The Impact of Supplying Flexibility of OTAs on the Attractiveness of Blind Box Travel Products

Abstract

Blind box travel products are a type of product where the intentionally hidden key information of the tour packages, sightseeing, hotel accommodations, or flight tickets could be only revealed after payment is completed by consumers. Selling blind box travel products was considered as a resilient and innovative approach for tourism, hospitality, and airline industries all over the world to survive from the pandemic since 2020 with integrating the concept of blind box craze in the toy industry originated from China. In fact, similar strategies have been popular with Priceline.com and Hotwire.com about two decades ago, which has been actively researched from the perspectives of the seller on its revenue management and strategic operations management but rarely researched from the perspectives of a consumer. This paper first defined blind box travel products and examined the flexibility and attractiveness tradeoff to provide practical insights for OTAs ondesigning their blind box travel products. A quantitative method was adopted in this research, the attractiveness ofthe blind box travel product was tested through three dimensions which are information opacity before purchase,assignment process after purchase, and consumption conditions. It was found that blind box travel products would be more attractive forconsumers if there is a moderate level of information disclosed before purchase and if more personal preferences could be considered before consumption, but different assignment processes had no significant influence on it. These findings will significantly provide instructions for practitioners to adjust their blind box travel products in a range according to their consumers’ demands but also serve better for the long tail market, continue toproduce economic benefitsin the visible market cycle.