Attributes that influence the evaluation of travel dining experience: When East meets West

Many destination marketers have utilized gastronomy as a source of new products and activities to attract tourists. Despite the substantial rise in the Chinese outbound market, very little is known about how Chinese tourists evaluate their travel dining experiences. By using narrative analysis, this study examines attributes that may affect Chinese tourists' evaluation of their travel dining experiences. On-site participant observation and focus group interviews were conducted, respectively, with Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong group tourists, while they were on holiday in Australia. A total of 15 attributes were identified, which were classified under the following six categories: tourists' own food culture, the contextual factor of the dining experience, variety and diversity of food, perception of the destination, service encounter, and tour guide's performance. The respective implications of the attributes on travel dining experience are also discussed.     

The influence of travel photo editing on tourists’ experiences

Photo editing has become a prevalent practice when people share their travel photos on social media. This study examines this understudied phenomenon by exploring travelers' photo-editing behavior and its impact on tourists' destination experiences. Three pilot interviews and 23 in-depth interviews were conducted using photo-elicitation. The results show that photo editing does not necessarily alter the objective part of the trip memories, but rather reminds tourists of more positive than negative memories. Compliments from the social media audience on the edited photos improve tourists' overall recall of their destination experiences and further enhance their reflection on these experiences. The findings also enrich the understanding of the hermeneutic circle of representation in tourists’ photo editing behavior.     

Analysis of Blogs and Microblogs: A Case Study of Chinese Bloggers Sharing Their Hong Kong Travel Experiences

Blogs and microblogs became popular in recent years among people who would like to share their travel experiences online. This is a phenomenon which marketers are interested in but know very little about. This exploratory study analyzes blog and microblog contents created by mainland Chinese visitors sharing their Hong Kong experiences, with the objective of gaining insights into how bloggers communicate their travel experiences and how this could help market a destination. Three hundred blog posts and 300 microblog posts are analyzed. Research results indicate a generally positive image of Hong Kong as a destination among the mainland Chinese bloggers. The study also profiles the bloggers by their usage pattern and identifies opportunities for using the social media for destination marketing purpose. While the case study is about Hong Kong, the research method and blogging patterns identified would also apply in other destination situations.     

Learning patterns of tourist movement and photography from geotagged photos at archaeological heritage sites in Cuzco,Peru

The popularity of media sharing platforms in recent decades has provided an abundance of open source data that remains underutilized by heritage scholars. By pairing geotagged internet photographs with machine learning and computer vision algorithms, we build upon the current theoretical discourse of anthropology associated with visuality and heritage tourism to identify travel patterns across a known archaeological heritage circuit, and quantify visual culture and experiences in Cuzco, Peru. Leveraging large-scale in-the-wild tourist photos, our goals are to (1) understand how the intensification of tourism intersects with heritage regulations and social media, aiding in the articulation of travel patterns across Cuzco's heritage landscape; and to (2) assess how aesthetic preferences and visuality become entangled with the rapidly evolving expectations of tourists, whose travel narratives are curated on social media and grounded in historic site representations.     

The Influence of Novelty-Seeking and Risk-Perception Behavior on Holiday Decisions and Food Preferences

This research examines how novelty-seeking and risk-taking characteristics influence holiday dining preferences and travel style. International Tourist Role Scale and the Food Activity Preferences scale (FAP) were applied in combination with visual imagery to simulate different cultural food settings and restaurant situations. Three distinct market segments were identified. The three clusters included: familiarity-seeking generalists, organized comfort-seekers, and explorers. The findings highlight the differences across the clusters with respect to their demographic profile, travel style, risk-taking, and food preference decisions. The findings suggest that if Australian tourism management wishes to stay competitive and attract the growing Chinese inbound market, they should take both novelty-seeking and risk-taking into account when planning their marketing strategies.     

The creation of memorable dining experiences: formative index construction

Memorable experiences in restaurant settings are not well understood, and little is known about what they represent and how they should be measured. This study filled this knowledge gap by developing a formative index to assess and measure memorable dining experiences (MDE). Drawing upon strategic experiential modules, MDE was conceptualized as a second-order formative construct consisting of five first-order dimensions including sensory, affect, behavioral, social, and intellectual. This study adopted a mixed methods approach combining in-depth interviews and an online survey to determine and evaluate the underlying structure of MDE. Using PLS-PM as the analytical technique, the results of the data supported that MDE was a second-order formative construct, with 37 items capturing the five first-order dimensions. The study provided a comprehensive conceptualization of the MDE and a measurement scale with strong psychometric properties to help hospitality managers create and measure such experiences to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Detailed implications for academics and practitioners are provided.     

Travelers’ social identification and membership behaviors in online travel community

Given the growing use of the Internet, not only for the purchasing of holidays but also for exchange of information and sharing experiences, the issue of how social identification is created in an online community assumes potential importance. This study investigates travel members’ social identification through their online community experience and its positive behavioral outcomes (i.e., membership behaviors). Data are derived from 352 respondents belonging to MSN groups and are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results of this study show that members’ active participation fortifies their sense of belonging to the online travel community, which makes members support the community by showing several positive member behaviors such as knowledge sharing, community promotion, and behavioral changes. Travel member’s interaction levels are further revealed to strengthen the magnitudes of the proposed relationships.     

