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The Impact of E-trust Services on Guests' Behavior Intention in Independent Hotels' Websites

Mohamed Ahmed Ali Ahmed

Hotel Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Minia University

Tarek Sayed Abdel Azim Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism

and Hotels, Minia University

Abstract The Internet may be the most important development of the last years for many independent hotels. Electronically generated sales are the only viable tools to compete with franchised hotels. Many independent hoteliers think that volume electronic sales are out of reach, too costly, and too complicated to implement. So, the purpose of this study is to identify the impact of E-trust services that presented by independent hotels' websites on their guests' behavior intention. The research was conducted by surveying 171 independent hotels' guests in Egypt. The findings revealed that security concerns and perceived usefulness contribute to predict behavior intention. No statistically significant differences between the respondents according to the nationality. There are statistically significant relationships, positive correlation between trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services, and behavioral intention of the sample. Key words: E-trust Services; Behavior Intention; Independent Hotels; Egypt

1. Introduction Internet brings new challenges and opportunities to organizations. It can increase the amount of transactions, improve efficiency, enhance customer service, reduce cost, and provide transparency.1-3 Organizations that adopt internet-based systems stand a better chance of achieving a competitive advantage by customization of products and services.4-5 The nature of E-commerce imposes a physical distance between consumers and the merchant. Hence, trust is important in E-commerce because of the less verifiable and less controllable business environment.6 The notion of trust as part of the on-line consumer experience encompasses both intangibles as well as tangible technological trust mediators such as secure information infrastructures, encryption, and communication protocols. Within consumer intangible trust formation both affective and rational dimensions are likely to influence consumer purchase decisions.7 The determinants of consumer trust might typically include site branding, task initiators, price and promotions. Specific signs of credibility such as a sites telephone number, physical address may also be perceived as trust signs.8 If the user has previously interacted with the business through a website or other means, these assurances will be based upon direct experience. In the absence of direct experience, users are influenced by the reputation and size of the business, recommendations of friends, published testimonials of other users, and advertising. In other words, while accessing E-commerce websites, consumers are looking for ‘good signs’ and ‘bad signs’ as a method to develop trust.6

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Hotel industry is one of those which are fully beneficial from the E-commerce, which fulfills the customer’s needs. Currently, hotel business introduces E-commerce to various kinds of work such as internet booking, hotel information providing in terms of location, type, room price and facilities, e-mail correspondence, and online payment.9 Few studies have examined online trust criteria between consumers and accommodation service providers. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a conceptualized model of the factors which may impinge on online trust represented in independent hotel's website.

2. Literature Review Trust appeared once with the humanity and the development of social interaction. Almost every aspect of a person life is based in one or another way in trust. Trust is central to all transactions, where our own actions are dependent on the actions of others.10-11 2.1. The Concept of Trust The concept of trust has been studied extensively in many disciplines including sociology, philosophy, economics, and marketing and recently in E-commerce, but each field has its own interpretation. Generally, researchers have difficulties in definition of this concept. Most often they define the concept of trust in a particular context.12,13 From linguistic point of view, in Oxford English reference dictionary, trust is defined as "firm belief in the reliability or truth or strength etc. of person or thing".14 Trust in sociology is "a relationship between people. It involves the suspension of disbelief that one person will have towards another person or idea. It especially involves having one person thinking that the other person or idea is benevolent, competent, good, or honest/true".15 One of the most accepted definitions of trust is “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party".16 Trust building is a cumulative process where the level of trust in the earlier stages affects the level of trust in the later stages. In this view there are many factors that impact the building of trust. These factors could be classified in two categories:11

• Pre-interactional factors: o Individual behavioral attributes: individual demographics, culture, past

experiences, propensity to trust, benevolence, credibility, competency, fairness, honesty, integrity, openness, and general intention to use E-services.

o Institutional attributes: organizational reputation, accreditation, innovativeness, and general perceived trustworthiness of the organization.

o Technology Attributes: interface design, public key encryption, and integrity.

