Backpacker Internet Information Search Behavior: A Case Study of University Students in China

Internet has become a new approach for tourists to search information about attractions and tourism destination before making a purchase decision. However, it is difficult for tourists to collect every piece of information available online. The purpose of this study is to discuss how backpackers search for information by the Internet. After Analysis on 479 valid samples with 17 items about the risk and benefit of Internet information search and tourism surveyed in five universities located in Changsha city, the Capital of Hunan Province, China, the finding shows that respondents are divided into four groups after cluster analysis was applied on the perceived benefit and risk of backpacking. The name of the four groups is ¿high-benefit low-risk¿, ¿high-benefit high-risk¿, ¿low-benefit low-risk¿ and ¿low-benefit high-risk¿. According to a chi-square test, the groups display significant difference in their information search behavior on the Internet.