Tourists' shopping experiences at street markets: Cross-country research

Considering shopping as one of the most important motivations for travel, this study focuses on tourists' shopping attitudes towards street markets while on a vacation. Specifically, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model that assesses how price consciousness and perceived utility, as critical drivers of attitudes in street markets, may influence tourist satisfaction and future intentions. As opposed to the structure of previous research, this study is also based on a cross-national comparative study conducted among foreign tourists visiting Algarve, Portugal and Bodrum, Turkey, in the summer of 2011. Study findings confirm that price and utility perceptions are the most important marketplace cues and higher level of satisfaction moderates tourists' willingness to return or recommend street markets in both destinations.     

Using geoinformatics to assess tourist dispersal at the state level

Advanced tracking technologies have facilitated the tracking of tourists' movement with high levels of spatial resolution, allowing for the exploration of factors that influence dispersal. However, the degree to which different analytical indices impact the results that they generate, remains under-researched. This study uses a high tempo-spatial resolution data set of location tracking information that was collected in the island state of Tasmania, Australia, using a mobile phone research application. It compares the results that emerge when four different analytical indicators are used to quantify tourist dispersal. The results improve understandings of the role that analytical indicators play in assessing dispersal, along with the underlying factors that influence tourists' dispersal at the state scale.     

Motivations Of Repeat Visits: A Longitudinal Study in Xiamen,China

This article reports on an empirical study of the motivations behind tourists' repeat visits to an urban destination from a longitudinal perspective. The study was conducted in Xiamen, a coastal city in Southeast China, which offers leisure lifestyles and attracts repeat visits. Six motivational factors driving repeat visit intentions are identified using exploratory factor analysis. Based on motivational differences, repeat visitors are typologized using K-means cluster analysis into four groups: Externally driven repeaters, Memory recallers, Novelty seekers, and Special interest repeaters. Implications of the study for destination marketing and management are also discussed.     

Travel motivation among cross border tourists: Case study of Langkawi

Research that focuses on regional tourists in Malaysia is scarce in literature. This study examined the influence of travel motivations; economic, nature, and cultural aspects on tourists' loyalty intention in the context of Langkawi Island, Malaysia. A total of 200 fully answered questionnaires were collected from ASEAN tourists on the island using the purposive sampling technique, and the data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique. The results confirmed that the ‘economic aspect’ and ‘nature aspect’ are important motivational factors affecting tourists' loyalty intention to revisit Langkawi. Although cultural aspect influences loyalty intention, its effect was weak. Managerial and marketing recommendations were made for tourism in Langkawi based on these findings.     

Can gamification improve the virtual reality tourism experience? Analyzing the mediating role of tourism fatigue

Although virtual reality (VR) technology has been increasingly applied in the tourism industry, improving the VR experience of tourists remains a challenge. Based on two studies, this paper examines how gamification can improve the VR tourism experience through reducing tourism fatigue. Study 1 explores the relationship between gamification, tourism fatigue, and tourist satisfaction. The results show that tourists are more satisfied with a gamified, rather than non-gamified, VR tourism experience, and that motivational fatigue plays a mediating role between gamification and tourism satisfaction. Study 2 provides further evidence that four elements in gamification (challenge, feedback, reward, and leaderboard) can alleviate motivational fatigue and improve tourist satisfaction, with feedback playing the biggest role. The findings have valuable practical implications for VR experience providers, for destination practitioners in VR experience enhancement, and for the application of gamification to the VR tourism experience.     

Virtual pets want to travel: Engaging visitors,creating excitement

This paper proposes a gamified approach to promote tourism attractions based on users' interaction with a virtual pet in the context of an AR mobile application. Technology Acceptance Model, 6–11 Framework and Persuasive Systems Design are combined, to extract factors influencing the intention to travel with the virtual pet. A survey questionnaire was developed and administered online to 539 participants. Outcomes of this study highlight the significant role of emotional attachment and rewarding experience towards intention to travel with a virtual pet. The outcomes also helped us to develop a new ‘Intention to Travel’ (I2T) model. To interest and excite prospective visitors, a design of a mobile game with Augmented Reality (AR) features is proposed which will involve engaging interactions with virtual pets to attract visitors to desired location(s). Practitioners such as game developers and tourism policy makers may consider the virtual pets as a vehicle to impact tourists' behavior.     

Spatial-temporal response patterns of tourist flow under entrance tourist flow control scheme

This paper explores the relationship between tourists' information demand about entrance tourist flow control schemes (ETFCS) and tourists' entrance transfer decision-making behavior, using the case study of the Summer Palace, one of the most important resort destinations in Beijing, China. After discussing tourists' decision-making behavior under ETFCS information, a revealed preference and stated preference survey (N = 1742 valid observations) were created and a joint choice model of tourist's entrance transfer and diversion entrance selection was established. Results show how various ETFCS are formulated and affect tourists' decision-making behavior under different traffic congestion. Sensitivity analysis reveals that tourists' entrance transfer decision-making behavior is related to the entry time of current crowded entrance and the time saved from the diversion entrance. Hence it is possible to formulate ETFCS in terms of tourist's spatial-temporal distribution in order to anticipate the levels of tourist intensity, especially during peak periods.     