• Interactional factors: o Service attributes: reliability, availability, quality, and usability o Transactional delivery attributes: usability, security, accuracy, privacy,

interactivity, and quality.

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o Information content attributes: completeness, accuracy, currency, and quality.

2.2. Security Different threats in E-commerce, like data transaction attacks and misuse of financial and personal information, generate security threats. Security is not merely about cryptography, but is about assessing the problems happening and developing safeguards to militate against these risks.17 Security is "an organized framework consisting of concepts, beliefs, principles, policies, procedures, techniques, and measures that are required in order to protect the individual system assets as well as the system as a whole against any deliberate or accidental threat".18 The security of the websites may significantly affect customer's purchasing behavior, whereas a possible perceived risk may increase a customer's intention to delay or avoid the decision of purchase.19 The security dimension deals with how a website proves to be trustworthy for its customers. Due to the lack of a physical entity and interpersonal contact while purchasing online, customers are especially concerned with the dealings safety.20 To reduce the perceived risks, online service providers try to establish trust through means such as encryption and firewalls.21 In addition to providing basic security requirements like authentication, authorization, confidentiality and integrity, the security infrastructure for web must also be able to support more advanced security features like dynamic delegation of access rights, single sign-on/sign-off, dynamic establishment of trust relationships among multiple domains, privacy and policy related security issues in federated environments etc.22 Consumers must be able to guarantee themselves that they are in fact doing business and sending private information with a real entity.23-24 The basic types of authentication are:25

� Something the user knows; for example a password chosen by the user or a PIN (personal identification number) assigned to the user.

� Something a user has, such as an identity card. � Something that is biologically part of the user, such as a fingerprint.

2.3. Privacy Many customers are hesitant to send credit card and other information over the internet, because this information may be passed to unauthorized third parties unless the customer gives permission.21,26-29 Privacy is a necessary concern in electronic commerce. It is difficult, if not impossible, to complete a transaction without revealing some personal data, billing information, or product preference. Users may be unwilling to provide this necessary information or even to browse online if they believe their privacy is invaded or threatened.1,30 In an E-commerce transaction, personal information about the consumer moves between sites to complete the transaction. This can make consumers feel their personal information is insecure when they shop online.6 So, the management of the privacy and security can determine the success or failure of critical E-business initiatives.15

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The organization should have transparent statements and procedures shown to all clients in a way that reflects organization accountability and responsibility such as privacy policy, compliance programs, operational procedures, readiness reviews, privacy audit, and training.1 There are many privacy puzzles as the following:31 1- Privacy-protecting technologies don't persuade people to sign up for websites. 2- Many commercial organizations are actively working to erode privacy. 3- Governments often decrease privacy in attempting to battle terrorism, or tax evasion, or to increase their political control. 4- Criminals invade privacy to make money by using other people's credit cards. 5- Employers monitor their employees to increase productivity. Small programmes known as "cookies", downloaded to the hard disks of computers used by netizens, can be used to trace a surfer's path through the internet and pass this information back to the website owner. Few websites that gather customer data tell their visitors what they gather and how they use it.32-33 Encryption is "the mutation of information in any form (text, video, and graphics) into a form readable only with a decryption key".34 The methods of data encryption are the following:35-36

• Symmetric key encryption: or single-key encryption features a single key to encrypt and decrypt information.

• Asymmetric key encryption: or public-key encryption requires two complementary keys to encrypt and decrypt information.

• Modern cryptography systems: which is a combination of both public-key and traditional symmetric cryptography.