Why do people share their travel experiences on social media?

Tourism practices and destination decisions are more and more affected by the opinions of trusted friends channeled through social media, and it is therefore of great interest to explore the role that this plays in the travel context. It is also valuable to understand the behaviour of people commonly known as “lurkers”, who travel but do not share their experiences with others. We draw on social influence theory and its three constructs – identification, internalization, and compliance, as well as the users’ personality, to investigate these issues. Based on 381 responses, findings reveal two dominant reasons: first, perceived enjoyment was the most important motive for travellers to share their travel experiences on online networks and travel websites. Second, security and privacy issues are the top latent reasons. This study extends the tourism literature by combining all online behaviours into one single model. We also provide suggestions for further research.     

Insights from images posted on social media: Examining the motivations of volunteer tourists

Extensive research has been conducted on the motivations of volunteer tourists; however, the scope has not included how motivation is expressed through the posting of images on social media. This study examines the relationship between volunteer tourists’ motivations and social media use through the identification of picture publishing behavior based on motivations. An online survey yielding 260 complete responses is used and statistical tests investigate the relationship between demographic factors, motivations and social sharing of photos. The results show that demographics have little impact; however, there is a relationship between motivation and photo sharing and between motivation and volume of photos.     

Tourism and health: using positive psychology principles to maximise participants’ wellbeing outcomes – a design concept for charity challenge tourism

This conceptual paper explores the use of psychology, especially positive psychology, to inform the design of travel experiences for a specific health outcome – enhanced participant wellbeing or mental health. It extends the concept of sustainable tourism as a tool for local, regional and societal improvement. Mental health is a growing issue in many developed countries: 30% of Australians report depressive symptoms, with implications for social sustainability. The paper reviews how positive psychology seeks to combine hedonic, eudemonic and social wellbeing into the integrated concept of “flourishing”, creating positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. It uses the charity challenge model to explore tourism experiences that enhance participant wellbeing. Charity challenges are participatory, group travel events combined with extended physical activity, awareness-raising, and fund-raising for charity. These events inherently combine recognised pathways to wellbeing, e.g. being active, doing something meaningful, giving, and connecting with others. Other principles from positive psychology, such as intentional and volitional activity, goal attainment, activation of signature strengths, experiencing positive emotions/gratification, and capitalisation on positive experiences, can be incorporated into the event design to foster wellbeing outcomes. The paper suggests how this design might take shape, as well as management implications and further research questions.     

The joint effects of need for status and mental imagery perspective on luxury hospitality consumption in China

Given the increasing influence of social media on the hospitality industry, luxury hotels have begun to utilize social media platforms as primary marketing tools. This research reveals the joint effects of mental imagery perspective and need for status on Chinese consumers’ intentions to partake in luxury hotel experiences after viewing social media photos about luxury hotel consumption. For affluent consumers with high need for status, photos taken from a first-person (vs. third-person) perspective lead to higher behavioral intentions. This research further demonstrates that immersion serves as an underlying mechanism. The findings have important implications for luxury hotel managers.     

强关系网络移动社交平台旅游分享行为研究——基于微信与QQ用户的资料分析

在移动社交媒体时代,旅游分享已成为当下旅游者的行为偏好,越来越多的旅游者选择微信、QQ这类强关系移动社交平台进行分享。国内学界对移动社交平台旅游分享行为的研究随之日增,但少有文章从理论上系统地揭示旅游分享行为的过程与动因。文章采用扎根理论研究方法,构建反映强关系网络移动社交平台的旅游分享动态过程理论模型。将旅游分享行为动态过程划分为分享前因、分享实现与分享结果3个阶段,总结每个阶段的行为特征、表现方式及阶段之间的演替规律,并探讨这类旅游分享行为的特点与动因。研究发现,在旅游分享动机上,强关系移动社交平台强调情感联结与互动,从而旅游者受到与个体相关动机的影响更为显著;分享内容上,平台的强关系特性与熟人社交促使旅游者尽量避免分享负面信息;分享结果上,强关系移动社交平台的旅游分享能调节旅游者行中、行后的体验水平,并形成兼具网络时空拓展性与熟人圈规模局限性的口碑传播。     

Abroad-at-Home: Identifying domestic tourism locations for overseas-like travel experiences by leveraging concept modeling

Some countries have places with foreign-like scenery that attracts domestic visitors to enjoy overseas-like travel experiences. However, such overseas-like travel experiences have not been widely utilized for domestic tourism development. This is likely due to the lack of awareness among the scientific community and tools for effectively identifying such travel experiences. To address the related gaps and technical challenges, this paper investigates the potential of abroad-at-home as a type of domestic tourism for promoting domestic tourism. This paper also introduces a novel technique called concept modeling that identifies abroad-at-home travel experiences from travel photos taken within a country. A case study on a large-scale dataset of more than 265,000 geotagged travel photos taken in Australia demonstrated the effectiveness of this method. The proposed method and findings are valuable for tourism organizations that use abroad-at-home travel experiences for domestic tourism development.     

