Impact of online WOM on destination trust and intention to travel: A medical tourism perspective

The empirical results suggest that: online WOM positively influences destination trust and intention to travel; destination trust positively influences intention toTravel; rising income strengthens the relationship between online WOM and intention-to-travel; and rising income weakens the relationship with destination trust.

Abstract

Electronic word-of-mouth (WOM), also known as eWOM, is one of the most influential sources of information on the web. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of online WOM on destination trust and intention to travel in the medical tourism sector. In addition, the paper examines the moderating effect of income on the researched variables. Structural equation modeling is applied to examine the interplay between the proposed variables, using a sample of 216 respondents. The empirical results suggest that: online WOM positively influences destination trust and intention to travel; destination trust positively influences intention to travel; rising income strengthens the relationship between online WOM and intention to travel; and rising income weakens the relationship between destination trust and intention to travel. Implications and future research directions are discussed. • Examines the impact of online word of mouth (WOM) in the medical tourism sector. • Online WOM positively influences destination trust and intention to travel. • Destination trust positively influences intention to travel. • Rising income strengthens the relationship between online WOM and intention to travel. • Rising income weakens the relationship between destination trust and intention to travel.