Measurement of e-service quality: An empirical study on online travel service

Information communication technologies (ICTs) have significantly revolutionized travel industry in the last decade. With an increasing number of travel companies participating in the Internet market, low price has become a minimum qualification to compete in the Internet market. As a result, e-service quality is becoming even more critical for companies to retain and attract customers in the digital age. This study focuses on e-service quality dimensions in the Internet market with an empirical study on online travel service. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to evaluate e-service quality from the perspectives of both online companies and customers, which provides fresh insight into the dimensions of e-service quality. The results in this study indicate that trust from the perspective of customer and ease of use from the perspective of online company are the most critical and important facets in customers’ perception of online travel service quality, while reliability, system availability and responsiveness have influence on customer’s perception of online travel service quality as well, but the influence is not so strong as that of trust and ease of use. Online travel service companies should pay attention to the facets of reliability, system availability and responsiveness while focusing on the facets of ease of use and trust in order to improve their online travel service quality to customers.