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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.

This study aims to determine whether destination awareness, destination image, and tourist motivation have a direct or indirect effect on tourists’ intention to revisit, with word of mouth (WOM) as a mediating variable. The study conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey and its target population was the visitors who came to the Batu Secret Zoo. The sample consisted of 170 respondents, who had visited the Batu Secret Zoo in the last six months. A survey research design was used. The measures used in the questionnaire were adapted from previous scales. The research was conducted using a quantitative method.

The findings indicate that destination awareness, destination image, and tourist motivation have a significant effect on tourists’ intention to revisit. This study also analyzed the possible mediating effect of WOM on tourists’ intention to revisit. The results showed that WOM plays a significant mediating role for destination awareness and destination image on tourists’ intention to revisit. These causal relationship variables were consistent with previous findings and conceptualized related studies. Several implications of the findings are discussed later.

The aim of this study is to examine cruise destination branding as a new resource for a region to promote an area as a differentiated cruise destination. The authors specifically study how the perceived brand awareness of a destination moderates the relation between cruisers’ motivation and destination satisfaction and word-of-mouth (WoM).

A statistical model was adapted from relevant literature and applied in the context of cruise destination branding. The model was tested by measuring Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and the fit of the model through confirmative factor analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis and moderated regression analysis were also conducted. The sample consisted of British cruisers (n = 182) visiting the city of Pori in Finland.

The findings suggest that factors that impel people to take cruises (social recognition, self-esteem, discovery, socialization, convenience and value) have a significant impact on satisfaction with the destination, whereas brand awareness is recognized as a moderator in the relation between social recognition and destination satisfaction and WoM. Research findings provide a framework to discuss and analyze the cruise tourism business in a holistic way. Whereas the earlier studies have focused on onboard experiences, in this study, the focus of attention is on the onshore experiences of the cruisers.

The study is focused on one Baltic Sea cruise destination, the British Cruise Company and a limited segment of senior British passengers.

By measuring cruisers’ internal travel motives and their perceptions of the brand awareness of the port-of-call during the cruise, or the destination, the results offer destination marketing organizations valuable information to develop their offerings to meet the needs of future travelers and visitors.

The study contributes to the cruise destination literature by linking the perceived brand awareness of a destination to motivational factors of the tourist and further to destination satisfaction and WoM behavior specifically in the context of onshore experiences.

To establish tourist visitation to new tourism areas is in most cases dependent on tourists' behavior. Indeed, tourist visitation is considered among the primary components of the marine tourism operation. Such behavior is usually enacted in the form of destination awareness, destination image and motivation. Word of mouth is likely to influence tourist to visit. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that may influence tourists to visit marine tourist destinations.

The study has utilized self-administered questionnaire survey and the target population are the visitors that came to FRI Aquarium. The survey period was from August 2012 to September 2012. Total of 179 responses were collected during this period.

This study demonstrates that destination awareness, motivation and WOM are factors that influence the tourist to visit the FRI Aquarium. Interestingly, destination image however, has shown insignificant relationship with tourist visitation. WOM also found to be has a full mediating effect for awareness towards tourist visitation. For example, before visit, visitor may require some information beforehand and word of mouth is a direct medium to transfer the information. A key implication for FRI Aquarium is that it might be wise to assess such variables for their marketing strategies.

First, the sample was obtained from one marine aquarium in Malaysia. The comparative studies between aquariums are important to understand if there are any similarities and differences. It would be better to conduct the survey in other local aquariums such as the Underwater World, Langkawi and the KL Aquaria, Kuala Lumpur. Second, a longitudinal study is relevant to further investigate the factors that will influence the visitor visitation. Thus, future study should gather data from those who had visited the aquarium several times. This approach might improve the destination image results, which in this study shows insignificant relationship. That said, acknowledgements of these limitations also suggest a new direction of future research.

FRI Aquarium is suggested to create more awareness to the public by placing an advertisement via mainstream and social media. Hence, FRI Aquarium is suggested to design environmentally marine life oriented educational programs in order to motivate and encourage more visitors to visit the place.

In sum, this paper conjectures that an understanding of factors that influence the tourist to visit the marine tourism destination are worthy of additional research. Consequently, the findings help to understand how these factors can provide alternative sources of marketing to attract the long-term economic sustainability of the FRI Aquarium in marine tourism.

