E-commerce in China: The case of travel

On-line customer research has been conducted for European and American markets by marketers and academics. Whilst e-Commerce and tourism develop rapidly in China, understanding of Chinese Internet travellers is required. This article investigates features of this on-line segment through a survey with 634 responses. It aims to establish segmental information and identify influential factors of eShopping adoption by Internet travellers in China. The key findings include that surveyed lookers who are in the age group of 31-40 and those who live in the Pearl River Delta are most likely to book travel on-line. Also, age, area of residence, type of travel website most visited, length of time using the Internet, self-efficacy, domain-specific innovativeness and perception of the Internet are influential factors of Chinese lookers becoming bookers. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.