Tourist Behaviour and Hotel Hospitality. An Exploratory Investigation on the Impact of the Internet

Internet and new technologies have deeply affected consumer purchasingbehaviour in many sectors, particularly in the touristic one.From the selection of the destination, through the travel and accommodationbooking phase, to the «coming back» phase, which often involvessharing the experience through social platforms and writing a review,the tourist product is increasingly influenced by the pervasivenessof the network.The paper presents some selected results of an exploratory researchaimed at investigating attitudes and behaviours of Italian tourists andtravellers in relation to hospitality (offering increasingly personalizedservices to meet an increasingly differentiated demand). Results focuson the impact of the Internet on: 1) knowledge of the accommodation;2) booking; 3) hotel choice (positive reviews); 4) hotel communicationstrategy (website); 5) liking of the room; 6) social activity of tourists;7) how hotels keep in touch after the stay.The research was carried out using a structured questionnaire,which was administered partly face to face, partly through the Limesurveyplatform, between 11/16/2017 and 01/07/2018. After a careful selection, 11,799 questionnaires have been analysed highlighting the keyrole of the web for hospitality management.