Search results

The role of social media in the tourism industry growth cannot be ignored, because today the internet and social media platforms are one of the most popular information channels used by potential tourists and have become one of the main sources of online travel information. This study investigates the role of content cues of tourism information quality provided in Elie Gasht firm's Instagram page on enhancing awareness of the destination brand and forming users' destination image.

A quantitative research design was used to validate the hypotheses proposed in this research. A survey was deployed using the convenience method among 187 users of Elie Gesht's Instagram page to test the theoretical model. The structural relationships in the research were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings of the present research indicated that the content cues of the quality of information provided by the firm have a positive effect on enhancing destination brand awareness and in turn improve affective image and cognitive image. Eventually, the content cues of the quality of information provided by the firm impact the formation of a conative image through the affective and cognitive image of the destination.

Pragmatically, the findings of this study urge policymakers of tourism companies, managers and destination marketers to take into account the special role of the firm's social media in enhancing destination brand awareness, which in turn promotes destination brand image. Therefore, providing empirical evidence on what leads to the promotion of destination brand awareness and different types of image formation of the destination due to information content quality provided by the firm on social media, provides managerial insights for corporate marketers and tourism destinations.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of quality of tourism information content presented in the firm's social media by providing empirical evidence on enhancing destination brand awareness and destination image formation. It also helps firm managers and planners build their marketing strategies to attract more customers through social media.

Despite years of research on destination image (DI), studies have surprisingly failed to investigate how tourists perceive and approach destinations that they are not cognizant about. While prodigious amount of information is available on the dimensionality and nature of DI, little is known about the construct with reference to cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Understanding such an aspect would help destination management organizations (DMOs) in refining their marketing strategies and in improving their destination's competitiveness.

Through an extensive review of literature in areas pertinent to the phenomenon being investigated, this article puts forward a series of propositions, which are then used in the framework entailing the proposed construct of destination stereotypes (DS).

While identifying an overlap in concepts pertaining to the fields of marketing and tourism, this study postulates that DS facilitate the extension of a destination's dominant impressions to that of another based on various parameters. It further discusses several courses through which impressions of a particular destination are extended to that of another, thereby putting forward DS as a missing link in tourists' reception of destinations.

DS as a construct helps in identifying the source of an impression which may not be the destination in question but instead another destination. Upon construct validity, the proposed framework would yield insights into other competing destinations and thereby effectively help in altering the extant DI.

While there have been many studies on tourist stereotypes and DI, it is amongst the first few studies to have discussed stereotypes in the context of destinations and their image, especially with an emphasis on cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Therefore, it acts as a meaningful piece of work towards the progression of the DI literature.

This research analyses the simultaneous relationship between perceived risks, destination image and destination loyalty as well as the mediating role of two components of destination image (cognitive and affective) in the relationship between perceived risks and destination loyalty.

The current study used a convenience sampling method for collecting data from 413 respondents using a self-administered questionnaire. Furthermore, the two-step approach for structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the model's psychometric properties and test the proposed structural model.

The results revealed that only socio-psychological and political risks negatively affected destination loyalty. In contrast, performance risk, physical risk and financial risk did not show a significant direct effect on tourists' destination loyalty. Each type of perceived risk significantly contributed to cognitive and affective image formation. However, the financial risk did not significantly affect the affective image. Moreover, the affective component of the image was found to have a higher impact on establishing destination loyalty than the cognitive component of the image. Finally, cognitive and affective facets of the image were found to act as significant mediators between perceived risks and destination loyalty.

The study provides a better understanding of how perceived risks and destination image, if properly managed, exert a better influence on destination loyalty. Moreover, the affective dimension of destination image must be actively used to position Kashmir in the domestic tourism market and connect with individuals, especially those who have negative feelings regarding risky destinations.

This is likely to be the first study to investigate the relationships between various dimensions of perceived risk, destination image and destination loyalty in the context of a volatile destination, i.e. Kashmir Valley (India). Furthermore, the role of two facets of destination image (cognitive and affective) in mediating the relationship between perceived risks and destination loyalty extends and contributes to the theoretical foundation for the destination perception concept.

Building on social media and destination brand-related literature, this study aims to explore World Heritage Sites’ (WHSs) brand diffusion and formation process from long-term and short-term perspectives, which includes brand diffusion, user-generated content (UGC), opinion leaders and brand events’ impact.

