Research On Internet Tourism Information Search Behavior Based On Gender Difference

With the development of information technology, mobile Internet applicationshave become more widely. The growth of the number of Intenret users help to build agood information circulation environment for the effective spread of touirsminofrmation. In addition, the Intenret features such as large capacity, low cost and easyto search have greatly changed the search channels of touirsts. Gender differences intravel behavior of motivation，requirements and perceived risk cause the influence ofonline travel information scarch behavior between males and females. Therefore,from a gender perspective to analyze the characteristics and preferences of onlinetravel information search behavior，helps the tourism destination and companies graspthe information needs of tourists. Also, provide the beneficial reference frommarketing and website function optimization to improving the marketing benefits ofthe travel website.First of all, define the research perspectives and purpose of this paper. Second,discriminate the related concepts of information search, such as information needs,information behavior and information search behavior. Besides，on the basis of theinformation search behavior theory and the research results of consumer onlineinformation search, this research divide the tourism information search behavior intothree stages, including early search stage, middle search stage and late search stage.After that, through the empirical research by tourists to Shanghai, the paper use theone-way Analysis of Vairance (ANOVA) test, Pearson chi-square test and othermultivariate statistical methods to analysis the online travel information searchbehavior. The main conclusions are as follows:Firstly, in the early online travel information search stage, females reserve andactually spent more time than males on searching online travel information. On theinformation searching and decision process before traveling, males prefer toundertake the role of primary searcher and decision maker. Secondly, in the middle online travel information search stage, females prefer theinformation provided by the professional travel website. Moreover, after dividing theinformation search function of the travel website and the information search type ofthe tourists，this research finds that females pay more attention to the travel websitefunctionality. Practical travel information like travel tips and extended travelinformation like leisure shopping have more attraction on females. On the contrary,males pay more attention to the ancillary travel information like local map.Thirdly, in the late online travel information search stage, females feel morecredible of online travel information than males. Also females have higher，participation on booking online tourism products. However, female touriststravelinformation feedback rate is slightly lower than the male tourists.Based on the confirmation of assumptions, the research analysis the internalfactors such as personality differences, cognitive differences, interest preference andthe external factors such as team composition, search cost, perceived risk of theprimary cause for the gender differences oil online travel information search behavior.After all, this paper constructs a four elements travel website marketing system. Fromthe aspect of information resources, information service, customer relations and brandequity, the paper propose speciifc and practical suggestions. Finally, points out thelimitations and innovation of this research. In addition, look forward to the futureresearch directions.