Modern consumers are nowadays finding it increasingly difficult to make purchasing decisions due to the overwhelming amount of information and the wide range of available products on the market. In the past, they relied on word-of-mouth to aid their decision-making, but today, they increasingly turn to electronic word-of-mouth. This type of informal communication about products is particularly important in the field of tourism, where the intangible nature of the product leads consumers to experience higher perceived risk and uncertainty when making a purchase. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the influence of online travel reviews on consumers’ intention to book a hotel. Through the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which distinguishes between two routes of consumer processing of persuasive messages, we examined the influence of selected factors from both routes on the adoption of online review information and the influence of information adoption on booking intention. The results of the study showed that hotel ranking (peripheral route, low elaboration) is the strongest predictor of online review information adoption, whereas the relevance and added value of the information (central route, high elaboration) are weaker, but still significant predictor. This implies that consumers favor informational shortcuts over online review content. Furthermore, consumers’ information adoption proved to be a moderately strong influence on their booking intention. These findings indicate that not all travelers are equally motivated or capable of processing online travel reviews, but information adoption leads to a positive intention to book a hotel.
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