Requirements for destination management organizations in destination governance: Understanding DMO success

In current conceptualizations of destination management, destination management organizations (DMOs) are required to act as network managers. Previous research claims that DMOs capable of actively fostering collaboration between destination stakeholders are key to ensuring a destination's competitiveness. Yet, empirical investigations concerning the role of DMO success in establishing the competitiveness of destinations are rare. Even less is known about determinants of DMO success. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to better understand DMO and destination success by investigating the role played by networking capability. One key insight is that the effect of networking capability works through increased DMO authority, i.e. enhanced power and acceptance of the DMO within the destination network. Besides the advances in terms of content, our research also offers a relevant methodological contribution by introducing a recently developed approach in mediation analysis, which has so far received little attention in the tourism literature.     

Advancing destination image: The destination content model

Knowledge of the mental representations that individuals hold about tourist destinations are important to understand their intentions. These mental destination representations have often been investigated by applying the concept of destination image. This study argues that the extant literature is often rather atheoretical and lacks operational rigor. These are major shortcomings which undoubtedly hinder the development of academic and managerial insights. In response, this study draws on contemporary psychology to develop the destination content model, comprising three informational components held in individuals‘ minds about destinations. The present study further outlines preferable methods and measures for each component, thus aiding researchers to investigate mental destination representations.     

Representation of online image of tourist destination: a content analysis of Huangshan

Online image of tourist destination has emerged as a crucial element in the construction of tourist destination image. The destination, along with the online tourism marketers, plays an increasingly significant role in forming online image of tourist destination. This study takes Huangshan as an example and collects photographic and textual information of Huangshan from its official online media and online tourism marketers. Built upon the semiotic theory, content analysis, and visual analysis are employed to explore the online image of Huangshan. The analysis comprises the coding manual formation, coding check, and formal encoding. The results indicate that online image of tourist destination of Huangshan is composed of three elements, that is, tourism resources, tourism facilities, and tourism services, which further comprise several secondary elements. Different information sources with different demonstration focuses of online image of tourist destination elements are different. Consistency tendency is in common among the demonstration of online image of tourist destination elements in different media forms.     

Destination images,holistic images and personal normative beliefs: Predictors of intention to revisit a destination

This research examines the complex relationship between destination image components and behavioral intentions, incorporating two pivotal but unexplored in related literature constructs, namely holistic image and personal normative beliefs (PNBs). Previous studies incorporating destination images as predictors of intention to revisit have mostly investigated their direct effect. This research integrates holistic image as a mediator and PNBs as a moderator. The findings verify the mediating role of holistic image for predicting tourists' intention to revisit a destination, supporting a partial and a full mediation. Interestingly, only affective and conative images contribute to the prediction of tourists' intention to revisit a destination through the holistic image towards this destination. Moreover, PNBs moderate the effect that conative destination images have on tourists' holistic image. Practically, the research highlights factors that affect tourists' tendency to select a tourism destination, which can serve as a basis for tailoring the effective positioning of destinations.     

Mapping hotel brand positioning and competitive landscapes by text-mining user-generated content

This study uncovers hotel brand positioning and competitive landscape mapping by text-mining user-generated content (UGC). Rather than relying on a single dimension of consumer evaluation, the current study detects brand attributes by using both customer preferences as well as perceptual performance to develop meaningful insights. For this, the study combines content analysis and repertory grid analysis (RGA) to answer three key research issues. 111,986 hotel reviews from two biggest Chinese cities are used to explore and visualize the competitive landscape of six selected hotel brands across three hotel categories. Findings from the study will not only advance the existing literature on brand positioning and competitive landscape mapping but also help practitioners in developing brand positioning strategies to fight competitors within and across hotel categories.     

Social media constraints and destination images: The potential of barrier-free internet access for foreign tourists in an internet-restricted destination

This study explores the effects of social media use constraints on destination image under the internet restrictions in China. The empirical results indicate that information search constraints have a significant effect on the affective image of destinations through emotional experience. Not allowing certain social media use has negative implications for tourists’ image of a destination through their emotional responses. Furthermore, there is a moderating effect of information search constraints on the relationships between emotion and affective image. The key findings appeal for policy breakthroughs on barrier-free internet access for foreign tourists in Hainan, China’s largest emerging free trade zone and one of its top tourist destinations. This has clear management implications for regions with internet restrictions.     