2.4. Information Quality Information quality plays an important role in customers` satisfaction with internet shopping.37 In the travel and tourism industry, information dissemination is crucial in promoting destinations and places.38 Tourism is an information intensive business whose establishments rely on the communication with tourists to market their services and build customer relationships.39 Because of the nature of tourism products and services (e.g., intangibility, complexity, diversity, and interdependence), consumers are more keen than ever for product-related information in order to minimize their purchase risk and close the gap between their expectations and the actual travel experience.40 So, the information made available by the websites has been widely accepted as a key component of the perceived service quality.20 Information quality is divided into four categories with four sub-dimensions as follows:41

• Intrinsic information quality corresponds to accuracy, objectivity, believability and reputation of the information.

• Accessibility information quality corresponds to the accessibility, the security and ease of use of operations of the information.

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• Contextual information quality is constituted out of the relevance, the value added, the timeliness, the completeness and the amount of information.

• Representational information quality consists of the interpretability, the ease of understanding and the concise and consistent representation of information.

Information quality should help users to make decisions. 42-43 On the contrary outdated information on the website can decrease the clients trust and thus can be negative for hotel’s image. The consequence is that hotels nowadays redesign their sites on a constant basis in order to use their fullest potential.44

2.5. Ease of Use Much previous research has established that perceived ease of use is an important factor influencing user acceptance and usage behavior of information technologies.45 Technology acceptance model (TAM) focuses on two perceptions, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, to predict users' acceptance of new technology.46-47

Perceived ease of use is "the degree to which a person believes that would be free of effort".48 Perceived ease of use is the degree to which a user believes that the amount of effort needed to use a particular technology is free or low (e.g., easy to learn, easy to understand). Specific to electronic service, perceived ease of use consists of the following determinants: easy to read, using understandable terms, able to link to search for related information and easy to return to previous or jump to next page.43 Ease of use dimension contains three aspects: navigation; website access; transactional functions.20 Perceived ease of use is hypothesized as a predictor of perceived usefulness.49 The perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness appeared to be important determinants in the formation of perceived e-trust, which again influenced overall attitude.19 Perceived usability of a website has a significant influence, irrespective of how experienced consumers are.50

2.6. Responsiveness Response time is the most important factor in the development of the consumer’s beliefs regarding a specific web-site.51 Responsiveness is described as "helpful and willing service that responds to customer inquiries quickly". Clients expect online stores to respond to their inquiries in timely manner. On time and helpful response to customers` inquiries is found to affect client trust towards the online seller. The quick confirmation of the order has a positive effect on building trust.52 Internet provides new opportunities for companies to interact with customers. Interaction with customers is necessary to design customer-support information including updates on new products and services, as well as corporate developments which can be disseminated globally.49 Responsiveness includes helpfulness, friendliness, warmth, willingness, and openness.53

Response time is "the time it takes for the Web page to load in a user’s browser and also the time required completing subsequent transactions".54 During negotiation an assured messaging service has to be used by company to ensure confidentiality of dealings and to enhance accountability by keeping the sequence of exchanged messages.15

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2.7. Perceived usefulness Perceived usefulness is "the tendency of people to use or not use a technology to the extent they believe it will help them perform their job better".55Perceived usefulness is the primary requirement for mass market technology acceptance.56 Usefulness has been found to help determining the system usage and individual impact to be important in forming customer attitudes and satisfaction with an electronic commerce channel, to contribute to an individual’s intent to reuse a Web site and to impact an individual’s behavioral intention more strongly for an inexperienced user versus an experienced user.57 Clients preferred to evaluate their online shopping performance in terms of the associated benefits and costs, including the maximization of convenience and the minimization of transaction time.19 Reliability is the ability to perform the proposed service dependably and accurately. This includes such qualities as dependability, consistency, accuracy, and right first time.53 2.8. Behavioral Intention Behavioral intention is distinct from behavioral expectations and willingness. Intention describes a human’s plan to act out a given behavior; behavioral expectations describe how someone believe they will probably behave, While willingness describes their readiness to act should an opportunity present itself.58

