The impact of tour quality and tourist satisfaction on tourist loyalty: The case of Chinese tourists in Korea

This study examines the causal relationship between tourist expectations, tourist motivations, tour quality, tourist satisfaction, tourist complaints and tourist loyalty of Chinese tourists in the Republic of Korea using path analysis. It was found that tourist expectations have a negative effect on the perceived experiential quality of the tour, yet tourist motivation has a positive effect on the perceived tour quality. In turn, the perceived tour quality has a positive effect on tourist satisfaction. Similarly there is an inverse relationship between satisfaction and tourist complaints, and a positive relationship exists between satisfaction and loyalty. Equally, the higher is the number of complaints, the lower are the loyalty levels. These results will provide potential guidelines for inbound tour agents who plan to attract Chinese tourists to Korea and enable them to formulate appropriate strategies. This study also seeks to contribute to conceptual and policy formation by understanding the determinants of tourist satisfaction and loyalty.     

The impact of using non-media information sources on the future use of mass media information sources: The mediating role of expectations fulfillment

An empirical study of 350 tourists reveals that using non-media information sources for planning tourist trips influences expectations fulfillment. The use of non-media information sources also has a direct impact on the future use of mass media information sources for future tourist trip planning, as well as an indirect impact through expectations fulfillment. More specifically, the main determinants of expectations fulfillment of local infrastructure are commercial brochures, travel agents and internet; expectations fulfillment of entertainment structures is affected by institutional brochures, travel agents and the internet; future use of mass media sources is influenced by expectations fulfillment of local infrastructure and entertainment structures; this factor is also influenced by past use of institutional brochures and the internet. Discussion centers on the implications of this model to theory and managerial development of tourism and services strategies. Directions for future research are also presented.     

The influence of social media in creating expectations. An empirical study for a tourist destination

Social media are transforming the tourism industry from its traditional pattern into an intense informational pattern. Our study aims to investigate the causes underlying the use of user-generated contents (UGC) to receive tourist information and its effect on tourists’ expectations. Our empirical work was analysed by means of a multiple indicators multiple causes model (MIMIC) and a structural equation model (SEM). The main finding showed that when users receive UGC related to tourist destinations, they will create expectations about the destination by placing their trust in the contents received. It is recommended that tourism organizations should maintain the quality level in order to allow more UGC, and then further trust in the contents of social media and expectations will occur.     

Toward an integrated model of tourist expectation formation and gender difference

This study aims to build and test a theoretical model of tourist expectation formation and seeks to explore the gender differences regarding how tourists form their expectations toward a travel destination. Survey data were obtained from 774 outbound Chinese tourists to Macao, and structural equation modelling was used to test the model and proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that travel motivation, advertising, and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations influence travelers' cognitive image and cognitive image interacts with affective image to form individuals' expectations toward travel destinations. Notably, the impacts of travel motivation and advertising on cognitive image, and of cognitive image on tourist expectations were significantly stronger for males than females, while the effects of WOM on cognitive image and of affective image on tourist expectations were stronger for females than males. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.     

基于IPA分析的中国旅游景区网站发展研究

在信息化技术飞速发展的时代背景下,旅游网站的功能以及旅游者对于旅游网站的需求也会随之发生相应的变化,把握这一变化趋势对于旅游网站的发展有重要意义。文章通过在2005年和2010年对100名旅游者和75个中国5A级旅游景区网站进行调查,获得在5年的时间里旅游者对旅游景区网站评价指标的变化和旅游景区网站的变化情况,在此基础上分析了旅游者对旅游景区网站需求的变化以及中国旅游景区网站对互联网技术运用的变化。同时,文章通过重要值—表现值(IPA)方法对两者进行关联比较,分析了中国旅游景区网站发展过程中与旅游者期望一致的变化以及不符合旅游者期望的变化,进一步论述了中国旅游景区网站5年来在发展中存在的问题以及未来的改进方向。文章在最后还讨论了研究成果在学术界和业界的应用前景。     

