ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the significance of e-reviews in special-interest tourism, farm tourism or agro-tourism which comprises all tourism and recreation activities connected with farms. Nevertheless, studies focusing on international hotel chains could show that e-reviews have become trust worthy sources of information. The empirical findings reveal that promotion of agro-tourism should afford more consideration to e-reviews as the impact of third-party endorsement on consumption decision is particularly high among agro-tourists. For farm tourism operators this means that once online presence' is established, several advantages can be achieved. Not only customers but particularly niche-operators will benefit from the common knowledge base' created by Web 2.0 technologies: the established information base gives the company valuable customer feedback. Furthermore, the decision to let consumers review value-creation processes signals the company's willingness to reduce information asymmetries between supply and demand, thus, positively affecting its reputation.