Revisiting “Disintermediation” in Travel Product Distribution of Airline Industry in Mobile Technology Era

Authors

  • Yu Fai Chan School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Rob Law School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Jing Ma School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Keywords:

Disintermediation, Mobile Internet technology, Airline Industry

Abstract

Disintermediation, which refers to dealing with customers directly through the e-booking platform, has been gradually embraced by travel product suppliers in recent years to avoid high distribution costs of the intermediaries. Additionally, the ever-increasing number of mobile users has encouraged suppliers to develop mobile-friendly websites to satisfy the needs of this growing sector. However, in the previous research, disintermediation has only been studied in the desktop technology context, while the impact of disintermediation in the mobile technology era still remains largely unknown. This study aims at filling this gap by revisiting the topic of disintermediation in the mobile technology context. 502 travellers from Hong Kong with Internet air ticket purchase experience participated in this study.

Author Biographies

Yu Fai Chan, School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. Yu Fai Chan is a Regional Sales Manager – Greater China of Travelport. Dr. Chan has extensive experience with the airline industry and has research interests in airfare reservation and management.

Rob Law, School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. Rob Law is a full professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on Information Technology, Internet and E-Commerce, Modelling and Forecasting, Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering in the context of tourism.

Jing Ma, School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Miss Jing Ma is an undergraduate studying Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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Published

2020-01-01

How to Cite

Chan, Y. F., Law, R. and Ma, J. (2020) “Revisiting ‘Disintermediation’ in Travel Product Distribution of Airline Industry in Mobile Technology Era”, e-Review of Tourism Research, 17(5). Available at: https://ertr-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/ertr/article/view/562 (Accessed: 16 April 2024).

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 5 (2020)

Section

Late Breaking Results

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