Remembered experiences and revisit intentions: A longitudinal study of safari park visitors

Tourism is an experience-intensive sector in which customers seek and pay for experiences above everything else. Remembering past tourism experiences is also crucial for an understanding of the present, including the predicted behaviours of visitors to tourist destinations. We adopt a longitudinal approach to memory data collection from psychological science, which has the potential to contribute to our understanding of tourist behaviour. In this study, we examine the impact of remembered tourist experiences in a safari park. In particular, using matched survey data collected longitudinally and PLS path modelling, we examine the impact of positive affect tourist experiences on the development of revisit intentions. We find that longer-term remembered experiences have the strongest impact on revisit intentions, more so than predicted or immediate memory after an event. We also find that remembered positive affect is temporally unstable and declines over time.     

Performance-Importance Analysis of Escorted Tour Evaluations

As an addition to the managerÆs set of tools, performance-importance analysis can provide insight into tourist evaluations on critical issues. On a performance-importance grid, the interaction of performance perceptions with the importance for an evaluation criteria permits managers to grasp the relative success of tour features. An illustration is used plotting tourist pre-trip expectations, post-trip satisfactions, and importances of each on a performance-importance grid to consider potential decisions for escorted tours design. Changes in evaluations (expectations-to-satisfactions) demonstrated the flexibility of the grid in adapting to different measures.     

Adding Psychological Value to Tourism Products

The motives of tourists are deeply rooted in their pattern of expectations, goals and values. The laddering technique is used in order to investigate this pattern. It provides a basis for positioning strategies. The promised experience has to be realized by means of concrete activities on the shop floor. Existing goals and values serve to motivate employees to adopt activities required for meeting the tourists' expectations. If, after the purchase of a package, the members in the production chain with which the tourist is confronted, differ in mentality, each individual orgainization appropriate goals must be introduced. Then successful product differentiation will be possible.     

The Entitled Tourist: The Influence of Psychological Entitlement and Cultural Distance on Tourist Judgments in a Hotel Context

This research examines how a tourist’s degree of psychological entitlement (sense of deservingness) influences their responses to hotels that differ in cultural distance. Using a visit to China by Western tourists as a context, an experiment shows that entitled tourists respond more negatively to high cultural distance hotel environments compared with low cultural distance environments. Results are mediated by tourist irritation. Research contributions include demonstrating how entitlement moderates cultural distance effects, revealing tourist irritation as a mechanism that explains these effects, and showing how psychological entitlement influences how tourists react to hotel environments when visiting a foreign destination.     

Customer Satisfaction and Behavioural Intentions in a Rural Community Museum Environment

Abstract

This paper examines a cornerstone concept of mainstream marketing theory relating to the importance of customer satisfaction as an influence on future behavioural intentions. The underlying premise is that visitors to a tourist attraction whose expectations are met or exceeded will be satisfied with their experience, and that the degree of perceived satisfaction will positively correlate with their stated intention to repeat purchase and to recommend the experience to others. This paper reports an exploratory project to test the above proposition within a tourism industry context, specifically with reference to the museum sector. The study measures visitor satisfaction levels and future intentions to revisit or recommend the Matakohe Kauri museum in Northland, New Zealand-a rurally isolated tourist attraction which is heavily dependent on referrals to support its continued existence. Research was undertaken by means of a two part structured interview technique, conducted on site with 141 respondents on six separate days in September and October 1996. Visitor expectations were established by questioning prior to entry, whilst a subsequent exit interview captured respondents' perceived degree of satisfaction with their visit. The second interview included a measure of stated intention to return and to recommend the museum to others. Provisional indications are that perceived levels of satisfaction have little bearing on the visitor's stated intention to return to the attraction; however, a significant relationship exists between perceived satisfaction and intention to recommend to others. The results of this research will prove valuable as a foundation for a recommended programme of further research to more rigorously assess the performance of customer satisfaction theory within a rural folk museum environment.     

