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1 – 10 of 385By analyzing tourist choices in Side and Alanya, well-known destinations for tourists in Türkiye’s thriving urban tourism sector, this study aims to fill a crucial vacuum in the…
Abstract
Purpose
By analyzing tourist choices in Side and Alanya, well-known destinations for tourists in Türkiye’s thriving urban tourism sector, this study aims to fill a crucial vacuum in the body of knowledge about urban tourism. The study examines the changing dynamics of consumer preferences for advertisements and closely examines the underlying factors that influence these preferences, both pre and post-influential COVID-19 period.
Design/methodology/approach
This study clarifies the complex interplay between tourism marketing and prospective tourists’ decision-making processes through a thorough examination. This research greatly improves our understanding of urban tourism marketing strategies by examining the varying effects of advertising channels and comparing the persuasive power of emotional versus numerical advertising messages.
Findings
This study’s findings significantly advance our understanding of urban tourism. Examining how visitors react to advertisements in the various urban environments of Side and Alanya offers insightful information on how marketing strategies and visitor preferences correlate. This research also reveals the subtleties of efficient communication techniques, providing a practical basis for improving urban tourism experiences.
Originality/value
Being the first study of its sort, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research’s originality is supported by its insights into how advertising, consumer preferences and the urban tourism environment interact. The significant contribution to knowledge highlights the implications for those involved in urban tourism and provides practical advice for improving advertising tactics in the post-COVID-19 age.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When examining promotion strategies, the study focuses on the change in marketing and public relations strategies based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies and, in particular, the use of the internet.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on a qualitative analysis of the different strategies used by traditional agencies and online agencies in Spain from the mid-19th century to the present. This analysis shows how traditional communication strategies survived at the beginning of the 21st century, together with other more innovative ones, while some disappeared, being eliminated by the new online travel agencies, which created a particular conception of marketing and communication. This paper is divided into the following parts: the introduction; the beginnings of travel agency promotion in the 20th century; the evolution of promotion in travel agencies since the late 20th century; communication innovation at the beginning of the 21st century; online travel agencies; and conclusions.
Findings
This study shows that although online agencies did not manage to position themselves with a large turnover, they generated advantages and sharpened their imagination to create a new, more economical advertising model, eliminating the costs of public relations and advertising campaigns. In addition, they allowed clients to have greater independence when making their reservations, while enabling them to monitor the tastes of potential and real clients and add blogs so that consumers could express their degree of satisfaction with the product or services provided by the agency.
Originality/value
The focus of attention is the travel agency sector in Spain and, more specifically, communication. Studies on travel agencies and their marketing have been very scarce and partial, impeding professionals in the tourism sector from having a broad vision to direct their promotional and public relations actions. The originality of this article lies in its making a comparison between two different visions of tourism marketing and, specifically, of travel agencies, that is, the traditional vision and the innovative one. It thus helps all professionals in the sector to value and improve their marketing and communication strategies.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Andalusia’s tourism promotion budgets and the efficiency of its campaigns from 2010 to 2022.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Andalusia’s tourism promotion budgets and the efficiency of its campaigns from 2010 to 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach is used. Tourism promotion budgets from 2010 to 2022 were measured as a supply indicator. Demand indicators (e.g. airport’s passenger arrivals, number of tourists and hotel occupancy rate) are analysed to measure tourism promotion budget impacts on them.
Findings
Tourism promotion budgets are a priority to stimulate tourism demand for Andalusia in times of uncertainly, and promotion campaigns are pivotal to attract and convert potential customers into actual tourists. Moreover, findings reveal that tourism promotion budgets had positive impacts on tourism demand. Whereas tourism promotion campaigns such as “Andalucía wants you back”, “Intensely”, Fitur, World Travel Market, ITB Berlin events and tourism advertising through digital channels have helped to improve tourism demand in Andalusia, ignoring the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020.
Originality/value
This study emphasizes how tourism promotion budgets and promotion campaigns must be constantly monitored by destination marketing organizations to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of assigned economic budgets and its return on investment.
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There has been considerable discussion about the utilization of social media effectively in tourist research. Still, there is a paucity of information about its usage for…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been considerable discussion about the utilization of social media effectively in tourist research. Still, there is a paucity of information about its usage for ecotourism destination selection. The study aims to determine critical factors influencing travelers' behavioral and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) intentions to use Instagram reels to select an ecotourism destination.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the motivated consumer innovativeness theory and technology acceptance model. Purposive sampling was applied to acquire data from Instagram users. Data were gathered from 445 respondents and 415 valid responses were analyzed using partial least square structural equational modeling.
