The antecedent role of online satisfaction, perceived risk online, and perceived website usability on the affect towards travel destinations

Tourists nowadays rely predominantly on the Internet for their travel decision-making and for purchasing travel products. Given this, websites have become the most important medium to induce positive affect towards a destination, through safe and satisfactory online experiences. However, some travelers are still reluctant to purchase travel products online due to perceived risk. The aim of this study is to explore whether consumer satisfaction during online browsing, consumer risk perception online, and perceived usability of the travel website can predict consumers' affect towards a travel destination. A website promoting a fictional travel destination was used for data-collection purposes. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity and reliability of user satisfaction, perceived risk online, perceived website usability, and affect towards a travel destination, while a regression model was employed to explore the predictive power of these constructs on users' emotional response towards the target destination displayed on the website. Results show that a higher level of consumer satisfaction with the online browsing experience and greater perceived website usability generate positive affect towards a travel destination. In the conclusions section, the practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to destination marketing and branding.