Using multiple indicators to evaluate the sustainability of dolphin-based wildlife tourism in rural India

Abstract

Assessing wildlife tourism sustainability in developing countries is crucial, but few studies analyse the sustainability of dolphin-based wildlife tourism in this context. We measure multiple indicators within the human dimensions of wildlife tourism, including tourist visitation numbers, satisfaction, preferences, perceptions, background and specialisation, to ascertain the extent to which the dolphin-watching industry at Chilika Lagoon, in rural India might be considered sustainable. Our methods included participant observation, tourist surveys, and the use of secondary data on visitation over 10 years. We found that the growth rate of tourist visitation over 10 years was beginning to decline. Tourists were mostly inexperienced, and dissatisfied with their dolphin-watching experience. Tourist preferences and perceptions showed useful insights and shortcomings in the way in which the industry was being conducted and managed, and reflected the expectations of non-specialist visitors. Our study highlights drawbacks in the way that wildlife tourism is managed in a rural, developing world context, which draws the sustainability of the dolphin-watching industry in Chilika into question. Future development of an early warning system that addresses combined governance or managerial, social, economic and ecological indicators, and an integrated management plan for conservation and wildlife tourism could contribute to the sustainable management of such industries.     

Tourist Causal Attribution: Does Loyalty Matter?

The present study explores the role of tourist causal attribution in the relationship between pre-visit loyalty and tourist satisfaction. The study focuses on causal attribution as mediator in the relationship between pre-visit loyalty and tourist satisfaction. Locus, stability, and globality dimensions of attribution are proposed as the consequences of pre-visit loyalty and the antecedents of satisfaction while pre-visit loyalty is also set as the direct antecedent of satisfaction. The results show the mediating roles of stability and globality. The implications of applying attribution theory to tourism and the role of pre-visit loyalty in the tourist’s psychological process are further discussed.     

Major problems of tourism growth in developing countries

The following paper is an attempt to analyse the present-day tourist relationship between industrial nations and Developing Countries. It furthermore describes predictable conflict situations which may arise if these relations are subject to excessive physical and psychological strains or if the international division of labor in the field of “Vacation production” becomes unbalanced.     

Visitor cycles : Outlook for tourism in Lancaster County

Various writers have suggested that tourist areas undergo a cycle of evolution ending eventually in decline. This article suggests a five-stage evolutionary sequence appropriate to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one of the leading tourist destinations in the United States. Elements of the County's physical and psychological carrying capacity are considered in ascertaining whether Lancaster County will undergo a significant permanent decline in tourist activity. The magnitude of possible future decline is influenced by relative location, diversity of the tourist base, and effectiveness of planning. Diversity and relative location clearly favor Lancaster County in comparison with competing tourist areas and will help to prevent significant long-term decline in number of visitors.     

旅游者摄影心理初探——基于旅游照片的内容分析

旅游者常常通过照相机镜头表达自己的旅游欲求,行使其"观看者"和"拍摄者"的权力,表达他们对旅游目的地的理解和认知,以及对旅游目的地的人与物,甚至照片阅读者的欲求。本文以互联网为基础作资料收集,以旅游照片为研究资料,使用内容分析法,从照片内容和表现形式等方面,对旅游者摄影行为的心理特征、对拍摄对象及阅读者的态度进行研究。文章的目的是通过个案研究,为旅游者摄影行为的心理分析提供有益尝试。     

心理契约违背对饭店顾客忠诚的影响——服务补救策略的调节效应

针对服务企业普遍面对的服务补救低效与顾客忠诚保持的挑战,文章基于心理契约与前瞻性服务补救理论,构建了顾客心理契约违背、服务补救和顾客忠诚间关系的分析框架,实证分析了心理契约违背对顾客忠诚的作用机理,并检验了服务补救策略对这一关系的调节效应。通过对262名饭店顾客的问卷调查,采用回归分析法处理数据,研究结果表明:心理契约违背两个维度与饭店顾客忠诚两个维度均呈显著负相关关系,顾客心理契约违背程度越高,顾客忠诚度越低;服务补救在心理契约违背与饭店顾客忠诚的关系中起到部分调节作用,即当企业服务出现失误而使顾客感知心理契约违背发生时,如果能采用恰当的服务补救策略,可以降低心理契约违背对顾客忠诚的负面影响。     