This article proposes a theory of direct and indirect inf luences of the Olympic Games on international tourism behavior and presents test results of the theory using a quasi-experimental research design and visitor exit data (n = 3,875 useable surveys). Key finding: among prior visitors to Australia, the share searching for information nearly doubles (from 30 to 59 per cent) in comparing visitors reporting no change in awareness to substantial increase in awareness of Australia as a vacation destination due to hosting the Olympics. Conclusion: hosting international mega-events may result in substantial increases in activities and expenditures by visitors but such impacts occur through increases in visitors' search for information.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive research of the effects of the intensity of use of social media on destination brand equity. The authors use the schema theory and a multidimensional approach of brand equity to analyse how social media communication affects brand awareness, brand image, customer value, brand quality and loyalty.

The authors carried out a quantitative study through a personal survey with structured questionnaire. The study population were international tourists, over 18 years of age, who were visiting the city of Valencia, Spain. Respondents were asked to take the questionnaire upon arrival in Valencia, that is, before they had any direct experience of the tourist destination and when their knowledge of the city came only from the sources of social media information they have used. The final sample size was 249 interviewees.

Findings confirm a positive effect of the intensity of social media use on brand awareness. Results also suggest that brand awareness influences other dimensions of brand equity and highlight the influence of the destination affective image on the intention to make WOM communication.

Its originality lies in a unique approach for data collecting and using the schema theory of cognitive psychology to understand the phenomenon of social media influence on tourist perception of destination brands. The findings contribute to the development of better social media marketing in order to manage destination brands online.

This study aims to examine the influence of destination awareness, cognitive and affective image, risk perception and past visitation on the intention to visit a tourist destination (a medium-sized city) in the next 12 months.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling was adopted to examine the data collected from 714 domestic holidaymakers.

Results demonstrate that awareness, cognitive and affective image, past visitation, perceived risk of traveling and perceived risk in international versus domestic travel are key factors; safety concerns enhance the cognitive image and perceived safety of the destination, but increase the perceived risk of traveling; and perceived social risk increases the perceived risk of traveling.

Data collection from only one country limits the generalizability of the conclusions.

Conclusions allow gaining new insights regarding communication strategies in general, during and post-pandemic times.

Using a consolidated and empirical approach, this study provides a better understanding of the role of perceived risk and its effects on cognitive and affective image and travel intention. For instance, to the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first study to consider the effects of social risk in the pandemic context. It also offers insights into the mediating effect of destination image and the moderating effects of perceived risk and past visitation.

Using the transportation theory, and the brand equity model, this study aims to examine how short video narratives from a tourist perspective increased brand equity dimensions which could lead to intention to patronise. Further, the study tested the moderating role of real-world video between the brand equity dimensions and intention to patronise.

A sequential explanatory mixed method is adopted for this study. An empirical study was conducted in the first phase with 1,119 participants. In the second phase, the quantitative results were used to develop a semi-structured interview guide for in-depth interviews with 9 respondents to validate the quantitative outcomes. The structural equation modelling technique was utilised to analyse the quantitative data, whereas content analysis was used for the qualitative data.

The results revealed that short video narratives lead to horti-awareness, image and value. Additionally, horti-awareness, and value had a significant impact on intention to patronise horti-tourism destinations. Another interesting observation is that the negative perceived quality might be as a result of the short video emanating from a tourist perspective. Importantly, potential tourists perceived the real-world video to be authentic, thus strengthening the relationship between the brand equity dimensions and intention to patronise.

This research provided valuable insights for marketers/management and stakeholders within the tourism and hospitality sector to achieve benefits derived from the findings of the study.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first attempt to embed the theory of transportation and the brand equity model in understanding horti-tourism destinations, which can rarely be found in extant literature.

This paper aims to examine the role of social media communication, tourist satisfaction and destination brand equity components in enhancing destination brand equity based on the Stimulus – Organism – Response (S-O-R) theory.

The conceptual model and research hypotheses were assessed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM). An online survey was used to collect data from 369 domestic tourists who had traveled to Danang and knew about content related to Danang generated by either DMOs or other users on social media.

Except for the effect of DMO-generated social media communication on tourist satisfaction and the impact of destination brand awareness on destination brand loyalty, the findings confirmed the sequential causal relationships between research concepts based on the S-O-R model.

Future research should explore the proposed model based on comparisons of different nationalities to better understand the impact of cultural factors.

DMOs should associate social media with their marketing strategies to enhance destination brand equity, using cutting-edge technologies to create content and update information in a significant way to make communications by DMOs more effective. The findings especially suggest that UGC plays a vital role in improving brand equity dimensions, so DMOs could exploit UGC to engage existing customers and build relationships with potential customers. This research provides guidance for DMOs to improve their brand equity based on social media.

This study has contributed to the destination marketing literature by applying the S-O-R theory to propose a pathway for effectively increasing destination brand equity and highlight the importance of social media communication as a driver to achieve a hierarchical relationship between destination brand equity components and tourist satisfaction from stimulus to organism (e.g. cognition to affect).