Project description:BackgroundAlong with the rapid development of the Internet, the form of destination marketing is becoming increasingly innovative and diverse. Celebrity endorsement via social media, as an effective marketing strategy, has been widely used by various tourism companies to attract and engage with their customers. Previous studies have investigated the various aspects of such endorsement (e.g. the effect of endorser's attributes) in different contexts (e.g. Hotel, Restaurant, Airline). However, little research has focused on the influence of the tourists' parasocial relationship with endorsers on destination marketing. Accordingly, the current study aims to explore the role of parasocial relationships on tourists' destination attitude and visit intention.MethodThis study adopted quantitative method and conducted Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) for data analysis. 498 valid questionnaires were collected from Weibo (One of China's most popuar social media platforms).ResultsResults suggested that endorser's credibility positively influenced follower's parasocial relationship (p<0.001), which in turn positively influenced destination attitude and visit intention (p<0.001). Additionally, the parasocial relationship significantly mediated the relationship between credibility and destination attitude as well as visit intention (p<0.001).ConclusionThe emerging trend of celerbity endorsement via live-streaming makes tourism destination marketing more diverse and even effective. Through exploring the underlying mechanism of celebrity endorsement, this study can provide destination marketers with insights about how to build and strengthen the tourist's attitude and visit intention towards destiantion by developing their parasocial relationships with endorsers. This study also adds to the literature of using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) in tourism and hospiatlity research.
Project description:Online travel reviews have been extensively used as an important data source in tourism research. Typically, data for online travel review research is collected only from one platform. However, drawing definite conclusions based on single platform analyses may thus produce biases and lead to erroneous conclusions and decisions. Therefore, this research verifies whether or not there are discrepancies and commonalities between different travel review platforms. In this study, five native Chinese travel review platforms were selected: Ctrip; Qyer; Mafengwo; Tuniu; and Qunar. Using a mixed content analysis method, the destination image of Finland was extracted from 10,197 travel reviews in Simplified Chinese as the destination image is a popular topic in online review research. Results show Finland’s destination image representation varies between Chinese travel review platforms. This discrepancy is especially prominent in the dimension of functional and mixed functional-psychological destination attributes. Significant theoretical contributions and managerial implications for the analysis of online travel reviews and destination image research are discussed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40558-021-00201-w.
Project description:Perceived risk clearly impacts travel behavior, including destination selection and satisfaction, but it is unclear how or why its effect is only significant in certain cases. This is because existing studies have undervalued the mediating factors of risk aversion, government initiatives, and media influence as well as the multiple forms or dimensions of risk that can mask its direct effect. This study constructs a structural equation model of perceived risk's impact on destination image and travel intention for a more nuanced model of the perceived risk mechanism in tourism, based on 413 e-questionnaires regarding travel to Chengdu, China during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Bootstrap method to analyze suppressing effect. It finds that while perceived risk has a significant negative impact on destination image and travel intention, this is complexly mediated so as to appear insignificant. Furthermore, different mediating factors and dimensions of perceived risk operate differently according to their varied combinations in actual circumstances. This study is significant because it provides a theoretical interpretation of tourism risk, elucidates the mechanisms or paths by which perceived risk affects travel intention, and expands a framework for research on destination image and travel intention into the realms of psychology, political, and communication science. It additionally encourages people to pay greater attention to the negative impact of crises and focuses on the important role of internal and external responses in crisis management, which can help improve the effectiveness of crisis management and promote the sustainable development of the tourism industry.
Project description:The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of user-generated content (UGC) on intention to select a travel destination (ISTD) in the context that Internet users passively access to travel-related UGC. The paper further examines the mediating role of desire to visit a travel destination (DVTD), destination image, attitude toward visiting a travel destination (AVTD), and envy. This study developed a theoretical model on the basic of existing literature and empirical studies on consumer behavior and UGC. An online questionnaire was used to organize empirical research, and the structural equation model (SEM) method was employed to test the data of 407 respondents. The empirical results suggest that passive access to travel-related UGC (PAU) positively influences ISTD, DVTD, AVTD, and envy. Destination image significantly impacts DVTD, AVTD, and ISTD. DVTD, AVTD, and envy positively affect ISTD. DVTD, AVTD, and envy mediate the relationship between PAU and ISTD. This paper enriches the online consumer behavior research by contributing a predictive model of influence process of the exposure to UGC on user’s intention in the background of tourism industry. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41270-022-00174-7.
