Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 13 (9): 1172-1179, 2013 ISSN 1990-9233 © IDOSI Publications, 2013 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.13.9.820 Corresponding Author: Masoomeh Moharrer, Department of Computer Science, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada. Tel: +1-416-400 1606. 1172 Drivers of Customer Satisfaction in Online Tourism-The Case of European Countries Masoomeh Moharrer and Hooman Tahayori, Alireza Sadeghian 1,2 2 Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, 1 Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Colombo 40, 20133, Milan, Italy Department of Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada Abstract: Online tourism is one of the most successful e-commerce implementations (Turban et al., 2010) and therefore investigating its success factors has increasing importance. This paper investigates the determinants of tourist satisfaction in on-line tourism. To this end, a factor analysis was performed. The results confirmed the five factor model illustrated by the study of e-satisfaction with on-line retailing in the United States, conducted by Szymansky and Hise (2000). In addition, the unique effect of each determinant on e-satisfaction was investigated using regression analysis. Then a comparison was made among the results of this study and those of other two studies which had studied e-satisfaction in different contexts. This research yields insights for managers of e-tourism firms, by introducing the factors with the highest impact on tourism e-satisfaction. Results show that the effect of the determinants of e-satisfaction cannot be generalized to the whole e-retailing sector, since the importance and effect of each determinant on e-satisfaction can vary in different industries. Key words: Electronic satisfaction E-tourism E-business Service marketing INTRODUCTION [2]. In 2008, U.S. online travel sales increased 12 percent It is about fifty years that the first mainframe that U.S. online tourism sales reach $163 billion by 2012 computer was developed, thirty years since the personal [3-4]. computer was introduced and more than two decades E-tourism is generated when traditional travel agents, since the World Wide Web was launched and yet their tour operators, national tourist offices, airlines, car rental influences on daily operations is pervasive. It was in firms, hotels and other accommodation providers offer the mid-1990s when a flurry of internet service their services online. This enables the tourists to providers began offering dial-up access and schedule their trip online and hence provides a new way consequently e-services became widely available to mass of doing business for tourism service providers. Fast consumers [1]. Due to the continuous growth of internet communication, global accessibility and minimal costs are use, many tourism firms were motivated to offer their the immediate consequences of going online for tourism services on-line. Nowadays, being online is so important organizations. E-tourism benefits both tourists and that if a tourism service is not on the web, it may well be tourism organizations. Tourists can easily search for ignored by the millions of people who now have access to anything they require, obtain useful information and internet and expect every tourism service to have a can book their travel needs on-line. On the other comprehensive presence on the web. Using internet and hand, tourism firms can offer tourism services on-line information technology is increasingly becoming critical that can be sold directly to the customers and eliminate for the success of tourism and hospitality organizations the high rates of commissions of intermediaries. compare to 2007 and reached $105 billion [3]. It is expected