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The study here probes how tourists interpret their unique experiences while traveling in Macau, Las Vegas, and Monaco – well-known “Gambling Meccas.” The study applies one form of brand netnography to collect and analyze information about traveling experience in these three cities. One positive travel blog and one negative are selected and discussed each for Macau, Las Vegas, and Monaco. The study examines the validity of balance theory – a motivational theory of attitude change (Heider, 1958). Balance theory conceptualizes the consistency motive as a drive toward psychological balance (Hokky, S., & Deni, K. (2004). Social balance theory: Revisiting Heider's balance theory for many agents. Departmental Technical Report (Unpublished). The study probes how iconic symbols of brands influence visitors' experience. The findings inform marketing strategic suggestions for Macau, Las Vegas, and Monaco on how to build an effective destination brand and how to improve visitors' traveling experience.

Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate the impact of different cues-in-contexts affecting the implicit thinking and sensemaking of the observer (e.g., researcher) to the emic story being told in the visuals. The creation of Figs. 2 and 3 rests on a theoretical platform of Carl Jung's (2009) archetypal theory and method of decoding his own dreams. Jung's (2009) paintings of his dreams to enable conscious interpretation of his conversations within the collective unconscious inform a call for creating visual narrative art to inform meanings of personal and collective unconscious relating to stories consumers tell about buying and using brands.The collective unconscious contains the wisdom and experience of untold ages and thus represents an unparalleled guide for explaining the meaning of what is happening and what will happen. “Active imagination” and “self-experimentation” are terms Jung refers to in his use of paintings and sculpture to create dialogues between “directed thinking” (conscious thinking or what in the 21st century is referred to as “system 2 thinking”) and fantasy thinking (personal and collective unconscious, what is similar to “system 1 thinking,” see Evans, 2003). (Woodside, Megehee, & Sood, 2011).

This chapter estimates the average wage and land price for each area through regression analyses to control for heterogeneity of workers and land across areas. Based on these quality-adjusted averages of wage and land price, we calculate each area’s business (Q _B) and residential environment index (Q _H) following Gabriel and Rosenthal (2004) and list the top 20 and bottom 20 locations in terms of Q _B and Q _H values, respectively. The findings of this chapter can be summarized as follows. First, metropolitan areas are perceived overall as relatively better locations both for firms and for workers. However, the quality of business environment and the quality of life do not necessarily match across locations. Second, while the college-educated and the young are more likely to live in the locations with better quality of business and residential environment, the old tend to live disproportionately in the locations with inferior local amenities possibly due to financial constraints. Firms newly established, belonging to headquarters, or in business service industries locate more heavily in the locations with better quality of business environment, but not necessarily in the locations with greater quality of life. However, manufacturers seem to locate their plants more in the places with lower quality of business environment. Consequently, the degree to which local amenities vary across areas seems to be remarkable in Korea. Since compensating differentials are prone to be self-reinforcing, the policy efforts by the local or central government are important for future balanced growth.