Understanding the nature of trust depends on defining the relationship between dispositions, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. These distinctions are of great theoretical importance because multiple factors mediate the process of translating an attitude into a behavior.59 Customer behavioral intentions are signals of actual purchasing choice and thus are desirable to monitor.60 Trust is necessary not only to win new customers, but to keep them over time and motivate the repeat purchasing or consumption of the establishment's goods or services.50

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3. METHODOLOGY Few studies have examined perception of independent hotels' customers about E-trust services. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of what online trust criteria, independent hotels' consumers viewed as important before they make a purchase. This section describes the research methodology employed to test the hypothesized model presented in the following figure (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. The conceptual model of the study

3.1. Research Hypotheses Given the research framework above, a number of hypotheses have been tested in the results section. The following hypotheses were tested: H1: There are statistically significant relationships between trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services (Privacy concerns, Security concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness, Perceived usefulness), and behavioral intention in independent hotels' websites. H2: There are statistically significant differences of trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services (Privacy concerns, Security concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness, Perceived usefulness) and behavioral intention in independent hotels' websites, with respect to the demographic attributes. H3: Demographic attributes contribute to the differences between respondents' trust in Internet shopping. H4: Demographic attributes contribute to the differences between respondents' perception of E-trust services in independent hotels' websites. H5: Demographic attributes contribute to the differences between respondents' behavior intention in independent hotels' websites. H6: E-trust services contribute to the differences between respondents' behavior intention in independent hotels' websites.

E-trust

Intention to reuse

Intention to

reserve

Trust in Internet shopping

Demographics

Privacy concerns

Security concerns

Information quality

Ease of use

Perceived usefulness

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3.2. Questionnaire To validate the conceptual model and the proposed research hypotheses, the researchers developed a survey. A questionnaire for the current study was designed with nine sections as follows:

- Trust in Internet shopping - Privacy concerns - Security concerns - Information quality - Ease of use - Responsiveness - Perceived usefulness - Behavioral intention - Demographic data

3.3 The pilot study As a result of this pilot, the questionnaire was validated to ensure that the questions were understandable and specific to evaluating the task of E-commerce shopping. The pilot study suggested some clarifications to the survey. Both Arabic and English language versions were available. 3.4. Sampling and data collection The data were collected from November 20, 2009 to February 15, 2010. The guests of the 13 independent hotels in Egypt were asked to complete the questionnaire. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed. Out of the 400 questionnaires, 295 (73.75%) were returned and 171 questionnaires (42.7%) were coded and analyzed for the empirical investigation. Out of 124 invalid responses, 37 respondents indicated that they had never used the Internet to book hotel rooms before. 3.5. Analysis The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15.0. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and stepwise regression were used to achieve the objectives of this study. First, simple frequencies were generated to display the distribution of respondents’ demographic profiles, second, Pearson correlation coefficient to investigate the relationship between Internet shopping, E- trust services (Privacy concerns, Security concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness, Perceived usefulness), and behavioral intention in independent hotels' websites. Third, t-test and analysis of variance to investigate differences of trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services (Privacy concerns, Security concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness, Perceived usefulness) and behavioral intention in independent hotels' websites, with respect to the demographic attributes; finally, stepwise regression to determine the contribution of demographic attributes to predicting respondents' trust in Internet shopping, and E-trust services in independent hotels' websites, behavior intention, and stepwise regression to determine the contribution of E-trust services to predicting behavioral intention.

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4. Results As Table 1 shows, the size of this research sample was 170 of whom 97 were males and 73 were females. Nearly 67% were between 21-40 years, more than half of the sample were married (54.1), more than third of the respondents had the bachelor degree (35.3%), more than one fifth of them (21.2) were business men, Russians represented 24.7% and Italians represented 24.1%.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of respondents (N=170)

Attribute Frequency Percentage Gender Male 97 57.1 Female 73 42.9 Age Under 21 years 16 9.4 21- 30 years 48 28.2 31- 40 years 66 38.8 41- 50 years 28 16.5 51- 60 years 4 2.4 61 and over 8 4.7 Marital Status Single 40 23.5 Married 92 54.1 Widow 26 15.3 Divorcee 12 7.1 Education