What motivates visitors to participate in a gamified trip? A player typology using Q methodology

Destinations have offered diverse gamified trips in the last 10 years. However, there is a lack of understanding on what motivates visitors to participate in such a trip. As one of the first attempts to examine visitors' motivations for taking a gamified trip, this paper conceptualizes and categorizes gamified trips, explores reasons for liking or disliking them, proposes 34 travel motivations, and categorizes players of these trips into six types, including knowledge collectors, reward seekers, explorers, curiosity seekers, sensation seekers, and flow experiencers. The research sheds light upon this emerging phenomenon and provides implications on how to design appealing gamified trips for different market segments. Additionally, this paper expands the use of Q methodology to travel motivation research. The framework of conducting a Q methodology lays a foundation for future studies.     

Tourism destination decisions: the impact of risk aversion and prior experience

This study broadly explores the impact of risk aversion on tourists' destination decisions and, in particular, explores for differences in individuals' leisure and medical tourism destination decisions. The results of this study indicate that risk aversion significantly distinguishes tourists' destination decisions in both leisure and medical tourism in Indonesia, but not in Singapore. All risk-averse groups are less likely to visit Indonesia than Singapore for leisure and medical purposes. By contrast, all risk-averse groups are likely to visit Singapore for leisure purposes, although they remain unlikely to travel to Singapore for medical tourism. In addition, the study found that the impact of prior experience on the likelihood that the two risk-averse groups will travel to Indonesia and Singapore for leisure was significant. Conversely, the effects of prior experience on medical tourism generally do not significantly differ between the two countries.     

Efficacy of co-creation and mastering on perceived value and satisfaction in tourists' consumption

This study explores effects of participation, namely co-creation and mastering, on the perceived value of consumers' experience and satisfaction. Co-creation comprises both physical and psychological (mental) participation, and mastering represents consumers' self-perceived knowledge and skills in taking part in experiential activities. Adventure tourism is chosen as the setting. A logit model is used to test the hypothesis. The study results reveal that tourists' mastering and psychological co-creation are significant for value perception. Further, value perception is found to mediate the relation between participation and satisfaction. Consequently, tourists' participation augments satisfaction by creating value in the experience. This study contributes to the theory in two ways. First, it reveals the importance of including the mastering and co-creation dimensions in acknowledging tourists' as resource integrators for value creation in experiences. Second, satisfaction in tourism consumption evolves through tourists' participation in creating value of the experience.     

A Critical Investigation of the Bargaining Behavior of Tourists: The Case of Hong Kong Open-Air Markets

Shopping has long been recognized as an indispensable tourist activity. Hong Kong's open-air markets, where a multitude of bargaining activities can be observed, ranked as the second most popular of the island territory's diverse range of attractions in 2008 in terms of tourist arrivals. To develop cutting-edge marketing strategies that promote tourists' enjoyment of their bargaining adventure and ultimately enhance the overall shopping experience, the study reported in this article was aimed at identifying the dimensions underlying tourists' perceptions of the importance of 18 bargaining motivators and 12 bargaining attitudes and types of bargaining behavior, respectively, and subsequently evaluating the predictability of these underlying dimensions on tourists' shopping contentment indicators (overall bargaining satisfaction, the likelihood of a subsequent visit, and the likelihood of recommending open-air markets to others). A non-probability quota sampling technique was used to survey 203 Asian and non-Asian tourists in Hong Kong. A multivariate approach encompassing factor analysis and multiple regression was employed: Factor analysis delineated four underlying dimensions of factors affecting bargaining intentions. “Value for money” was shown to be the factor rated most important to tourists' bargaining intention; similarly, two underlying dimensions of bargaining attitudes and behavior—“bargain for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity”—were identified. Multiple regression results indicated the statistical significance of “bargaining for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity” to the existence of positive relations between shopping contentment indicators.     

Human value co-creation behavior in tourism: Insight from an Australian whale watching experience

This study explores and tests a comprehensive model of co-creation in creating value and tourist satisfaction. In addition to being the first study to empirically test the customer value co-creation behavior scale developed by Yi and Gong (2013), the present work adds to theory by revealing the importance of tourists' mental co-creation and employees' active participation in creating value and satisfaction for the customer. Factor analyses and econometric models of logit model and multivariable ordinary least squares regression are applied to a sample of 1024 whale watching tourists. The study finds that tourists' participation is more important in influencing their perceived value during the experience than their satisfaction. Employees' input is key to the experience in enhancing tourists' value and satisfaction. The main contribution of the study is the inclusion of co-creation behaviors from different human actors including tourists and employees. Opportunities for future research are outlined.     

How Satisfied are Inbound Medical Tourists in Malaysia? A Study on Private Hospitals in Kuala Lumpur

The study explores inbound medical tourists' satisfaction from 137 respondents sampled using the combination of purposeful and convenience samplings in five private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur. In descending order of scores, medical tourists are most satisfied with doctors, nurses, hospital services, hospital atmosphere, and hospital facilities. Hospital facilities and doctors are the two most important dimensions in influencing the overall satisfaction. There are significant differences in the levels of satisfaction within demographic profiles. The article contributes to knowledge on the establishment of dimensions and items pertinent to measuring medical tourists' satisfaction and the results provide insights into managerial and marketing implications.     

