ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING TRAVEL CONSUMER SATISFACTION AS REVEALED BY ONLINE COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS

<p><em>The objective of the present empirical study is to determine the factors influencing the tourism consumer satisfaction, as it results from the evaluations posted on virtual platforms. The communication platform chosen as study is the Romanian website Amfostacolo.ro. In this case, the travel consumer satisfaction is expressed by the score of the ratings posted on the virtual platform Amfostacolo.ro and the decision to recommend or not the unit / destination. Considering the peculiarities of the communication platform studied, the elements influencing the score indicating satisfaction there can be identified as components of tourism supply and the characteristics of the reviewer. Data processing has been carried out with ordinary least squares (OLS), structural equation modeling (confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis), cluster analisys and polytomous logistic regression.</em></p> <p><em>The results broadly confirm the hypotheses, namely that: the type of stay and the age of the reviewer influence the satisfaction of the consumer more than the destination and number of stars of the accommodation, the age group of the reviewer influences the destination yet it is uncertain about the influence of the variables related to the holiday (the type of stay and the number of stars of the accommodation), the meal service influences more than other attributes the consumer satisfaction and the recommendation of the reviewer is influenced by the characteristics related to his person and the holiday consumed.</em></p> <p><strong> </strong>