High school 34 20 Technical school 32 18.8 College degree 60 35.3 Postgraduate 20 11.8 Other 24 14.1 Occupation

Technician 18 10.6 Business man 36 21.2 Student 26 15.3 Housewife 28 16.5 Other 62 36.5 Nationality

British 15 8.8 Egyptian 11 6.5 French 7 4.1 German 15 8.8 Italian 41 24.1 Russian 42 24.7 Libyan 6 3.5 Polish 14 8.2 Saudi 5 2.9 Ukraine 8 4.7 American 6 3.5

4.1. Assessing Scale Reliability In order to assess the reliability of survey questions, the researchers obtained a coefficient Cronbach's Alpha score. Table 2 shows that the coefficient of consistency for survey is 0.948, i.e., it is reliable.

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Table 2. Reliability analysis

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the sample E- trust Dimensions Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Trust in Internet shopping 3.00 21.00 13.1765 3.38523 -.604

Privacy concerns 5.00 30.00 22.5647 4.14942 -1.577

Security concerns 4.00 24.00 17.5059 3.52715 -1.129

Information quality 8.00 48.00 35.2588 6.56177 -1.677

Ease of use 6.00 37.00 26.4852 5.20657 -1.064

Responsiveness 4.00 24.00 17.7412 3.39213 -.894

Perceived usefulness 2.00 14.00 9.1529 2.06696 -.639

Behavioral intention 2.00 13.00 8.9647 2.23711 -.937

Table 3 indicates that the skewness of the sample ranges between -1.677 and -.604. This means that the sample represents the community and follows the normal probability distribution.

4.2. Testing of Hypothesis 1 To verify hypothesis 1 the researchers calculated Pearson correlation coefficient between E- trust services. Table 4. Pearson correlation coefficient between E- trust services

Tru

st in In

ternet

shop

pin

g

Privacy

concern

s

Secu

rity con

cerns

Inform

ation

qu

ality

Ease of u

se

Resp

onsiven

ess

Perceived

u

sefuln

ess

Beh

avioral In

tention

Trust in Internet shopping

Privacy concerns .585** Security concerns .538** .669** Information quality .618** .734** .641** Ease of use .542** .676** .699** .757** Responsiveness .590** .755** .550** .708** .628** Perceived usefulness .370** .625** .551** .524** .579** .693** Behavioral Intention .415** .592** .686** .491** .611** .562** .679** **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. The previous table declares that there are statistically significant relationships, positive correlation between trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services, and behavioral intention of the sample at the .01 significance level. 4.3. Testing of Hypothesis 2 The researchers calculate T-test in order to compare the perception of trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services and behavioral intention between males and females and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare with respect to age, marital status, education, and occupation. The results of the t-test declare that there are not statistically significant differences between males and females.

Cronbach's Alpha No. of Items

0.948 34

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Analysis of variance results indicate that there are statistically significant differences between respondents with respect to the age in privacy concerns and behavioral intention. With respect to marital status, there are statistically significant differences between respondents in privacy concerns, ease of use, responsiveness, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention .According to the education, there are statistically significant differences between the respondents in trust in Internet shopping and perceived usefulness. With respect to the occupation there are statistically significant differences between the respondents in the perception of security concerns and behavioral intention. But there are not statistically significant differences between the respondents according to the nationality. 4.4. Testing of Hypothesis 3 To verify hypothesis 3, the stepwise regression of demographic attributes as independent variables was calculated to determine their contribution to predicting respondents' trust in Internet shopping.

