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Credibility Assessment Model of Travel Information Sources: An Exploratory Study on Travel Blogs

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2011

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Abstract

Understanding how information consumers assess the credibility of travel information sources is important since credibility is a receiver-based judgment and tourism products are experience goods. This exploratory study uses Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method to construct cause-effect non-recursive model to show how the various credibility dimensions and measurements are related and assessed. Two types of travel blogs: blogs set up by travel companies and blogs set up by frequent traveller writers (travel experts or “da ren”) are studied. This study shows that using non-recursive models is necessary and insightful. It also shows that there is no “one size fits all” answer as to how the credibility of a source is assessed. Travel blogs cannot be treated as a monolithic type. Credibility transfer, celebrity factor and whether a medium is well established can affect the process and outcome of credibility assessment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information & Electronic Commerce, Kainan University, Taiwan

    Wee-Kheng Tan & Yu-Chung Chang

Authors
  1. Wee-Kheng Tan
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  2. Yu-Chung Chang
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Rob Law

  2. European Tourism Research Inst. (ETOUR), Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden

    Matthias Fuchs

  3. Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

    Francesco Ricci

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Tan, WK., Chang, YC. (2011). Credibility Assessment Model of Travel Information Sources: An Exploratory Study on Travel Blogs. In: Law, R., Fuchs, M., Ricci, F. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2011. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0503-0_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0503-0_37

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-0502-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-0503-0

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