The Impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM) on Consumers’ Purchasing Decision Evidence from Five-star Hotels in Egypt

Abstract

The website communication has a strong impact, which is later how to build their behavior and purchasing decisions, although other marketing means such as advertising may be important in forming the customer awareness, Electronic Word has become a more important and powerful role in changing customer perceptions and behavior towards a product or service. This study aims to explore the impact of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) on Consumers Purchasing Decision of five star Hotels in Greater Cairo. This study employed a self-administrated interview with the marketing department at a number of five star hotels. The study showed that there is a large percentage of investigated hotels agreed that the word of mouth has an effect on e-marketing in hotels because about of 91% of people read reviews online and are affected by it. Intruduction The Internet company has opened many channels of communication that were not available to customers before, so that the website communication has a strong impact, which is later how to build their behavior and purchasing decisions, Lopez, and Sicilia, (2014). Although other marketing means such as advertising may be important in forming the customer awareness, Electronic Word has become a more important and powerful role in changing customer perceptions and behavior towards a product or service (Wu, et al., 2014). The spoken word is defined as positive or negative feedback as a result of a service or product used by a consumer and left to another person Lin, et al., (2013). It is also known as a kind of personal communication about a product that reaches consumers through neighbors, friends, family members and colleagues (Zhang et al., 2013). The multiplicity and diversity of options offered by goods and services to the customer make him confused when choosing between them Albarq, (2014), which leads him to consult with the trust of relatives and acquaintances, friends and colleagues, it is a spontaneous conversation among consumers about products, services or technology (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). With the development of the means of communication the spoken word has taken a strong development to become also electronic, (Jo; et al., 2011). The spoken word is a form of spoken word communication by using Internet applications (Almana, and Mirza, 2013).