Does Negative Publicity Change Tourists’ Advocacy Intention on Online Hotel Websites? Searching for Answers from an Online Travel Agency Study

Travel virtual communities have reshaped trip planning and experience-sharing amid COVID-19. Postpandemic, information technology in tourism must adjust to changes in traveler behavior, including online booking trends and risk perceptions. Based on the online platform Trivago, the research objectives of this study seek to explore the relationships among electronic service quality, perceived severity of negative publicity, perceived risk, and consumers’ advocacy intention to embrace after the impact of Trivago’s negative publicity. Further, this study aims to explore the moderating effects of electronic service quality and mediating effects of perceived risk. This research collected a total of 468 valid responses and verified the hypothesis by regression analysis and Sobel test. The research results are summarized as follows: the perceived severity of negative publicity negatively affects advocacy intention and positively affects perceived risk, which also negatively affects advocacy intention. These effects are all moderated by e-service quality, which negatively affects perceived risk; perceived risk is the mediator between perceived severity of negative publicity and advocacy intention. The results enrich literature on online hotel websites, offering valuable insights into how managers can effectively use online travel agencies to enhance their online presence and increase revenue. Funding: This study was supported by a grant from the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [Grant 111-2410-H-227-009].