Cultural capital and online purchase of tourism services

Based on an original conceptual framework that links cultural capital and pro-active behaviors, this paper investigates whether individuals' cultural capital increases the probability of purchasing tourism services through the Internet. The identification of possible direct channels through which tourism firms can address and attract consumers is particularly relevant for an industry in which re-intermediation processes by big online travel agencies have partly dampened the benefits of disintermediation along the supply chain. Through a Heckman-corrected probit run on year 2016 microdata referred to the Italian population, evidence is found that the cultural participation is associated to individuals' higher probability to purchase tourism services online. This adds some new dimensions to the understanding of factors that have a bearing on online purchasing.