الفهرس 
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Abstract
During the past decade, the Internet has established itself as a powerful
medium that has revolutionized the way people do business. Also it has
presented marketers with new avenues to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of communication, and new approaches for the acquisition
and retention of customers. One aspect of these approaches is the
phenomenon of online interpersonal influence. Research has widely
demonstrated that personal sources of information like EWOM are more
influential than traditional advertising. The potential impact of others’
opinions has dramatically increased over the time with the development
of the internet channels. Since the hospitality and tourism products and
services contain more interpersonal interaction that needs to be
experienced by consumers, the influence of EWOM in hospitality
industry is more significant than in other industries. However, very little
is known about the impact of EWOM on customer purchasing decision
and what makes certain opinions more influential than other.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between EWOM
and hotels’ customer purchasing decision and to investigate the
determinants of electronic word of mouth influence on hotel customer
purchasing decision. The methodology undertaken in this study is
quantitative in nature and with the use of questionnaires to collect the
data from study sample. The results show that the influence of EWOM
depends on source credibility, valence, and volume of information
obtained from EWOM. Also we find that there is a relationship between
receiver characteristics like receiver expertise and EWOM influence. The
results further indicate that the type of website and type of the product
which EWOM are about has a significant impact on EWOM influence.
The findings of the study provide information to managers and marketers
from hotels as to why there is a necessity to pay close attention to what
being said about them via EWOM and also why it is necessary to manage
their online presence.
Keywords: electronic word of mouth, customer reviews, determinants of
influence, purchasing decision, hospitality