The results reveal that there is statistically significant contribution for the gender, age, and marital status factors to predicting trust in Internet shopping whereas the multiple correlation between them and trust in Internet shopping is .33 at the .001 significance level, R² is 11%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting trust in Internet shopping and adjusted R² is 9.4%, it represents the pure contribution of gender, age, and marital status factors to predicting trust in Internet shopping. The regression equation is Y=14.66- 1.169X1+.682X2-.848X3 whereas Y represents trust in Internet shopping and X1, X2, and X3 represent gender, age, and marital status respectively. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (education& occupation& nationality) to predicting trust in Internet shopping. 4.5. Testing of Hypothesis 4 The researchers calculated the stepwise regression of demographic attributes as independent variables to determine their contribution to predicting respondents' perception of E-trust services in independent hotels' websites. Results of the stepwise regression point out the following: - There is statistically significant contribution for the gender to predicting privacy concerns whereas the multiple correlation between the gender (as independent variable) and the privacy concerns (as dependent variable) is .26 at the .001 significance level, R² is 6.9%, it represents the contribution of gender to predicting privacy concerns and adjusted R² is 6.3%, it represents the pure contribution of gender to predicting privacy concerns. The regression equation of privacy concerns /gender is Y=25.365-1.919X whereas Y represents privacy concerns and X represents gender. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age& marital status& education& occupation & nationality) to predicting privacy concerns. - There is statistically significant contribution for the gender to predicting security concerns whereas the multiple correlation between the gender (as independent variable) and the security concerns (as dependent variable) is .29 at the .001 significance level, R² is 8.7%, it represents the contribution of gender to predicting security concerns and

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adjusted R² is 8.1%, it represents the pure contribution of gender to predicting security concerns. The regression equation of security concerns /gender is Y=20.182-1.835X whereas Y represents security concerns and X represents gender. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age& marital status& education& occupation & nationality) to predicting security concerns. - There is statistically significant contribution for the gender, education, age, and marital status factors to predicting information quality whereas the multiple correlation between them information quality is .36 at the .001 significance level, R² is 13.3%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting information quality and adjusted R² is 11.2%, it represents the pure contribution of gender, education, age, and marital status factors to predicting information quality. The regression equation is Y=41.056-2.665X1-.755X2+1.092X3-1.425X4 whereas Y represents information quality and X1, X2, X3, and X4 represent gender, education, age, and marital status respectively. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (occupation& nationality) to predicting information quality. - There is statistically significant contribution for the gender and marital status factors to predicting ease of use whereas the multiple correlation between them and ease of use is .24 at the .001 significance level, R² is 6.1%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting ease of use and adjusted R² is 5%, it represents the pure contribution of gender and marital status factors to predicting ease of use. The regression equation is Y=31.376 - 1.929X1-1.028X2 whereas Y represents ease of use and X1 and X2 represent gender and marital status respectively. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age, education& occupation& nationality) to predicting ease of use. - There is statistically significant contribution for the gender and marital status factors to predicting responsiveness whereas the multiple correlations between them and responsiveness is .33 at the .001 significance level, R² is 11.2%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting responsiveness and adjusted R² is 10.1%, it represents the pure contribution of gender and marital status to predicting responsiveness. The regression equation is Y=21.784-1.485X1-.911X2 whereas Y represents responsiveness and X1 and X2 represents gender and marital status respectively. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age, education& occupation& nationality) to predicting responsiveness. - There is statistically significant contribution for the marital status and gender factors to predicting perceived usefulness whereas the multiple correlation between them and perceived usefulness is .25 at the .001 significance level, R² is 6.3%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting perceived usefulness and adjusted R² is 5.1%, it represents the pure contribution of marital status and gender to predicting perceived usefulness. The regression equation is Y=10.987-.482X1-.576X2 whereas Y represents responsiveness and X1 and X2 represents marital status and gender respectively. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age, education& occupation& nationality) to predicting perceived usefulness.

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4.6. Testing of Hypothesis 5 To verify this hypothesis, the researchers calculated the stepwise regression of demographic attributes as independent variables to determine their contribution to predicting respondents' behavior intention in independent hotels' websites.