Tourist misbehavior: Psychological closeness to fellow consumers and informal social control

The challenge of tourist misbehavior has drawn increasing attention from academic researchers and practitioners in the hospitality and tourism sector. Drawing on the concepts of psychological closeness and the perceived certainty of informal social control, this paper proposes that tourists (vs. non-tourists) are more inclined to misbehave in a given service situation because they feel less close to fellow consumers sharing the same service environment and perceive a lower likelihood of disapproval from them. However, personal implication (i.e., the extent to which fellow consumers suffer directly or indirectly from the misbehavior of the focal consumer) mitigates the effect of tourist status on the intention to misbehave. The results from three experiments confirm these arguments and show that the perceived certainty of informal social control (i.e., the perceived likelihood of disapproval) is a mediator that explains the interactive effects of tourist status and personal implication on intention to misbehave.     

Experiential places or places of experience? Place identity and place attachment as mechanisms for creating festival environment

Tourism theory suggests mechanisms of place are critical in the construction of tourism environments. However, contradictory place theory has created confusion as to exactly what these mechanisms are and how they affect perceived environment. Literature identifies place attachment and place identity as primary mechanisms in the construction of tourist relationships with tourist environments. An interpretive methodology is used to explore these mechanisms during a festival experience, and thematically analyzed unstructured interviews show identity and attachment do influence attendees' place-based perceptions. Within the festival context, environments become either creations of the festival or exist independently of them. The latter allows realistic place identity to form, resulting in consonance between environmental expectations and reality. The former creates abstract identities resulting in unrealistic expectations and weak/no immediate attachment to the festival environment. A Model of Festival Place provides continuity-based festival recommendations allowing for clearer theoretical and practical understanding across tourism events.     

Reality TV,audience travel intentions,and destination image

Film/TV induced-tourism research has proliferated in recent decades. Nevertheless, there is a lack of cross-disciplinary academic investigation into audiences' psychological processing of film tourism. In this study, the relationships and intervening mechanisms between audience involvement and tourist behavioral intentions were examined. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 355 respondents, with the use of structural equation modeling and bootstrapping analysis. A popular reality show “Where are we going, Dad?” was the focus of our study. The empirical results indicate that audience involvement influences tourists' behavioral intentions through the mediating role of cognitive and affective images. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of how audience involvement affects tourist behavioral intentions, and the extent to which destination image mediates the relationship. Practical implications of using reality TV shows for marketing are drawn from the findings of our study.     

Sustaining the Physical and Social Dimensions of Wilderness Tourism: The Perceptual Approach to Wilderness Management in New Zealand

The dynamics of the tourism industry are well illustrated by the case of New Zealand's tourism development over the last decade. The number of international tourists visiting New Zealand has doubled in the last ten years to approximately 1.5 million annual visitors. Associated with this growth has been a significant shift in patterns of tourist demand. No longer do most tourists simply comply with established tourist routes linking the high profile scenic attractions. Rather tourists have demonstrated a preference for more independent and dispersed patterns of travel, including an increase in demand for settings that offer subjective qualities of wilderness experience. This poses a complex but intriguing management challenge. If wilderness recreation involves pristine natural settings in the complete absence of facility development and visitor management, then these resources are more prone to degradation so than any other natural tourism resources. This paper suggests that an understanding of tourist perceptions of wilderness is crucial to the management of wilderness tourism, and considers the application of the perceptual approach to wilderness tourism as a means of sustaining wilderness values while promoting the satisfaction of visitor expectations.