Project description:The Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected many sectors including aviation and travel. Travel bans and forced lockdowns prevented transportation activity, especially air travel. Accordingly, huge amounts of emission reductions occurred. On the other hand, travel restrictions are not the only cause of emissions reductions. Changing travel intention in the era of Covid-19 is another important factor that affects aviation emissions. This paper aims to investigate the Landing/Take-Off (LTO) emission changes at Turkish airports. An emission inventory has been implemented for the years 2019 and 2020 to reveal the impacts of Covid-19 on aviation emissions. Domestic, international, and cargo flights have been included in the inventory. According to the results, total emissions of SO2, CO2, CO, NOx, NMVOC, CH4, N2O, and PM2.5 have decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 by 49.8%, 49.7%, 41.0%, 52.6%, 40.0%, 33.8%, 49.8%, and 50.3%, respectively. Total CO2 reductions in the Q2, Q3, and Q4 periods of 2020 compared to that of 2019 are 87%, 50% and 43%, respectively. Another aim of this paper is to find the underlying reasons for emission reductions. For Turkish airports, emission reductions have resulted from travel bans in Q2. After the relaxation of restrictions with the declaration of the "New Normal" in Turkey, flight traffic rebounded to a certain level but was lower than 2019 levels. Therefore, changing travel intention is the main cause of emission reductions in Q3 and Q4 of 2020. The results of this study contribute to both the areas of air pollution and tourism management.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-023-02916-8.
Project description:Few prior studies have investigated place image from the residents' perspective, how this and residents' place attachment influence attitude to tourism, and consequent reactions. Accordingly, this study aims to develop a model for local residents' pro-tourism behavioral intention and to discover the relationships between constructs. Analysis was based on a sample of 370 residents in Huangshan City, China. Results indicate that residents' attitude to tourism positively affects their pro-tourism behavioral intention. Residents' place image is found to positively relate to place attachment and attitude to tourism, while place attachment is also related to attitude and pro-tourism behavioral intention. In addition, attitude to tourism mediates place image's and place attachment's respective relationships with pro-tourism behavioral intention. Lastly, place image indirectly impacts residents' attitude to tourism and pro-tourism behavioral intention through place attachment. However, the positive relationship between place image and pro-tourism behavioral intention is not supported. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Project description:The focus of this research is to present an analysis of the knowledge, attitude, and trust of selected Indonesian public groups regarding the application of Agribiotechnology. This study employs a descriptive research design. The data consists of 266 respondents in two different localities in east Java, Indonesia: Jember and Bondowoso. Eight different categories of respondents were defined: students, scientists, non-government organizations, media, policymakers, consumers, producers and religious scholars. Participants responded to items assessing their knowledge, attitudes and trust toward the use of agribiotechnology, specifically in food production and how their cultural ethics, norms, or religious beliefs influence their engagement with the technology. The findings highlighted varying perspectives on the knowledge, attitude, and trust among the eight groups towards agribiotechnology application concerning responses that emphasized several content areas such as the genetic modification of crops and plants and implications of the technology on the daily lives of the Indonesian.
Project description:BackgroundTravel, especially international travel, has become one of the most popular leisure activities in the world. The risk of accidents and travel-related illnesses, including infectious and non-communicable diseases, should not be neglected. To provide a more comprehensive pre-travel consultation to international travelers, this study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of travelers about travel health insurance.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study. Anonymous structured questionnaires were distributed to 1000 visitors to the Taiwan International Travel Fair in May 2019.ResultsThe top three important travel health insurances were accidental death and disablement insurance (92%), accidental medical reimbursement (90.4%), and 24-hour emergency assistance (89%). In addition to education level, travel-associated illness, and special activities during travel, a significant association was observed between the willingness to buy various travel health insurances and the willingness of pre-travel consultation.ConclusionsMost travelers would buy travel health insurance; however, disproportional respondents understood the content of travel health insurance. Most travelers considered travel clinics to be the most reliable information source regarding travel health insurance. Therefore, travel medicine specialists are encouraged to offer more information about travel health insurance during pre-travel consultation.
Project description:This data article analyzes the changes in travel habits and destination preferences among Thai domestic travelers before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected through an online survey conducted on Facebook, Line, and Instagram, with a sample size of 460 valid respondents. The article provides descriptive statistics and frequency data on travel behavior and attitudes related to various tourist attractions before and after the onset of the pandemic. These insights can be valuable for transportation and tourist destination management in Thailand, as they can be used to compare with other studies using similar methods and outcomes and help to develop specialized and targeted solutions for addressing changes in travel trends and demand after the pandemic. For more information, see the full article titled "Using factor analyses to understand the post-pandemic travel behavior in domestic tourism through a questionnaire survey."
Project description:Trust is foundational for social relations. Current psychological models focus on specific evaluative and descriptive content underlying initial impressions of trustworthiness. Two experiments investigated whether trust also depends on subjective consistency-a sense of fit between elements. Experiment 1 examined how consistency of simple verbal characterizations influences trust judgments. Experiment 2 examined how incidental visual consistency impacts trust judgments and economic decisions reflecting trust. Both experiments show that subjective consistency positively and uniquely predicts trust judgments and economic behavior. Critically, subjective consistency is a unique predictor of trust that is irreducible to the content of individual elements, either on the dimension of trust or the dimension of valence. These results show that trust impressions are not a simple sum of the contributing parts, but reflect a "gestalt". The results fit current frameworks emphasizing the role of predictive coding and coherence in social cognition.