This calculation shows that there is statistically significant contribution for the gender to predicting behavior intention whereas the multiple correlation between the gender (as independent variable) and the behavior intention (as dependent variable) is .24 at the .001 significance level, R² is 6.2%, it represents the contribution of gender to predicting behavior intention and adjusted R² is 5.6%, it represents the pure contribution of gender to predicting behavior intention. The regression equation of behavior intention/gender is Y=10.398 -.982X whereas Y represents behavior intention and X represents gender. There is not statistically significant contribution for other demographics (age& marital status& education& occupation & nationality) to predicting privacy concerns.

4.7. Testing of Hypothesis 6 Results of stepwise regression of E-trust services (as independent variables) and behavior intention (as dependent variable) for the sample reveal that there is statistically significant contribution for security concerns and perceived usefulness to predicting behavior intention whereas the multiple correlation between them and behavior intention is .77 at the .001 significance level, R² is 60.1%, it represents the contribution of them to predicting behavior intention and adjusted R² is 59.6%, it represents the pure contribution of security concerns and perceived usefulness to predicting behavior intention. The regression equation is Y= -.293+.284X1+.468X2 whereas Y represents behavior intention and X1 represents security concerns and X2 represents perceived usefulness. There is not statistically significant contribution for other E-trust services (Privacy concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness) to predicting behavior intention. 5. Discussion Younger generation would likely to do online shopping more because of their knowledge in computer technology as opposed to the older generation.61 One could say that this logic regarding this research. This proves that young people are heavy users of internet and have a good experience with online shopping. They are more adventurous to take the risk. But in the case of elder people, although they have more time to search on the internet, they are physically not capable of navigating on the internet and buying online. So they tend to use the traditional ways of reservation either through the direct contact with the suppliers or through the travel agency with which they have a long positive experience. In general, the respondents have a good level of education. This explains that well-cultivated people are more capable of dealing the websites as it is easy for them to reserve online than people have not a good level of education. The study revealed that there are positive correlations between trust in Internet shopping, E-trust services, and behavioral intention. Also, It revealed that the perceived usefulness dimension is on the top of priorities of online consumers in order to take the decision of purchase or to make online reservation.

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Trust can be built over a certain period of time, and it usually contributes to customer satisfaction over and beyond the effects of the economic outcomes of the relationships. Lack of trust in online companies is a primary reason why many consumers do not shop online.62 The development of trust is appropriately regarded as the fundamental solution to increasing the percentage of actual purchase transactions and information exchange online.8 Trust creates a positive expectation about the outcomes of the actions of the trustee and reduces the trustor`s perceived potential risks. Accordingly, trust directly exerts influence on intention.63

With respect to marital status, there are significant differences between respondents in privacy concerns, ease of use, responsiveness, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention. This result is expected, since those who are married have a mixed point of view regarding the perception of E-trust services because of the effect of each on the other. In this case, every one expects to gain benefits from using a hotel's website. When these realized they don't hesitate to return or to reserve online. One could say that there is a high level of involvement regarding married people especially with children. The decision is very difficult as it requires considering the needs of every one in the family. On the other side, the case of single people, they could be influenced more by their age, level of education and occupation. They have in their minds certain characteristics in order to decide or not to reserve online. Once those are available, the decision will be positive. This result tells us that the customization has to be adopted by E-marketers. They have to realize that they don't deal with a market segment but, with a various number of sub segments which require that their needs must be fulfilled. According to the education, there are significant differences between the respondents in trust in Internet shopping and perceived usefulness. In fact, in order to evaluate well the number of benefits from using a hotel website in order to reserve, needs the customer to be well-cultivated. So respondents of high level of education perceive differently the other ones with a medium or low level of education. Usefulness has been found to help determining system usage and individual impact to be important in forming customer attitudes and satisfaction with an electronic commerce channel, to contribute to an individual’s intent to reuse a Web site and to impact an individual’s behavioral intention more strongly for an inexperienced user versus an experienced user.57 With respect to the occupation, there are significant differences between the respondents in the perception of security concerns and behavioral intention. The results indicate that those respondents who have higher jobs are less concerned by the security measures by the website than other ones. In fact, this result explains well the impact of income. One could say that the more income was less sensitive to security concerns. The results also reveal that there in no significant differences between the respondents according to the nationality. Regarding the sample of the study, it is revealed that the majority of respondents come from Europe which represents a unique culture in itself. So, differences between European who share the same values and mentality could not be existent. Respondents come from other parties of the world represents a minority. So, it is not be possible to get difference according to the nationality factor between

