2.1 Internet and Tourism

The use of the internet brought new business opportunities for companies and organizations, increasing sales and improving processes and strategies.

According to ^{Cooper et al. (2001}, p.461):

The internet offers incomparable opportunities for multimedia presentations, it can transform simple texts of the global distribution systems into interactive leaflets. This is particularly significant when the global distribution systems aim to distribute less standardized products, such as hotel rooms and destination facilities.

Online shopping is growing worldwide, particularly due to its convenience. The customer of the twenty-first century looks for new ways of doing old things, and buying on the internet is easy, people just have to access online shopping sites. According to ^{Guimarães and Borges (2008}, p.61), the e-commerce "is any type of commercial transaction conducted electronically, with intense use of information and communication technologies", i.e. any commercial activity taking place on the internet is considered electronic commerce. In line with this, below in the figure we can see that the e-commerce is growing in Brazil, amounting to R$ 18.6 billion:

The internet is particularly adequate for the tourism product, given its singularities and opportunities listed here below:

Looking at the figure above, it becomes clear that the business strategies have to adapt given the permanent changes in the market and the emergence of new needs. This results, mainly, from the acceleration brought by the information technologies. Therefore, the internet has become an important tool for entrepreneurs and clients. However, the companies which fall behind the demands of the market, namely in terms of service quality, face major difficulties.

Besides companies, the client has become a major player in what concerns competitiveness, following ^{Guimarães and Borges (2008}, p. 16), "the power of negotiation of the client is stronger in case of buyer concentration versus industry concentration". Hence, the reason why companies must adapt to the market changes. On the internet clients can find several service providers for the same product, choosing whichever suits their needs best.

The expansion of the use of internet in tourism concurred with the appearance of a new type of client/ tourist who, before traveling, searches for information and takes a virtual tour of the place.

The tourist needs more information before a trip in order to plan the activities, and that has given rise to a more empowered traveler, someone who collects all the information needed and buys tourism services without leaving home. For example, the TripAdvisor website provides pre-trip information to travelers (research for accommodation) and also post-trip, enabling travelers to compare tourism experiences (^{Mendes Filho, Tan & Mills, 2012}). In this way, internet as become the major source of information for travelers planning a trip (^{Mendes Filho, 2014}).

The quality of the contents on websites is very important to make travelers trust on the online material. The higher the risk perception, especially before a purchase, the more the consumer search for information (^{Buhalis, 1994}).

The heterogeneity and intangibility of the tourism product makes it impossible for customers to test before the purchase, therefore the companies must provide detailed and precise information on their websites.

2.2 Group Buying Sites

The new technologies brought different ways of doing business, e.g. group buying sites which have become a key marketing tool for many companies. Within the hospitality sector the e-commerce is a showcase for attracting different market niches and new business opportunities for companies investing in that technology. ^{Ferreira and Andrade (2012}, p.2), consider that "the major internet phenomenon in terms of marketing is group buying".

Contrary to what is believed, group buying is not a new concept. Throughout history consumers have joined to negotiate discounts on a given amount of purchased goods (^{Zhang et. al, 2016}). However, this author points out that "multi-vendor online platforms aimed at individuals willing to bargain have become more popular in the last decade" (^{Zhang, et. al, 2016}, p.69).

According to ^{Narayanasamy (2011}), group buying sites have the following features: a) urgency: giving the buyers a sense of "urgency" due to time restraints to purchase the coupons; b) exclusivity: offering the buyers a sense of exclusivity with limited quantities of coupons on offer; c) Social Sharing: the likeliness that users will share with others in their network and influence them.

^{Sales and Souza (2011}, p.3), consider "online group buying a system in which the vendors announce great discounts on their products to entice consumers". The offer is published online in a group buying site for a fixed period and, if during that time the pre-established minimum number of buyers is reached, every buyer gets a discount coupon.

As for ^{Zhang et al., (2016}), the group buying sites are a way of selling which widen consumer's buying power, by offering lower prices. Originating from the idea of "consumers' co-operative" movement (^{Thompson, 2011}), group buying re-emerged due to e-commerce and online networks (Zhang, et. al, 2016).