This study uses a mixed-method including text mining, keyword analysis and social network analysis to explore the brand formation process of four popular WHSs in Beijing, namely, the Palace Museum, Great Wall, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven and more than 10,000,000 users’ data on Sina Weibo has been implemented to uncover the underlying social media branding mechanism.

The results show that the number of postings keeps in a stable range in most months, but, in general, there are no common rules for changing trends among the four WHSs; long-term high-frequency keywords related to history and culture account for a higher percentage; different kinds of accounts have varying impacts on information diffusion, in which media accounts lead to a bigger influence. However, more followers do not necessarily mean more interactions and most of the interaction ratio is much lower than 0.01000; brand events facilitate brand dissemination and have an impact on the creation of UGC.

This study is valuable for destination marketers to deeper understand brand diffusion and formation and provides valuable insights for developing effective destination marketing strategies.

Unlike previous studies that only concern a few parts of destination brand formation via social media (e.g. brand diffusion, brand events or opinion leaders’ impact), this study takes a more comprehensive perspective by systematically analyzing the brand formation process of WHSs on social media. By considering both long-term diffusion and short-term representative events, this study provides a more holistic understanding of the branding mechanism.

This study's goal is to look at how visitors' experiences affect the indirect links between the destination's extrinsic motivations (DEMs) and tourists' intrinsic motives (TIMs), on the one hand, and the perceived destination image (PDI), on the other.

Using structural equation modeling, 613 tourists from different nationalities were used to test the five hypotheses.

The research results revealed that second-order destinations' extrinsic motivations directly impact TIM and PDI. It also showed that tourists' experiences as moderators reduce the direct effect of DEM on PDI for first-time visitors compared to repeat visitors. Moreover, it increases the direct effect of TIM on PDI for repeated visitors.

Destination managers can fix the problems that hurt their reputations and images by hiring police officers in tourist areas and cleaning tourist places. In the same way, destination managers and travel agencies should use AI tools to create social media marketing campaigns focusing on natural and historical monuments. Also, the marketing plans should stress the value for money (for example, lodging, food and attractions’ cost). Finally, destination marketers can make programs for repeat visitors, focusing on DEM and TIM.

This article tries to fill a gap in the research on PDI formation in emerging markets as a modern technique in destination marketing by using the push-intrinsic and pull-extrinsic theories. It also looks at how the tourists' experiences moderate the direct link between DEM, TIM and PDI. Lastly, this study examines how TIM affects a destination's image in emerging markets.

This study aims to investigate potential tourists’ behaviour regarding visiting and recommending a destination based on an image derived from a virtual reality (VR) model, including motivations for travel and place attachment.

The study had two phases and used both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. The qualitative approach consisted of a focus group conducted to obtain the most important attributes of the destination image. The quantitative approach, which consisted of a self-administered questionnaire, was distributed to all the participants following a VR experience to provide data to empirically test the hypotheses proposed in the conceptual model.

Motivations for travel positively influence the image of a destination in both its cognitive and affective dimensions. Also, the cognitive dimension of destination image influences affective dimension of destination image and both dimensions affect overall destination image. Moreover, destination image, cognitive dimension and affective dimensions influence place dependence and identity. In turn, place dependence and place identity positively influence intention to visit the destination, but not intention to recommend it. Finally, intention to recommend the destination is positively influenced by the intention to visit the destination.

Due to the complexity of the overall experience, the sample was selected purposefully, and all participants belong to Generation Z. Extending this study to other generations would also be valuable.

Although the utility of VR for tourism marketing purposes has been one of the most researched areas during recent years, factors that could encourage tourists to visit destinations previously displayed in VR are not yet identified.

This study utilised Mehrabian and Russel's stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model to investigate the inter-relationship between perceived social media information qualities (IQ) of online UGC, destination image, perceived travel risk and behavioural intentions.

A total of 255 responses from international tourists were collected. The data collection via an online survey was performed from October 2020 to February 2021. The study model and hypotheses were examined using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The result indicated that social media intrinsic, representational, and social IQ significantly influenced tourists perceived cognitive image, while only contextual and social IQ significantly predicted the perceived affective image. This study also confirms the significant effect of cognitive image on the affective image. In addition, the authors found that both destination image components, cognitive and affective, significantly affect tourists' behavioural intentions. However, surprisingly, tourists' perceived travel risk did not moderate the effect of destination image components on behavioural intentions.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by extending Mehrabian and Russel's SOR model in the tourism behaviour context.

