Purpose This paper aims to conduct a meta-analysis to explore the strength of the path relationship in the proposed model for online travel service adoption and the moderating effect of country or regional economic development level. Design/methodology/approach A meta-analysis was conducted based on 46 empirical studies to verify a proposed model for users’ intention to adopt online travel service. Findings The relationship between technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior variables was found to be valid for online travel scenarios; moreover, perceived trust positively correlated with attitude and adoption intention. Meanwhile, personal innovation, perceived enjoyment and cost-effectiveness positively correlated with adoption intention. Except for the correlations between subjective norms and adoption intention, the correlations between all other variables in the model were significantly moderated by the economic development level of a country or region. Originality/value This paper was conducted to obtain a unified conclusion about the research field of online travel service adoption. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, its content is original.