Micro-celebrity restaurant manifesto: The roles of innovation competency,foodstagramming, identity-signaling,and food personality traits

Dining in Internet-celebrity (or micro-celebrity) restaurants is an increasingly popular indulgence. Rooted in the micro-celebrity economy research, the present study draws on self-signaling and self-determination theories to propose an integrated research framework that examines how extrinsic and intrinsic factors impact customers’ intention to revisit micro-celebrity restaurants. External social needs (i.e., restaurant competence, signaling identity, and foodstagramming benefits) and internal personality traits (i.e., neophilic and neophobic tendencies) are synthesized to better understand their impacts on conative propensities. The findings indicate that foodstagramming benefits mediates the relationship between restaurant competence and intention to revisit, whereas neophilic renders a boundary condition suppressing this relationship. However, neophilic and neophobic tendencies positively moderate the effect of identity-signaling.     

Beyond the authentic taste: The tourist experience at a food museum restaurant

This study investigates the factors influencing food experiences perceived by food tourists in the context of a food museum and its associated restaurant. A qualitative exploratory approach was employed, using Chinese tourists visiting Hangzhou Cuisine Museum in Zhejiang province. This research finds that food tourists look for knowledge accumulation and gastronomic experiences when visiting a food museum and restaurant complex, and each experience is formed by both tourist and setting factors. The findings highlight the significant and more complex engagement of setting factors in the museum restaurants. The institutionalised characteristics of museums are equally expected within the in-house restaurants, and social trust in the museum along with external factors that verify authentic representation of the museum contributed to the perceived authenticity of the food tourist's dining experience. This paper discusses broad implications for food experience design at food museums and restaurants as emerging tourism attractions.     

A multilevel synthesis of subjective and objective measures of foodservices in the experience process

This study develops a multilevel framework that connects customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction quality to brand attachment through customer experience. Two food traits—uniqueness and taste—and service quality are posited to play different roles in this link. This research contributes to the literature on the effects of food traits and service on the experience creation process at upscale restaurants. By including both objective measures from user-generated ratings and subjective measures from customer evaluations of restaurant dining, this research sheds new light on the cross-level direct and moderating effects on the experience creation process, and thus answers the question of when and how this process is contingent on food traits and service of different dining outings. It further contributes to the brand attachment literature by revealing the cross-level moderated mediating effect of customer experience on customer emotional connection to a restaurant brand.     

Understanding the relationship between food experiential quality and customer dining satisfaction: A perspective on negative bias

This research explores how food experiential quality of consumers affects their overall dining satisfaction. Drawing on negative bias theory, we propose a nonlinear relationship between food experiential quality and customer dining satisfaction. Moreover, we investigate how restaurant price moderates the nonlinear relationship between food experiential quality and customer dining satisfaction. Results of the threshold model using 10,950 online reviews of 219 restaurants on Dianping.com provide support for the proposed hypotheses. The results suggest that a curvilinear relationship is found between food experiential quality dining satisfaction, and the turning points of nonlinear returns decreases for restaurants that belong to high-priced groups. Theoretically, our findings contribute to the existing literature by considering the nonlinear effect of food experiential quality on customer dining satisfaction in the hospitality area through the lens of negative bias, as well as considering the boundary condition. Practically, our findings suggest that restaurant managements can improve customer dining satisfaction through focusing on the food experiential quality of their customers and enhancing their response to customers who have low-level food experiential quality. In addition, if the restaurant price is high, restaurant managers should provide high-level of food experiential quality.     

The uniqueness of entrepreneurship in the sharing accommodation sector: Developing a scale of entrepreneurial capital

Hosts on sharing lodging platforms are viewed as an emerging form of entrepreneurs. This study aims to define entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial capitals and generate a multidimensional scale of entrepreneurial capitals for sharing accommodations (ECSA). A rigid procedure with three steps was followed to develop and validate this scale. An initial pool of items was provided through content analysis of 59 written surveys and literature review in Step 1. In Step 2 exploratory factor analysis (n = 150) was applied to further purify and refine this preliminary item pool. The 17-item ECSA scale was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (n = 328) in Step 3. Results support ECSA which covers four perspectives (i.e., financial, social, intellectual, and human capitals). The ECSA scale enriches the research body of entrepreneurship by examining an emerging business phenomenon. And it prepares practitioners for becoming micro-entrepreneurs on sharing lodging platforms.     

Keeping up with the joneses: emergence of travel as a form of social comparison among millennials

The idea of “Keeping Up with the Joneses” was developed as a phenomenon wherein people want to own the same objects and do the same things as their peers in order to keep up with them socially. Along with the combined rise of globalization, mobile technology and the millennial mindset of valuing experiences over material possessions, this research qualitatively examines how travel has become a marker of status among certain subpopulations of the millennial cohort, along with identifying idiosyncrasies of their social networking habits in conjunction with their travel behaviors. Ascending opportunities for travel and tourism marketing practitioners are denoted.