Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism: a review and journal preferences
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
ISSN: 0959-6119
Article publication date: 12 October 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a progress review of published Internet marketing research within the top eight hospitality and tourism journals and to provide suggestions on future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected 331 Internet marketing-related articles published in the top eight hospitality and tourism journals during the period of 1996-2013. Using content analysis, the study analyzed and discussed research topics, research methods and industry sectors of selected articles. The study period was broken into three sub-periods and used correspondence analysis (CA) to examine the significant changes of topical areas over time. A follow-up CA was conducted to compare the topical and methodological preferences of the selected eight journals.
Findings
In all, 5-category and 27-subcategory classifications of research topics were identified in the study. The two-dimensional perceptual map indicates that Internet marketing research in the hospitality and tourism fields experienced introduction, growth and maturity stages. The research focus changed from business perspective to customer perspective and then to both business and customer perspectives. The eight top hospitality and tourism journals were grouped into four journal sets that share similar article characteristics and preferences.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the sample size, the classifications and trends generated in this study may not be generalized to all Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism disciplines. The process of identifying topic and method categories might be biased, especially in identifying new topics. Future research may apply CA method in literature review studies on other research topics.
Practical implications
The study analyzed published research in Internet marketing in the hospitality and tourism fields and provided topical and methodological recommendations to academia for future research. This study may also give hospitality managers new insights into Internet marketing applications in the industry.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few attempts to provide a comprehensive review of Internet marketing research in the hospitality and tourism fields. This study uses CA in literature review study, opening up a new way to easily analyze and visually display the literature trends. This study also creatively compared the publication preferences among eight top-tier hospitality and tourism journals using correspondence analysis.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would also like to express our great appreciation to Dr Seyhmus Baloglu for his valuable and constructive suggestions to this research work. This research was partially supported by the Caesars Foundation.
Citation
Leung, X.Y., Xue, L. and Bai, B. (2015), "Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism: a review and journal preferences", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 1556-1572. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2014-0268
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited