Determinants of the intention to participate in firm-hosted online travel communities and effects on consumer behavioral intentions

The increasing presence of firm-hosted online travel communities is motivating significant changes in the travel industry. This study attempts to explain consumers’ intentions to participate in such communities, and other consumer behavioral intentions, on the basis of a model that integrates the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Technology Acceptance Model, and Social Identity Theory. In addition, this research investigates the link between the intention to participate in a community and two behavioral intentions that may benefit the host firm: the intention to use the firm’s products/services and the intention to recommend the host firm. The results reveal that the chosen theories provide an appropriate framework for explaining the intention to participate; this intention in turn has a positive effect on the two other behavioral intentions. On the basis of the results, the authors propose some key conclusions and managerial implications.     

Tourism communities and social ties: the role of online and offline tourist social networks in building social capital and sustainable practice

Mobile connectivity enables the adoption of new ways to connect with social networks which are changing how we might, and could, seek support. In the tourism domain we increasingly blend online and offline presence to engage with social networks in the spatial location, at a distance and across time. This paper explores the forms of community that exist in physical tourism contexts, contexts not previously analysed through a community lens, and explores how mobile technology is creating connections within and beyond existing social networks. It examines how sustainable tourism can be enhanced by mobile connectivity through new space–time practices and using ephemeral interpersonal relationships to harness niche groups to create bottom-up social systems interested in sharing experiences, ideas and resources. Special attention is given to the concept of gelling socialities which proposes a less ridged network structure, and to the need to understand the increasingly liquid social dynamics of mobile social interactions. The paper adds to the theories surrounding community, social ties and tourism's value to society. It draws on data from in-depth interviews undertaken while designing and testing a collaborative travel app. It contributes to growing research into the new technologies increasingly available for sustainable tourism marketing and implementation.     

Promoting coastal communities through cultural tourism: the case of fishing communities in Brunswick County,North Carolina

Heritage tourism, if planned based on the needs and values of communities, can benefit both tourists and residents. In coastal areas especially, urban and industrial developments may create negative impacts on historic coastal communities and their traditional way of life. This research attempts to identify and highlight the value of coastal cultural heritage, in particular commercial fishing heritage, for the promotion of cultural tourism. This study investigates whether commercial fishing heritage can provide an authentic cultural tourism to benefit local fishing communities. Fishing communities in southeastern North Carolina are in decline due to different factors including the shortage of fish, new fishing legislation and restrictions and urban development. Therefore, their traditional environment is fading away. This research attempts to highlight the important role of fishing cultural heritage in promoting cultural tourism for sociocultural benefits. The present study examines the level of tourist interest in fishing heritage and cultural places in the four fishing towns of Varnamtown, Shallotte, Holden Beach, and Southport in Brunswick County, North Carolina.     

Online-to-Offline Interactions and Online Community Life Cycles: A Longitudinal Study of Shared Leisure Activities

ABSTRACT

Online communities are changing the way people enjoy leisure activities through computer-mediated interactions, yet little is known about how these groups form, function, and network. The current study draws on two years of involvement with a Meetup group, using participant observation and ethnographic interviews of the group's live interactions and content analysis of the group's online communication. Throughout this article, the author analyzed the life cycle of online communities and discovered that technology acts as a catalyst for group formation and that the fast and exponential growth of groups centered on common leisure interests. Computer-mediated communications also accelerated the pace of conflict among groups and the formation of alternate communities to satisfy the same need. Patterns of group formation, consolidation, conflict, splintering, and re-grouping repeated themselves throughout the observation period. Finally, the present research discusses how this new form of social interaction facilitates leisure pursuits and encourages creativity in the creation of diverse activities which foster continued participation.     

Examining the influencing factors of intention to share accommodations in online hospitality exchange networks

ABSTRACT

CouchSurfing is a free social-network-based online hospitality exchange network, aptly representing a new sharing economy phenomenon. Based on social capital theory and previous literature, this study attempts to answer why hosts help strangers without any expected economic benefit within online hospitality exchange networks. An empirical study based on a Web survey conducted with CouchSurfing hosts reveals that the most identified antecedents (enjoy helping, shared narratives, desire to make friends, and reciprocity) are significantly related to hosts’ intention to share accommodations. Interestingly, the overshadowing effect of trust in CouchSurfing on the intention to share accommodations is also found.     

焦点、在场与身份:互动仪式视角下民族旅游村寨社会整合研究

旅游业加速了民族村寨社会分化,极端分化可能造成社会关系紧张和矛盾冲突激化。积极的社会整合成为消除分化负面影响、促进旅游发展、推动乡村振兴的必要手段。文章引入柯林斯的互动仪式链理论,分析了民族旅游村寨中的互动仪式情境及社会整合的具体措施。研究认为,旅游开发后民族村寨衍生出旅游互动仪式、生活互动仪式和生产互动仪式三种互动情境类型,三种情境基于情感交流与角色互换展开,满足身体在场、共同焦点、群体身份等互动仪式要素。通过互动仪式促进民族村寨社会整合应注意维护和提升村民集体意识,在主客互动、生活仪式、生产协作等方面强化仪式整合作用。     

Mass tourism and the dilemmas of modernization in Pacific Island communities

This paper relates global discussions of tourism as a means of development to the history of cultural contacts in the Pacific. The paper reviews the relevance of the existing literature on social and cultural impacts of tourism to the Pacific and suggests implications for policy makers and community leaders. The existing literature is found to be methodologically suspect and does not provide helpful knowledge to policy-makers.     

I am worth more than you think I am: Investigating the effects of upcycling on event attendees' recycling intention

The event industry generates a significant amount of solid waste and creates substantial adverse environmental and economic impacts. Promoting event attendees' recycling behaviors is critical for minimizing such negative impacts. This study examined effective ways to promote event attendees' intention to recycle by exploring three aspects in green messages: product transformation salience (PTS) levels (upcycling versus recycling), message framing (gain- versus loss-framing), and anthropomorphism (anthropomorphic versus non-anthropomorphic). The results indicated that upcycling (versus recycling) messages generated more positive reactions toward recycling among event attendees, especially when the messages were gain-framed. This joint effect between PTS levels and message framing varies by different anthropomorphism levels. The study also examined the underlying mechanism of the proposed effects and identified that perceived tangibility of the recycling benefit was a full mediator between green messages and attendees' attitude and intention toward recycling. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Building social capital in a divided city: the potential of events

Abstract

It is widely held that social capital can help build sustainable communities, yet researchers agree that further research is needed to fully understand the social dimensions of sustainable development. In event settings, understanding how social capital is formed remains limited. This paper addresses this issue by examining the extent to which the UK City of Culture 2013 (CoC13) succeeded in building social capital in post-conflict Derry/Londonderry. The authors adopted a case study approach and mixed qualitative methods in the form of in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings suggest that CoC13 helped to generate both bonding and bridging social capital, however, while intra community bonds were strengthened, exclusivity was also fostered. More positive were the examples of bridging capital cultivated across communities, particularly between young attendees, and between event organisers, with cooperation building trust and goodwill between volunteers. Some of the cross community relationships developed have been sustained. However, the lack of legacy planning has meant that the long-term social goals have not been met. In summary, the study suggests that in a post conflict society, events can help build social capital. However, in the absence of legacy planning, the benefits gained may soon evaporate.     

Online Feedback and Attraction Management: An Exploration of the Critical Factors in Effective Operations

The objective of this study was to identify the critical factors about which future visitors to attractions want information, based on online reviews. An NVivo-based content analysis was conducted using 4831 traveler reviews posted on Tripadvisor.com. In total, seven critical factors were identified: environment (e.g. hygiene and cleanliness); experience (e.g. being in good order, overcrowding); location and/or transportation (e.g. subways); price, purpose (e.g. taking photos); target group and suitability (e.g. with/without children); and time. The findings provide guidance for attraction managers on how to make an effective and efficient response to negative reviews on social media channels and how to identify and meet future customer needs. This study supports the attraction industry to improve service quality and attract more visitors in future.     

Cruising in Asia: what can we dig from online cruiser reviews to understand their experience and satisfaction

In the e-tourism era, online customer reviews with pictures, textual comments, etc. have become a significant information source affecting customers’ purchase intention and behavior. Big data analytics with text mining, semantic network analysis and factor analysis, and regression analysis were applied to help understand cruiser experience and its relationship to cruiser satisfaction in the Asian cruise market through online cruiser reviews. Research results confirmed the dimensions of cruise experience from previous studies, while more importantly, “Onshore attributes” was explored in this study using the insight of big data, which was never investigated as a facet of cruise experience previously.     

Social disruption theory and crime in rural communities: Comparisons across three levels of tourism growth

The study compares rural tourism places under different growth levels in terms of crime effects. Adopting social disruption theory, the study hypothesized that average crime rates would differ for tourism counties with different growth levels, and that high growth tourism counties would experience the greatest increase in average crime rates. The study used data from a sample of rural Colorado tourism communities. Results partially supported the hypothesis and confirmed some results of the relationships between rapid growth and crime identified in previous boomtown studies. The results of the study provide useful insights to public leaders and policy makers engaged in processes of evaluating alternative tourism growth strategies for their community.     

The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions: Evidence from Chinese online visitors

With the increasing popularity of online shopping and being the most populated country in the world, China is one of the major online markets now and is likely to become the largest market in the future. In the academic literature, website quality has generally been recognized as a critical step to drive business online. As such, numerous studies have been devoted to website quality and evaluations. Research efforts are, however, in need of understanding the use of websites in regards to online customers’ behavior, especially Chinese customers. This study developed and empirically tested a conceptual model of the impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Results indicated that website quality has a direct and positive impact on customer satisfaction, and that customer satisfaction has a direct and positive impact on purchase intentions. While the influence of website quality on purchase intentions exists, customer satisfaction does significantly mediate this effect. Drawing on the empirical findings, managerial implications and recommendations for future research are offered.     

Travel writers and the nature of self: Essentialism,transformation and (online) construction

A lacuna of academic research exists that explores contemporary travel writers’ lived experience, particularly how they perceive their s​ense of self through their work as a forum for self-discovery and self-transformation. Using the essentialist self and socially constructed selves as theoretical frameworks, this research extends the concept of multiple selves to these writers and new forms of online media. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 47 travel writers and data were analysed using an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Findings suggest that many travel writers (co)construct an online self and use their writing to transform themselves. The cathartic process of writing, interaction with their readership and the importance of establishing a social identity online emerged as influences on the nature of self.     

Engagement-Based Loyalty: The Effects of Social Media Engagement on Customer Loyalty in the Travel Industry

In this article, we investigate the relation between customer loyalty and social media engagement. Two dimensions of customer loyalty are considered: affective and conative loyalty. We distinguish two forms of social media engagement: consuming of social media (passive engagement) and contribution to social media (active engagement). In a survey among 1,050 customers of a travel agency, the level of engagement of customers with the company’s social media activities is measured in relation to their degree of loyalty. Results show a partial positive relationship between social media engagement and customer loyalty: only consuming social media is directly related to affective loyalty.     

Unveiling the cloak of deviance: Linguistic cues for psychological processes in fake online reviews

Although fake online reviews have been gaining more attention from both academics and practitioners, little effort has been made to explore the linguistic characteristics of the psychological processes related to fake reviews. This research proposes four linguistic cues (i.e., affective, cognitive, social, and perceptual) related to a reviewer’s psychological processes and explores their relationships with fake reviews while examining the influence of time distance and reviewer location on these reviews. The results of logistic regression analysis of 43,496 reviews from Yelp.com suggest that affective, social, and perceptual cues are significantly related to fake reviews with the presence of the significant effects of time distance and reviewer location. Further, the results of post-hoc analysis confirm that the effect of photos on fake reviews is limited. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on online reviews and interpersonal deception theory, providing valuable implications for practitioners in the hospitality and tourism industry.     

Investigating the effects of offline and online social capital on tourism SME performance: A mixed-methods study of New Zealand entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial social capital develops through the accrual of resources gained from an entrepreneur's social ties. These are integral to entrepreneurial success, enabling access to financial, marketing, and human resources, and innovation. Entrepreneurs increasingly manage their networks through online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, there are major gaps in the extant empirical research concerning how online social capital is manifested, if this differs from an in-person context, and the effects ‘online’ and ‘offline’ social capital resources on tourism business success. This study adopts a mixed-method approach to examine tourism entrepreneur's behaviours in building offline and online social capital, and their nuanced effects on firm performance. The results found tourism entrepreneurs' networking activity manifests in three distinct configurations, Active Online Networkers, In-Person Networkers, and the Less Engaged. Each configuration demonstrated varying effects on expected business growth and performance with regards to number of employees, sales revenues, and net profit.     

The social world and event travel career of the serious yoga devotee

Serious leisure and social world theory provide a framework to qualitatively examine a small number of yoga participants with regard to their social world connections and propensity to engage in event tourism. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 yoga practitioners in Brisbane, Australia. For most devotees, yoga was regarded as serious leisure with a social world in which highly involved ‘actors’ participated in a range of ‘insider’ capacities. Social engagement was a strong motivator and having friends involved with, and building strong friendships through yoga was a common denominator. It was found that there was a strong association between the social world of yoga and event tourism, and a new model titled the ‘yoga devotee career trajectory’ was developed. Yoga was considered to be a unique and personal journey which became a complete lifestyle involving continuous learning and self-exploration. Theoretical and future research implications were also discussed.     

Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship Between Type of Travel,Online Ratings,and Management Response: Empirical Evidence from International Upscale Hotels

The diverse characteristics of customers and hotels have been identified as relevant to online customer satisfaction at the individual level. In this study, a comprehensive examination is conducted, through the use of a multilevel, nested model and secondary data set. The results show that both online review experience and management response frequencies can positively affect customer satisfaction. Additionally, hotel managers need to pay more attention to customers who have less online review experience when they carry out targeted response strategies. The findings have various implications for both academic researchers and hotel operators.     

Towards a Model of Electronic Word-of-Mouth and Its Impact on the Hotel Industry

ABSTRACT

Scholars and practitioners recognize that spreading word-of-mouth can play an important role in the formation of a hotel’s image. However, the relationships among various measures of online customer engagement are relatively unknown. The present study analyzes the relationships and quantifies the impacts of various measures of online engagement including the number of online reviews, overall rating, and relative ranking. The researchers used path analysis on a sample of 178 hotels to study the relationships among relevant variables and build a model to explain the impact of such measures (Figure 2). The results reveal there is a positive direct effect of the number of reviews on a hotel’s TripAdvisor rating. A negative direct effect was found between TripAdvisor rating and a hotel’s comparative ranking. Finally, the researchers discovered that TripAdvisor rating fully mediates the relationship between the number of reviews and a hotel’s comparative ranking. This article concludes with a discussion of both the theoretical and practical implications of such findings.