The Effect of E-tourism on the Purchase of Tourism Services and its Conformity with the Behavior of Iranian Tourists

Tourism will soon become the largest service industry in the world with the help of IT. Social networking platforms, which have become prevalent via mobile data, are valuable tools that contribute to the information and telecommunication technology (ICT). These platforms, which provide interactions and exchanges of various contents among the users, have developed new lifestyles and behavioral models among the tourists. Marketers must enjoy the online social networks and e-tourism to increase their competitiveness, market share, and the generated profit by providing the tourists with some services tailored to their demands. Upon reviewing 100 relevant qualitative and quantitative studies, we used an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach to present a model with five primary themes, in order of priority: a major environment, managerial factors, individual factors, group factors, and marketing factors. Through these factors, social networks affected tourists’ behaviors. The model was then tested on Iranian tourists’ behaviors using qualitative and quantitative statistical methods. Results could be used by virtually all marketers and activists in the tourism industry.