THE EFFECT OF REVIEWER ORIGIN ON BOOKING INTENTIONS IN TOURISM INDUSTRY: THE MODERATING ROLE OF REVIEW VALENCE

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of reviewers’ origin on the consumers’ intentions for booking a room ina hotel by taking into consideration the possible moderating effect of review valence. An experimental design isimplemented and the manipulated experimental conditions are identified as the reviewers’ origin (Home Rev ,Host Rev , Uni Rev ,) and the review content (negative, positive and mixed). Findings of the study confirm thestatistically significant relationship between review content and booking intentions. Positive and mixed contentlead to higher booking intentions, when compared to negative content. However, exposure to pure positive reviewsgenerates lower levels of booking intentions than mixed reviews containing both positive and negative reviews.The results also indicate that reviews of local customers (Home Rev ) generate higher booking intentions comparedto reviews generated by international (Host Rev ,) and unidentified customers (Uni Rev ,). The relative differential effectof local reviewers on booking intentions is moderated by different levels of review valence.