Empowering the traveler: an examination of the impact of user-generated content on travel planning

ABSTRACT

In order to understand the role of user-generated content (UGC) in travel planning, this study integrates Psychological Empowerment with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), to develop a model of UGC-enabled empowerment and its impact on intention to use UGC when making travel plans. Survey data from 268 backpacker tourists revealed that perceived empowerment and perceived usefulness are significant drivers of attitude and intention to use UGC for travel planning. The findings provide the travel industry with a better understanding of how travelers’ perceptions of and use of UGC is empowering them to take greater control of the travel planning process.     

Generational differences in international stereotypes and destination images: tourism between partitioned states

Studies have attempted to understand tourism issues between politically divided countries, yet few studies have argued that tourism between such states has a strong generational component. This study examines the generational differences in South Koreans’ international stereotypes and tourism destination images of North Korea. While generational differences existed in international stereotypes, there were no differences in tourism destination images between generational cohorts. Young female South Koreans were likely to view North Korea more positively than males in the same generation, and generational differences were present in the intention to visit North Korea and the perception of peace through tourism.     

Exploring user-generated content related to dining experiences of consumers with food allergies

The purpose of this research was to explore and assess factors influencing perceptions of consumers with food allergies toward restaurants when accommodating allergen-free requests. Mixed approaches, including big data analytics (i.e., topic modeling), content analysis, and multiple regression analyses were performed to analyze user-generated reviews for restaurants listed on AllergyEats.com, an information-sharing platform for consumers with food allergies. Among the 40 topics identified, “knowledgeable staff” was the most prevalent topic. Results of topic correlation analyses revealed five groups of topics: customized orders, efforts of staff, menu options, fried foods and oil, and communication with shared latent features. Four topics in the group of “efforts of staff” had the highest positive impact on restaurant ratings, while two topics in the group of “communications” had the strongest negative impacts. Foodservice managers and educators may use the results of this study to better accommodate consumers with food allergies and develop appropriate training programs.     

Characterizing the location of tourist images in cities. Differences in user-generated images (Instagram), official tourist brochures and travel guides

This study analyses the extent to which there is an overlap in the territorial distribution and attractiveness of tourism images distributed via three different media: official tourist brochures, travel guides and user-generated content (Instagram). We applied a mixed-method approach, which included spatial analyses and cartography, to study the promotion of tourism in Montevideo (Uruguay). The results indicated a partial overlap between the locations captured in user-generated images and those promoted by official tourist brochures and travel guides. The findings suggest a territorial distribution of tourism images that is clearly differentiated according to the source(s). This provides useful insights for applications of social media into future geographical and image management research.     

The impact of destination source credibility on destination satisfaction: The mediating effects of destination attachment and destination image

Building emotional destination attachment is a key tourism destination branding issue in today's tourism market. The current study aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model for destination branding that borrows the concepts of brand credibility, brand image, brand attachment, and satisfaction. Based on the above concepts, this article hypothesizes the relationships among four constructs, namely, destination source credibility, destination image, and destination attachment as antecedents of destination satisfaction. These relationships are examined for a sample of 398 international tourists visiting a famous world heritage tourism destination (Angkor Wat) and a famous skyscraper (Taipei 101). The SEM indicates that destination source credibility and destination image could indeed affect tourist perceptions of destination satisfaction with regard to destination attachment. In addition, the mediating role of destination attachment and destination image is also confirmed in this study. The findings offer important implications for tourism management and practice.     

An analysis of user-generated crisis frames: Online public responses to a tourism crisis

A gap exists in the research on how online media frame a tourism crisis and the effects on travel intentions. This research proposed a basic crisis frames model for public online communications including nature (N), causes (C), processes (P), and results (R). Chinese online public opinions on the Thailand drownings in 2018 were collected and the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) technique explored the responses within the data. The results showed that: (1) crisis frames had a dynamic impact on negative travel intentions, and the effects and variance contributions of frames differed; (2) disturbance information produced by a negative communication incident from the destination was a factor promoting the accumulation of online public opinion; and (3) online data of public opinion and the VAR model are appropriate for research on tourism crisis information communication. This research provides new insights and a method for investigating tourism crises and dynamic responses in online communication.     

Examining destination images from travel blogs: a big data analytical approach using latent Dirichlet allocation

ABSTRACT

In the big data era, destination images have played an increasingly important role in tourism development. However, seldom tourism research has utilised big data analytics to examine destination images from travel blogs. Therefore, this study proposes and evaluates a big data analytical approach using latent Dirichlet allocation to extract attributes of online destination images from 140,286 travel blogs about 20 cities in China. Results reveal 14 dimensions with 54 attributes of destination images of the studied cities. Interesting findings are discovered between online destination images and tourism cities. This study also summarises the implications for tourism research and practice.     

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.     