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respondents. The gender plays an important role in influencing attitude towards online shopping and predicting behavior intention. Males tend to trust in online shopping more than females. The information made available by the websites has been widely accepted as a key component of the perceived service quality. The travel and tourism industry is information–oriented business, and the internet can provide companies with an arena to construct a rich and dynamic platform for information supply and exchange.20

The results reveal that there is significant contribution for the gender and marital status factors to predicting ease of use. Perceived ease of use is the belief that a particular technology would be applied with no effort. It should directly influence the user's attitude towards a particular technology. It refers also to the ease of navigation, searching for information and obtaining services from websites.21 perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness appeared to be important determinants in the formation of perceived E-trust, which again influenced overall attitude.19 There is significant contribution for security concerns and perceived usefulness to predicting behavior intention. The management of the privacy and security can determine the success or failure of critical E-business initiatives. Customer needs to be confirmed that the information, which he provides will be protected and used only in an appropriate way.15 Privacy concern significantly affected user risk perception and trust and through them indirectly affected behavioral intention.64 Security was to be the primary factor affecting shopping intentions.65 Security is the second major concern for E-customers.66 The adoption of hotel reservation Web sites can be predicted by the extended TAM framework. Prior experiences, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, have an impact on attitudes toward using reservation Web sites.67 Web security has a positive influence on attitude and behavioral intention.68

6. Conclusions and Recommendations The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of E-trust services on guests' behavior intention in independent hotels` websites in Egypt. The findings show that education has an impact of trust in Internet shopping and perception of perceived usefulness. There are statistically significant relationships, positive correlation between trust in Internet shopping, E- trust services, and behavioral intention of the sample. The gender is the only demographic attribute which contributes to predicting behavior intention, Security concerns and perceived usefulness contribute to predicting behavior intention of the sample. No statistically significant differences between the respondents according to the nationality. Independent hotels should enhance E-trust services (Privacy concerns, Security concerns, Information quality, Ease of use, Responsiveness, Perceived usefulness) especially Security concerns and perceived usefulness to can compete with franchised hotels. E-marketers should adopt the customization. They have to realize that they don't deal with a market segment but, with a various number of sub segments which require that their needs must be fulfilled.

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ت الثقة اLلكترونية على سلوك عمQء المواقع اLلكترونية للفنادق المستقلةخدماتأثير

يعتقbدو. وخاصbة للفنbادق المسbتقلة فbى السbنوات الماضbية أھميbةالتطbورات أكثbرمbن اfنترنbت يعدالوحيدة التbى تمكbن الفنbادق المسbتقلة ةالوسيلھى الكثير من الفندقيين ان المبيعات التى تتم الكترونيا

ان حجbم المبيعbات التbى تbتم الكترونيbاً لbم يرى مديرو الفنbادق المسbتقلةو .من منافسة فنادق الس�سل . تصل الى ما يجب ان تكون عليه الى جانب انھا عملية مكلفة ومعقدة

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موقbع الفنbدق علbى شbبكة اfنترنbتمن اسbتخدام المدركةوالفائدة ا©منبأن اظھرت نتائج الدراسة و

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.ةفنادق السلسلأن تتنافس مع ھا يمكنحتى من استخدام موقع الفندق على شبكة اfنترنت