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Juho Pesonen

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Ukpabi, D., Olaleye, S., Mogaji, E., Karjaluoto, H. (2018). Insights into Online Reviews of Hotel Service Attributes: A Cross-National Study of Selected Countries in Africa. In: Stangl, B., Pesonen, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_19

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