From a practical perspective, this study proves that UGC significantly affects destination image and plays an integral part in luring tourists to visit a destination.

Previous research in this area is limited, making this study particularly novel. This study represents one of the initial attempts to evaluate the dimensions of information quality in UGC on social media and online review platforms, particularly within the field of tourism. Treating online travel UGC seriously could assist organisations in leveraging tourist behaviour and enhancing destination image.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the impacts of familiarity with and awareness of Florida as a snowbird destination, and satisfaction with the snowbird experience on Florida's image and on snowbirds' permanent relocation intention to Florida. Additionally, the influence of Florida's image on snowbirds' behavioral intention to move to Florida permanently was investigated.

Data gathered from 304 snowbirds were utilized in employing structural equation modeling to assess the research model.

The study results showed that awareness of and familiarity with Florida as a snowbird destination, and satisfaction with the snowbird experience significantly influenced participants' image perceptions of Florida. In addition, awareness of and familiarity with Florida as a snowbird destination, and participants' image of Florida had a significant influence on snowbirds' intentions to move to Florida permanently.

The findings of the study provide significant insights for destination marketing and management organizations and local policymakers in formulating and enacting policies in snowbird destinations to efficiently address migration trends.

This study is one of the first papers to empirically investigate and successfully construct a comprehensive model that explicate the determinants of snowbird tourists' permanent relocation intention.

Does a highly standardized international advertising campaign enhance destination image? Drawing evidence from Turkey's Home Global Image Campaign, the authors investigate this fundamental question. This would help the authors to understand whether there are significant differences in cognitive and affective image among tourist groups in Europe in a destination where there is a highly standardized international advertising campaign.

Data collected from British, German, French and Italian tourists through the official Twitter account of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism (TMCT) were used to carry out the quantitative analysis. Analysis of variance test was performed to assess the differences in nationalities. The Scheffe test was also applied as a post hoc comparison.

Cognitive image attributes such as “good value for money,” “good climate,” “interesting and friendly people,” “beautiful scenery and natural attractions,” “interesting cultural attractions,” “appealing local food (cuisine)” and “hygiene and cleanliness” are found to be less favorable in the perceptions of French tourists than those of British, German and Italian tourists. British, German and Italian tourists perceive Turkey as a more pleasant destination than French tourists. Overall, the findings suggest that a highly standardized international advertising campaign fails to boost the destination image for all nationalities.

The TMCT officials should use the adaptation strategy in international advertising campaigns since the findings denote that the “one-size-fits all” approach is problematic. The TMCT should support and promote environmental sustainability efforts and green hotel practices to attract more tourists and use them in different communication channels.

Assessment of affective and cognitive destination images (differences) is still an unresolved issue in the destination management and marketing literature. It seems that there is no empirical study investigating the cognitive and affective image attributes of a destination based on standardization versus adaptation approaches. This paper makes a contribution to the current literature by demonstrating that using the same image campaign in different markets is a practice that fails to achieve the intended goals.

World Tourism Organization (WTO) recognizes image as the main aspect to be considered by a destination in its promotion and marketing process. Cities try to build valued and recognized images, established from an identity defined based on their own values. One of the strategies adopted for this construction is to hold events, through which it is possible to promote tourism, move the economy, improve the infrastructure, change the image and influence intentions to visit the destination. From the point of view of supply and demand, theorists have proposed two categories of destination image: the projected image and the perceived image. In this context, the objective of the research was to propose a model for measuring the Projected and Perceived Image through the Organizational Identity of the Volvo Ocean Race Brazil.

With a quali-quantitative approach, the study universe is composed of in-depth interviews with the main members of the organizing committee, documentary and netnographic analysis of the event's social networks. For the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data, the collective subject discourse was used. Documentary and netnographic analysis were by means of deductive content analysis and correspondence analysis.

The results supported the three secondary hypotheses of the research, leading to confirm the central hypothesis that the constructed organizational identity, projected by the image, is perceived by visitors to the event studied.

It is understood as fundamental the expansion of studies regarding projected and perceived image, identity and the possibility of its application in tourist events, as social representations, as support also for the definition of management and marketing strategies.