In general, group buying sites focus on price reduction; the sites negotiate discount deals with the companies based on higher volume of business. That is the strategy to attract new consumers. The potential clients become customers enticed by the opportunity of a good deal. This way companies have a new marketing tool, placing many products in the marketplace and attracting more consumers.

Group buying is growing, particularly due to its convenience. ^{Ferreira and Andrade (2012}, p.3) consider that there is a marketing directed to e-commerce, known as digital marketing, because it can be considered as such the "activities using the internet to promote a continuous dialogue with customers". Using computers, smartphones or tablets consumers have access to the products on the internet promoted via digital marketing.

In tourism, travel offers are divided into two categories: those selling accommodation in the low season (except high season and holydays), with a longer period of validity; and last minute offers, with specific expiry date. Prices below the market value are possible given to these cooperation networks established through agreements between hotels, airlines, travel agencies, and other stakeholders.

However, a new process of disintermediation and re-intermediation in the tourism chain of production is emerging, giving rise to a reconfiguration of the competitive arena in that industry. This is happening because the group buying websites are selling to a niche usually neglected by travel agencies and tour operators: people who buy low season packages.

The result could not have been different: faced with the threat of an even greater loss of market share, some of the companies had to establish partnerships with these sites to offer tour packages (^{Maia, 2011}). Furthermore, it has brought other changes to the distribution chain of tourism, e.g. consumer-tourist satisfaction. Because of rapid growth, these new environments face various problems, from service quality standards to difficulties in booking a service. These problems can go unnoticed, making the new business model deviate from its original purpose (^{Oscar, 2011}).

The large number of clients at one time raises the question of whether this mode of purchasing is able to meet client satisfaction regarding comfort and quality of service. A quality product is something that exceeds customers' expectations and boosts repeat purchases. According to ^{Araújo (2011}), many customers complain that they feel prejudice on the part of the establishments when they present coupons bought on websites. The same author adds that suppliers are criticized because they fall short of meeting the demand for coupons, i.e. they oversell (^{ARAÚJO, 2011}). In addition, according to Sá (2011), there are problems of discrimination on the part of the partners that use these sites to advertise products and services.

Also, there are complaints regarding double charges and difficulties in scheduling or cancelling a purchase. The providers attract the customer to their establishment with a profit margin below average, hoping that they will repeat the experience, paying the standard prices (^{Benazzi & Pedra, 2011}).

^{Maia (2011}) refers that within the tourism industry there are similar issues. According to the author, the difficulty in booking accommodation dates is one of the most frequent complaints. He also points out that, often, customers cannot book their stay because the hotel oversold coupons, exceeding the carrying capacity, including acting in bad faith by offering overvalued rates to mask the actual discount price.

As a consequence, the new stage of group buying has limited the entry of new competitors, which caused changes and mergers of companies operating in that market segment in order to strengthen and continue leading the market (^{E-commerce.org, 2015}).

5.1 Profile of the respondents

Table 1 depicts socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. The majority are female, half of them are aged between 18 to 25 years, 42 percent are between 26 to 34 years and 8 percent of respondents are between 35 and 49 years. With relation to the level of education the majority of the respondents (65 percent) are graduating from university, while 29 percent of people have completed a university degree, lastly, 2 percent of respondents have completed secondary education or possess postgraduate education.

Regarding the experience with the internet, 48 percent of the respondents have been using it for 8 to 10 years, 25 percent for 5 to 7 years, 20 percent for 11 or more years and 5 percent for 2 to 4 years, and 2 percent started using internet less than a 1 year ago, which shows that the majority of respondents have already a good amount of experience with the internet.

Table 2 shows the average use of group buying sites to obtain tourism services coupons while traveling. Results indicate that 65 percent of respondents spend half to one hour in group buying sites, 20 percent stated that they spend less than half an hour, 13 percent spend one to two hours and 2 percent spend two to three hours on those sites.

From the group buying sites used to acquire tourism services coupons (Table 3), Peixe Urbano, with more than 63 percent, Natal Urbano with 57 percent, Hotel Urbano, and GroupOn with 43 percent stand out. The other sites were little used to buy tourism services coupons.