“Sensing” the destination: Development of the destination sensescape index

Despite the increasing academic interest in the sensory dimension of the tourist experience, the quantitative empirical research in the field is limited by a lack of measurement instruments for evaluating the sensory stimuli perceived by tourists during a destination visit. The study addresses this gap by developing a composite index to assess the sensory destination panorama, termed as “destination sensescape”. The construct is conceptualised as a formative multidimensional variable with 5 dimensions (visualscape, smellscape, tastescape, soundscape, and hapticscape). The psychometric validity and reliability of the 17 items integrating the formative index were established by a rigorous multi-step procedure based on three empirical studies. The instrument was tested with data collected from visitors of a Mediterranean urban destination. The operationalisation of the destination sensescape construct not only paves the way for future quantitative sensory studies, but also yields a useful tool for Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs).     

The hidden risk in user-generated content: An investigation of ski tourers' revealed risk-taking behavior on an online outdoor sports platform

This paper investigates risk-taking behavior in the context of an online outdoor sports platform. Analyzing a unique behavioral dataset of 6242 ski tours completed over a time period of eight winter seasons, this paper shows that the accuracy of user-generated content on ski tours is limited and that more than one third of ski tours accessible on the respective online platform was relatively dangerous on the particular days according to a common avalanche risk assessment method. The quantitative analysis furthermore reveals that at avalanche danger level “considerable” more than sixty percent of ski tours were relatively dangerous. Overall, this paper provides novel insights into risks that come with user-generated content in the adventure tourism and adventure recreation domain and derives important implications for online platform users, online platform providers, public institutions, and tourism destinations.     

Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature

This article presents the first narrative analysis of the areas of research that have developed within the destination marketing field since its commencement in 1973. Given the broad extent of the field, and the absence of any previous reviews in four decades, a key challenge is in providing a focus for such a disparate body of knowledge. The review is structured around one principal question: ‘To what extent is the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) responsible for the competitiveness of the destination?’. In pursuit of this underlying question, we address a number of themes including nomenclature and the DMO, the evolution of the destination marketing literature, competitiveness as the DMO reason d'être, and DMO effectiveness including issues of branding and positioning, and future research themes in the field.     

A model of destination branding: Integrating the concepts of the branding and destination image

Despite the significance of destination branding in both academia and industry, literature on its conceptual development is limited. The current study aims to develop and test a theoretical model of destination branding, which integrates the concepts of the branding and destination image. The study suggests unique image as a new component of destination brand associations. It is proposed that the overall image of the destination (i.e., brand image) is a mediator between its brand associations (i.e., cognitive, affective, and unique image components) and tourists’ future behaviors (i.e., intentions to revisit and recommend). The results confirmed that overall image is influenced by three types of brand associations and is a critical mediator between brand associations and tourists’ future behaviors. In addition, unique image had the second largest impact on the overall image formation, following the cognitive evaluations.     

The effectiveness of the destination logo: Congruity effect between logo typeface and destination stereotypes

A well-designed logo can assist destination marketers in the development of destination identity and image, and yet the factors that contribute to an effective destination logo are poorly understood. Thus, this study aims to explore how typefaces influence the effectiveness of logos of destinations with differing stereotypes. By conducting four scenario-based experiments with different experimental stimuli, this study has revealed a congruity effect between logo typeface and destination stereotypes. Specifically, linking logos with handwritten typefaces with warm destinations, and machine-written typefaces with competent destinations can elicit more favorable attitudes and stronger travel intentions toward those destinations (Study 1). The results further showed that the congruity effect on tourists’ travel intentions is sequentially mediated by processing fluency and attitude (Studies 2a, 2b) and is attenuated for tourists with high needs for cognition (Study 3). This research also offers practical suggestions for destination marketers around the design of effective logos.     

Linking the dots among destination images,place attachment,and revisit intentions: A study among British and Russian tourists

Limited evidence suggests that the incorporation of both image components (cognitive, affective, and conative) and holistic image is meaningful for predicting tourists' revisit intentions. Extending this line of research, the present study aims to unravel the relative influence that each component of image has directly and indirectly, via holistic image, on revisit intentions. In doing so, we incorporate two national samples (British and Russians) of diverse tourist profile and significantly different levels of visitation frequency to investigate place attachment as a moderator. Evidence from 1362 British and 1164 Russian tourists indicated that all image components have a positive indirect effect on revisit intention via holistic image, while conative has also a direct one. As expected, the image components rank differently for British and Russian tourists. The indirect effects of destination images on revisit intention, except conative, are conditional and, interestingly, most of these are stronger for tourists with low PA.