Information Asymmetry, Quality and Prices in the Tourism Market

Although information asymmetry is an important problem for experience goods, particularly regarding the quality and price relationship, it seems to be neglected in previous research. Since this is a particular problem in tourism, the book examines the relationship between information asymmetry, quality and prices in the tourism market by providing a new theoretical framework which integrates information asymmetry and hedonic pricing. It develops an extended hedonic model for the holiday hotels sector, including hotel attributes, tourists'' characteristics and asymmetric information measures. This model is applied empirically to Albania using data from sample surveys of hotels and tourists designed explicitly for this purpose, but which also provides the first detailed investigation into this sector in Albania. The results highlight the importance of the additional variables of tourists'' characteristics and the asymmetric information included in the model. The implications of the findings are explored for economics and tourism researchers, policy makers, public authorities, hotel managers and tourists.