Findings
The findings of the study confirmed the positive impact of perceived ease of use, socially motivated consumer innovativeness and hedonically motivated consumer innovativeness on travelers' attitude except for perceived usefulness. The outcomes also revealed a significant influence of travelers' attitude on behavioral and e-WOM intention.
Research limitations/implications
The study's findings were intended to offer insights into traveler behavior to critical players in the tourism sector, including destination marketers, travel companies, the government and policymakers. They must comprehend how useful Instagram is for the tourist industry, which will help them better understand how to attract travelers through Instagram reels to market their destination.
Originality/value
The current investigation is the first attempt to investigate the travelers' behavioral and e-WOM intentions to use Instagram reels to select an ecotourism destination.
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MiRan Kim, Heijin Lee, Soyeon Kim and Laee Choi
Although there is a growing body of literature on how celebrity involvement impacts the effectiveness of destination marketing, the underlying mechanisms of that relationship are…
Abstract
Purpose
Although there is a growing body of literature on how celebrity involvement impacts the effectiveness of destination marketing, the underlying mechanisms of that relationship are still underexplored. Based on the affect transfer and meaning transfer theories, this study aims to examine the impact of celebrity attachment on customer delight toward K-culture and K-culture attachment, affective and cognitive images of Korea, and the intention to visit Korea.
Design/methodology/approach
Online survey data were collected from 2,614 US residents, representing various demographic characteristics. For the data analysis, the partial least squares-structural equation modeling was conducted to evaluate the structural model and test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed that celebrity attachment is positively related to customer delight toward K-culture and K-culture attachment, which, in turn, positively influences affective and cognitive images of Korea. Additionally, K-culture attachment positively influences cognitive and affective images of Korea, which are positively related to the intention to visit Korea.
Research limitations/implications
By using the affect transfer theory and meaning transfer theory, this study provides valuable insights into how consumer’s attachment to celebrities has spillover effects on the decision-making process. This study also adds a new concept, customer delight connected to cultural experience, in the context of destination marketing.
Practical implications
By understanding the importance and influence of people’s intimacy with media characters, practitioners can apply parasocial relationship theory, affect transfer theory and meaning transfer theory to their marketing strategies.
Originality/value
As one of the few empirical studies that examines the impact of celebrity attachment on consumers’ perceptions and behaviors, this study can make significant contributions to the destination marketing literature.
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Hongxiao Yu, Haemoon Oh and Kuo-Ching Wang
This study aims to examine the underlying emotional process that explains how context-specific stimuli involved in virtual reality (VR) destinations translate into presence…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the underlying emotional process that explains how context-specific stimuli involved in virtual reality (VR) destinations translate into presence perceptions and behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 403 potential tourists participated in a self-administered online survey after they watched a randomly assigned VR tour. The Lavaan package in R software was used to conduct structural equation analysis and examine the proposed theoretical framework.
Findings
The results reveal that media content consisting of informativeness, aesthetics and novelty was positively related to users’ sense of presence in a VR tour. The effect of media content on presence was partially mediated by emotional arousal.
Practical implications
Managers and VR designers can create an emotive virtual tour that contributes to the user’s sense of presence to promote attraction to the target destination. The VR content needs to be informative, aesthetic and novel, which can excite users during the VR tour, portray virtual destinations clearly and eventually influence potential tourists’ visit intentions.
Originality/value
Research on the emotional mechanism to generate presence is still in its infancy. This study integrates presence theory into a conceptual framework to explore how media content influences presence and decision-making through the emotional mechanism.
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Although previous studies have examined the influence of celebrity involvement in behavioural intentions, the role of celebrity dimensions such as attraction, self-expression and…
Abstract
Purpose
Although previous studies have examined the influence of celebrity involvement in behavioural intentions, the role of celebrity dimensions such as attraction, self-expression and centrality in influencing tourists’ intention in the context of developing countries such as Tanzania remains largely unaddressed. This study, therefore, examined the relationship between celebrity involvement and domestic tourists' intentions to visit tourist attractions, attitude being the mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was self-administered on a convenient sample of 279 domestic tourists in the Tanzania’s four largest regions, namely, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Arusha and Mwanza. Employing a quantitative research approach, structural equation modelling was performed to test the cause-and-effect relationships between celebrity involvement and tourists’ intentions before testing the mediating role of attitude in such a relationship. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to test the measurement models.
Findings
Attraction emerged to be the main determinant of the celebrity dimension that significantly influenced domestic tourists’ travel intentions, whereas attitude partially mediates such a relationship. Moreover, Bongo Fleva musicians, particularly Diamond Platnumz, one of the leading celebrities in this genre, were found to influence most of the respondents’ travel intentions – he posted a picture on his Instagram account of him touring the Serengeti National Park.
