Reinvestigating repurchase intentions for travel apps: a comparison of China's various tiers of cities

Abstract

The intense competition amongst travel apps, regardless of their popularity, has made repurchase intention a critical financial challenge for travel providers. By combining the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework and the New Economic Geography (NEG) theory, this research examined how city tier disparities influence the experiential features of travel apps and user repurchase intentions. Survey data was acquired from 739 travel app users in China. The findings indicate that a set of context-based experiential features significantly influences utilitarian and hedonic values, and consequently leading to a notable increase in repurchase intentions. In addition, the outcomes of a multigroup analysis revealed that China’s users located in tier 1 city (i.e. Beijing) and tier 3 city (i.e. Kunming) had distinct effects on the hypothesised relationships. Theoretically, the research provides extensive implications to information systems and tourism literatures; whilst offering some actionable insights to travel practitioners.