To buy or not to buy? The effect of time scarcity and travel experience on tourists' impulse buying

By its very nature, tourism is a temporary experience. But how time scarcity makes an impact on tourists' impulse buying is still unclear. By looking into the role played by travel experience and overconfidence, this study explores the mechanism behind the influence of time scarcity on tourist impulse buying of local products through an integrated series of experiments together with a post-trip survey. The results show that the interaction between time scarcity and travel experience affects impulse buying. For tourists with rich travel experience, time scarcity increases their impulse buying, while for tourists with less travel experience, time scarcity decreases it. Overconfidence plays a mediating role in the effect of time scarcity and travel experience on tourists' impulse buying.     

The Impact of Cultural Distance on Perceived Service Quality Gaps

Abstract

The data base of previously published research which tested a SERVQUAL-Gap model for tourists' judgments with respect to service quality for seven different quality dimensions and seven different vacation activities in alpine tourism (Weiermair and Fuchs 1999, Fuchs and Weiermair 1998) is used to explore the potential impact of tourists' cultural belonging upon their judgment regarding the overall and partial service quality experience in different settings of tourism activities. Using respondents' characteristics with respect to their country of residence and past vacation experience in alpine skiing the paper attempts to construct a proxy for cultural distance which subsequently is tested for its impact upon service quality judgments of tourists. A bifurcation hypothesis is proposed and used, whereby tourists from very distant cultures either display high tolerance levels for “exotic” or non-familiar service quality, thus yielding high quality judgment scores or alternatively, cultural distance is associated with higher transaction costs of the tourism experience resulting in significantly lower quality judgment scores. The presence of a matrix of 49 separate service quality scores allowed to differentiate the cultural impact hypothesis with respect to different service quality settings. The paper provides some tentative conclusions which have important ramification regarding the question of product development and the management and/or control of service quality for culturally different tourist segments.     

Commercial hospitality in destination experiences: McDonald's and tourists' consumption of space

This paper examines the multiple roles that globalised, branded spaces of hospitality can play in tourists' experiences in destinations. It is argued that previous studies have not considered adequately how such commercial hospitality services and spaces interact with and influence tourists' experiences of places. Drawing on a netnographic analysis of online discussions of McDonald's, this study explores how tourists perceive these hospitality venues, and how they use them to engage with foreign destinations and negotiate the ‘work of tourism’. The data show how tourists (re)construct their identities through reflections on consuming McDonald's. The data also demonstrate that tourists critically evaluate discourses of authenticity and the (in)authenticity of consuming McDonald's. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for the marketing and management of McDonald's and similar branded commercial hospitality venues, the marketing and management of destinations, and it outlines avenues for further research.     

What Facilitates a Festival Tourist? Investigating Tourists’ Experiences at a Local Community Festival

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of festival attributes and tourism facilitators on tourist satisfaction. The results of this study show that festival attributes has a positive and significant effect on tourists' satisfaction. Data analysis also revealed a positive and a significant effect of intrapersonal facilitators and structural facilitators on tourists' satisfaction. However, interpersonal facilitators do not allow a significant impact on tourists' satisfaction in the festival context. One of the most important findings is that festival commercialization is the strongest predictor of tourists' satisfaction. Structural facilitators are regarded as of primary importance in determining the satisfaction of festival tourists. Future research is needed to investigate other important antecedents of tourists' satisfaction across other festivals or locations, and to identify the complex nature of festival tourists' satisfaction. Finally, a longitudinal approach will better elucidate the relationships between measurement variables and their antecedents.     

Travel selfies on social media as objectified self-presentation

While disseminating self-related information and travel selfies via social network sites, many tourists strategically adjust photographic images to manage their impressions. With a sample of Korean female tourists, this study aims to examine the underlying nature of strategic self-presentation behaviors characterized by women's personal efforts to edit and package their travel selfies posted on social media webpages. The results of this study indicate that several elements of self-objectification, including appearance surveillance and appearance dissatisfaction, are closely associated with female tourists' strategic self-presentational orientation. This study suggests different management implications to help tourism practitioners successfully distribute desired destination images using their clienteles' strategic self-presentation behaviors.     

Exploring the influence of tourists’ happiness on revisit intention in the context of Traditional Chinese Medicine cultural tourism

Based on how tourists interpret the destination experience and on attachment theory, this study investigates the influencing mechanism of tourists' happiness on revisit intention for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) cultural tourism destinations. Three tourist samples confirm the three dimensions of tourists' happiness: positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. Two surveys were conducted to test the direct and indirect influence of tourists' happiness on revisit intention and the moderating role of tourists' health consciousness. The results show that tourists' happiness promotes memorable tourism experience and place attachment, in turn stimulating revisit intention. The results also support health consciousness as a significant moderator between happiness, place attachment, and revisit intention. The findings enrich theoretical understanding of tourists’ happiness and provide marketing and management advice for TCM cultural tourism destinations.