Research limitations/implications
The study focused on domestic tourists residing in four of the Mainland Tanzania’s largest regions, hence excluding those residing on the islands of Unguja and Pemba. Due to cultural differences, including the islands not only could unleash new perspectives on celebrity involvement dimensions but also could have introduced new determinants of travel intentions.
Practical implications
This study offers guidance to tourism businesses on designing their marketing campaigns that they should harness celebrity’s attractive qualities effectively. The focus should be directed not only towards linking destinations with celebrities but also on stimulating positive perception of those destinations, aligning with the attitudes of their followers.
Social implications
The study has set out a new perspective for researchers, practitioners and tourism businesses to refine their promotional strategies and for academicians to gain a deeper understanding of visitor behavioural intention dynamics.
Originality/value
This study has proposed and verified that attraction is a dominant determinant compared to self-expression and centrality in explaining tourists’ travel intentions and attitudes, which play a significant role in explaining such a relationship. Although the study employed a modified theory of planned behaviour in a celebrity involvement study, the findings have broadened the understanding and its applicability in the context of a developing country.
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Seunghun Shin, Chulmo Koo, Jungkeun Kim and Dogan Gursoy
This paper aims to examine the impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ offline behavioral intentions: How do customers’ visits to a hospitality business’s virtual property…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ offline behavioral intentions: How do customers’ visits to a hospitality business’s virtual property in the metaverse affect their intentions to visit the physical property in the real world?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the general learning model and social cognitive theory, this research hypothesizes the positive impact of metaverse experiences on customers’ visit intentions and explores two boundary conditions for positive impact: user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity. Two experimental studies were conducted.
Findings
Metaverse experience has a significant impact on customers’ visit intentions, and this impact is moderated by user–avatar resemblance and servicescape similarity.
Research limitations/implications
This research addresses the call for empirical studies regarding the effects of metaverse experience on people’s behavioral intentions.
Originality/value
As one of the earliest empirical studies on the marketing effects of the metaverse, this research provides a basis for future metaverse studies in the hospitality field.
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Veronica Scuotto, Deniz Karagöz, Nicola Farronato and Ilan Alon
Environmental knowledge management (EKM) has been studied mainly owing to the increasing awareness of environmental issues. Such issues have generated a warning in the tourism…
Abstract
Purpose
Environmental knowledge management (EKM) has been studied mainly owing to the increasing awareness of environmental issues. Such issues have generated a warning in the tourism industry that has stimulated a new wave of research on EKM. EKM forges landscape characteristics and so destination image. In turn, EKM sounds affecting tourism destination which calls for destination personality which shows a research context less explored. From a knowledge management perspective, The present research aims to investigate on EKM to understand how it leverages tourists' and destination personality.
Design/methodology/approach
With the intent of exploring EKM, the research uses a quantitative analysis on a sample of 2,222 young Chinese tourists. In this context, EKM is linked with destination’s personality and tourists’ personalities, their satisfaction with the destination and their behavioral intentions.
Findings
By SPSS regression model, EKM and destination personality are positively linked. This positive relationship is also reflected on destination personality and destination satisfaction, behavioral intention.
Originality/value
The authors’ original contribution to the knowledge management literature extends the new wave of research on EKM. The research also proves the need to make a close collaboration between tourists, the local community and marketers. Marketers need to pay more attention to what tourists want to do and see in the place visited. In a nutshell, there is the need of enforcing and promoting EKM.
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This study examines experiences and enjoyment of national parks in the context of Tanzania.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines experiences and enjoyment of national parks in the context of Tanzania.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional design with quantitative and qualitative methods is applied. The study area is Nyerere National Park in Tanzania. Data collected from fully completed structured questionnaires by 360 domestic tourists are subjected to descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling analysis. Content analysis is used to analyze qualitative data.
Findings
The findings have revealed that there is a significant relationship between direct experiences and enjoyment of southern national parks among domestic tourists.
Research limitations/implications
The suggestion is for future studies to explore a longitudinal approach to determine the patterns of domestic tourists in reference to experiences and enjoyment of national parks so as to improve domestic tourism.
Practical implications
The practical implication is for the government, private sector and tourism stakeholders to improve infrastructure and conduct regular surveys and tour guide training.
Originality/value
This study examines experiences and enjoyment of national parks in the context of Tanzania and, specifically analyzes the relationship between direct experiences and enjoyment of southern national parks among domestic tourists in Tanzania guided by types of tourists’ theory.
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