Defining High-Quality Answers on a Chinese Tourism Q&A Platform in Terms of Information Needs

Lei Li, Xue Song, Shujun Liu and Kun Huang
Additional contact information
Lei Li: Department of Information Management, School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xue Song: School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Shujun Liu: Department of Information Management, School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Kun Huang: Department of Information Management, School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-21

Abstract: Travel Question and Answer (Q&A) platforms are widely used by travelers to exchange information online. This paper examined one such platform, Ctrip Q&A , to better understand the features of high-quality answers. The questions were first categorized into four types of information required by tourists (knowledge, efficiency, risk, and hedonic types) and then subdivided into more concrete elements, such as accommodation, food, and climate. The characteristics of high-quality answers on the platform were identified and a regression analysis was conducted to determine their importance. The study found that negative emotional expressions negatively impacted the quality of answers while the usefulness, richness, and amount of information had a positive effect. The usefulness of the answer content and quantity of information consistently predicted high-quality answers, whereas richness and conciseness were inconsistently related. Finally, the characteristics of high-quality answers to questions about different elements of tourism in the same category of tourist information varied significantly. This study may help travelers select and provide high-quality answers on tourism Q&A platforms. It may also assist platform operators in optimizing the features of their platforms, thereby improving user satisfaction and overall quality.

Keywords: answer quality; quality evaluation; high-quality tourism answers; tourism Q&A platforms; social Q&A; tourism information needs; Ctrip Q&A; Chinese tourism Q&A; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13884/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13884/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13884-:d:703490

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().