Customer segmentation and perception of service quality in digital tourism

Digital communication plays an essential role in shaping customer experience and satisfaction in tourism. This paper focuses on the perception of communication effectiveness and service quality in the context of digital tourism. The main objective is to analyse how selected forms of digital communication and service delivery affect customer perception and whether differences arise between customer segments based on digital literacy and gender. The research was conducted using a questionnaire survey among a sample of 437 respondents from the Slovak Republic. The collected data were statistically processed using the Mann-Whitney U test to verify the hypotheses regarding customer segmentation. The results confirmed that digital literacy significantly influences the perception of communication quality—digitally proficient customers perceive service communication more positively. In contrast, no statistically significant gender differences were found in service satisfaction, neither in product offerings nor in service processes. The findings highlight the importance of tailored digital communication strategies and the potential of more interactive and participative approaches in enhancing customer experience in digital tourism. From the point of view of exploratory behaviour, the exploratory information-seeking dimension turned out to be insignificant. However, the research showed that webroomers prefer exploratory acquisition. The differences between the purchasing channels in terms of other analysed factors also proved to be significant. In all cases, higher tendencies were identified for webrooming. The paper upholds the idea of integrating purchase channels and highlights the need to track the purchase journey of customers who interact with businesses through many different channels and touchpoints, both online and offline. The paper will serve marketers, as a better understanding of customers' purchasing behaviour will help businesses set up more relevant marketing and business strategies, thus improving their market position. Towards the end, the paper presents business recommendations and suggests possibilities for further research.