Sonia Lim Ern Yi
Abstract:
The advanced technologies today have enabled the rise of network hospitality (NH) in the tourism and hospitality industry. It is an emerging trend in tourism because society today demands mobility, personalisation and is always seeking for new travel experiences. NH platforms such as Airbnb allow its users to connect with each other in an online and offline setting, sharing private and personal spaces with strangers. This trend is picking up fast in East Asia even though it was introduced in the West. To understand this phenomenon, it is important to know why people engage in this type of hospitality exchange. However, the existing literature of NH overlooked motivation especially Asians’ motivation to participate in NH. By using a systematic review of literature on NH based on a five years’ time interval, this paper aims to highlight the existing gaps of knowledge arriving from the notion of motivation in the context of East Asians and NH. This paper further suggests an analysis of the different components of motivation, perspectives and platforms.
Keywords: Network hospitality, sharing economy, motivation, tourist behaviour, Asian.