Online Hotel Reviews: Rating Symbols or Text… Text or Rating Symbols? That Is the Question!

Abstract

This study illustrates those determinants affecting the performance of crowdfunding in the tourism field through an empirical study. Drawing on a dataset of 1701 projects from an online global tourism crowdfunding website, this study identifies a series of factors that influence fundraising performance. This study indicates that the information quality and charity orientation of the projects are associated with the performance of tourism crowdfunding, and that social networks established by backers or pledgers are related to the success of tourism crowdfunding projects. In addition, we find that all-or-nothing projects with a smaller goal, a greater trip rating, and more backers will have a better fundraising performance. These results offer insights into the frontiers of tourism crowdfunding and shed light on the general ways for project creators to obtain more funds in their crowdfunding projects for travel.