College Students’ Travel Information Behaviors

• Main Authors: CHEN, JOU-AN, 陳柔安
• Other Authors: CHANLIN, LIH-JUAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/b32839

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 圖書資訊學系碩士班 === 106 === The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' travel information behaviors, including their information needs, and information seeking and sharing behaviors. The subjects of the study were students from a comprehensive university, called Fu Jen Catholic University. A set of online questionnaire items was used for collecting students’ responses. The questionnaire items intended to gather respondents’ background information and their past experiences of travelling. In addition, a 5-point Likert scale was used to elicit students’ reactions to the response items listed in the questionnaire. The online survey lasted for one and a half months. In the study, a total of 210 valid online data were obtained at the end of the data collection. It was observed that the students used diverse travel information services. From the survey results of 210 data, the travel expenditure of students came from themselves (50.0%) or family members (47.1%). Students use websites that provide travel information services. The most often used official website is the domestic tourism bureau (e.g., Tourism Bureau, Taiwan) (48.1%). The most frequent use of commercial websites is booking websites (e.g., Agoda, Booking, Hotels, Airbnb) (65.7%). When seeking travel information, students more often use “Virtual access of various resources” (M = 3.69, SD = 1.17), “Travel apps (applications) on mobile devices” (M = 3.67, SD = 1.14), and “Relatives’ and friends’ recommendations’” (M = 3.50, SD = 1.06). Among 10 items for search and use behaviors, the top two ratings were: “After deciding places to visit for the trip, I am used to search for travel information from various resources for planning travel itineraries” (M = 4.28, SD = 0.71) and “I often access articles from different travel agencies or information shared by travel social media for obtaining further travelling information” (M = 4.25, SD = 0.75). Most students' travelled “1 - 5 times” in the past year (84.3%), and the most common type of travel is “domestic independent travel” (85.2%). Among 12 items of travel information needs, the top two ratings are “Transportation” (M = 4.37, SD = 0.91) and “Accommodation” (M = 4.22, SD = 0.91). Students’ purposes of seeking information are rated highest for “Ensuring the travel security and safety” (M = 4.34, SD = 0.77). Among five criteria for using the travel information, “Accuracy” was rated the highest (M = 4.47, SD = 0.69). When using the travel information, the encountered obstacle rated the highest by the students was “Information is outdated” (M = 3.72, SD = 1.00). They most often used “the past experience to cope with problems” (M = 3.81, SD = 0.85). Students’ sharing behaviors on social media are relatively infrequent (M < 3.5). The most frequent behavior is “to share my travelling experiences on social media through posting articles, photos, and videos” (M = 3.10, SD = 1.29). When sharing travelling information on social media, the students were concerned more about the item: “I was reluctant to share travel information on social media due to information accuracy concerns” (M = 3.45, SD = 1.11).