THE DECISION MAKING IN SELECTING ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES: AN APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS

The emergence of Internet-based distribution channels has created both opportunities for and challenges to the travel agencies. Based on the customer-value perspective, this study focused on exploring the relative weights of the nine proposed fundamental travel products from an Internet perspective. The study cohort comprised customers who had purchased room products from travel agencies websites, with data collected using a questionnaire survey. Customers were surveyed during a 3-month period at Taipei International Airport. Excluding useless questionnaires resulted in 131 respondents, corresponding to a response rate of 18.71%. We found that privacy, safety, and product quality were the three most important factors influencing customer purchases of room products on the Internet. The results of this study have some implications for travel agencies-companies will need to make a significant investment in website design of safety mechanism, and the greater the effort managers make to alleviate these concerns, the more likely it is that consumers will visit and buy products on their website.