SEARCH COST REDUCTION INCREASES VARIATION IN HOTELS OCCUPANCY RATE: A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

This study explores how direct online booking affects the variation in hotel bed-places occupancy rate between peak and off-peak periods, thereby contributing to three strands of literature, respectively the determinants of seasonality, the tourist information acquisition process and the impact of the internet on tourism. The empirical analysis, covering 18 countries over the 1997-2007 period, investigates the impact of an increase in the use of the internet by consumers on the seasonal variation in the occupancy rate. We find that internet actually increases the variation in occupancy. We contribute to reduce the lack of a theoretical framework in this field by developing a formal model to illustrate why and how the reduction in search cost entailed by the use of the internet can indeed lead to a higher seasonality.