5.2 Evaluation of the Measurement Model

The verification of the research was done through partial least squares (PLS) technique. The PLS-Graph version 3.0, was used aiming to assess the measurement model (Tables 4 and 5), and the structural model of data field collection (Figure 4). The measurement model examined the load factors and t-statistic (Table 4) of each indicator (usefulness, ease of use, attitude, and intention), besides the convergent validity and reliability of variables (Table 5).

Source: Field research (2014)

Figure 4 Structural Model 

^{Chin (2010}) explains that the load factors need to be above 0.7 to be considered good results. Regarding t-statistic, values should be around 5 percent to be significant. Table 5 shows that all variables have a load factor above 0.7, and the minimum load was 0.74 to a maximum of 0.96. Regarding statistical data, the variables indicators were significant at a level of 5 percent, given that the values varied between 8.57 and 66.71.

Table 5 shows that all variables have values of Average Variance Extracted (AVE) above 0.72, indicating a good result. Following ^{Chin (2010}), the minimum acceptable threshold is 0.60 for convergent validity. In what refers to composite reliability the values of the variables are good, because, according to same author, these should be above 0.70, and variables had more than 0.91. Thus, the average variance extracted and composite reliability attained the acceptable thresholds (^{CHIN, 2010}).

5.3 Evaluation of the Structural Model

The structural model and the hypotheses are evaluated through PLS, using the values of R2 (variances) and significant paths. Figure 4 depicts the validation of the structural model and the five hypotheses tested by PLS. Path variable, load factors of each variable (significant for p < 0.001, p < 0.005, p < 0.05), and also R2 value are shown in Figure 4.

PLS analysis confirmed four hypotheses (H1, H2 H4 e H5), and hypothesis H3 was negatively confirmed. Paths between variables should be statistically significant so as to validate the structural model and the proposed hypotheses.

The structural model shown is Figure 4 highlighted a significant value of the variable attitude to buy tourism services in group buying sites during a trip (R² = 62.6 percent). According to Cohen et al. (2003, p.413 - 414), 26 percent of the variance is already considered high for behavioral sciences. Also the variable usefulness for intention explain approximately 35.6 percent of the variance of attitude. Finally, the variable ease of use explains 54.4 percent of the variance of usefulness.

The variable attitude had a statistically significant positive path for behavioral intention (score = 0.47, t = 4.9, p < 0.001), confirming the hypothesis. In this way, the hypothesis 1 was confirmed, i.e. the traveler's attitude to use tourism group buying sites to get tourism services coupons positively influences their intention of using them during a trip. Therefore, in line with ^{Mendes Filho and Carvalho (2014}), the attitude has a positive impact on behavioral intention.

The variable utility had a statistically significant positive path to attitude (score = 0.85, t = 6.5, p < 0.001), confirming the hypothesis 2, which states that the usefulness of using tourism group buying sites positively influences the attitude of buying tourism products when planning a trip. In this way, this result confirms the study conducted by ^{Huh, Kim and Law (2009}), which refers that usefulness has a positive impact on the attitude.

On the other hand, the variable ease of use had a statistically significant negative path towards attitude (score =-0.46, t = 3.12 p < 0.005), failing to confirm the hypothesis 3. Which demonstrates that group buying sites are a tool difficult to use to purchase coupons. Thus, the result did not corroborate Ayeh, Au, and Law's (2013) research, where there was a positive impact of the ease of use in relation to attitude.

The variable usefulness had a statistically significant positive path for intention (score = 0.48, t = 4.3 p < 0.001), confirming the hypothesis 4, which states that the usefulness of the group buying sites influences positively the traveler's intention of buying tourism services coupons. Therefore, this result is in line with Silva and ^{Mendes Filho's (2014}) study, where there was a positive effect of usefulness on the intention of use.

Finally, the ease of use had a statistically significant positive path for usefulness (score = 0.73, t = 12.3 p < 0.001), confirming the hypothesis 5, which says that the ease of use of the group buying sites influences the perception of usefulness of purchasing tourism services coupons. Confirming once again Ayeh, Au and Law's (2013) research, in which the ease of use influenced positively the perceived usefulness of technology.