CONTINUANCE USAGE IN ONLINE TRAVEL PLATFORMS: THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP QUALITY

Abstract

The Internet has become a quick significant information and shopping resource, especially for the tourism sector. With the development of secure information systems, travel plan and booking have become increasingly dependent on technology. As a result, travel platforms today have a significant impact on tourists’ choices and experiences. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study examines the factors influencing consumers’ continuance use intention toward travel-related purchase platforms. Specifically, it aims to investigate on how platform features affect relationship quality and continuance use. Data was collected from users with prior experience using travel platforms through a structured questionnaire, employing purposive and convenience sampling methods. The analysis was conducted using AMOS software to test both direct and indirect effects. The findings reveal that informativeness and privacy & security significantly impact relationship quality but do not influence continuance use. In contrast, customer support affects continuance use but does not have a significant impact on relationship quality. Moreover, relationship quality has a mediating effect between travel platform attributes and the continued use intention. The findings provide insights for enhancing long-term user engagement on travel platforms and offer key theoretical and practical implications. This study contributes to the body of literature on online travel by enhancing the knowledge on the continued utilization of online travel websites based on relationship quality . The findings also provide platform developers and tourism stakeholders to formulate credible and user-friendly web-based travel platforms that will necessitate frequent usage and facilitate long term competitiveness.