YouTube Influencer: How Source Credibility and Information Quality Influence Destination Image and Visit Intention of Young Travelers?

This study aims to analyze the effects of YouTube influencers� source credibility and the information quality of the platform on destination image and young travellers� intention to visit a destination. Stimulus-organism- response (SOR) theory was adopted to develop the tested research model. This study applied a quantitative approach where primary data was collected through online surveys to 198 YouTube subscribers who had watched the examined YouTube channels� content. The PLS-SEM technique was utilized to assess the structural model in the study. The results of this study show that source credibility had a significant positive effect on information quality, destination image, and visit intention. The information quality positively affected destination image but did not directly impact the visit intention. Furthermore, the destination image significantly mediates the effect of source credibility and information quality on visit intention. This study enriches the literature on the relationships among source credibility, information quality, and how these credibility and information quality could influence the destination image and young travellers� intention to visit a destination in an emerging country like Indonesia

Inbound Tourism In Malaysia: Unlocking the potential traveling experience of European and Oceanian Tourists

This study explores the memorable traveling experience (MTE) of 143 tourists from Europe and Oceanian in Malaysia. The researchers conducted a survey to investigate the factors that influence their revisit intention to Malaysia as an attractive destination. Partial least square structural equation modeling (SEM-PLS) results indicated that tourist attitudes, destination images, electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM), and perceived quality have positive and significant influences on travel intention. However, the eWOM failed to mediate the tourists’ attitudes, perceived quality, and destination image towards their revisit intentions.     Keywords: eWOM, Malaysia, Memorable Travelling Experience, Revisit Intentions eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i21.371

A STUDY ON TRAVEL INFORMATION ADOPTION INTENTION IN THE ONLINE SOCIAL COMMUNITY: THE PERSPECTIVES OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND INFORMATION ADOPTION MODEL

With the popularity of the online social community, people have become accustomed to sharing their travel experiences online. Internet users can read about others’ experiences, view tour photos, and gather information from other users during their leisure time or before travelling abroad. This study based on the information adoption theory and the concept of experience marketing; additionally, the moderating effects of consumption point on association among customer experiences, information usefulness, and information adoption intentions has been investigated. An Internet survey was conducted for data collection, and 492 returned responses were analyzed. The findings show that customer experience and information usefulness increase Internet users’ information adoption intentions and that the quality and credibility of Internet tourism information have a positive effect on customer experience and information usefulness. Content vividness was linked to an improved user experience. Consumption point influences the relationship between information usefulness and information adoption intentions, but it does not affect the relationship between customer experience and information adoption intention

PROFILING SOCIAL MEDIA TOURISTS USING LITERATURE DURING 2015-2019: CRIMINAL PROFILING METHOD

With the continuous development of mobile commerce and the Internet, social media has deeply penetrated people’s lives and fundamentally changed the way of searching, reading and using travel-related information. With this backdrop, this research studied social media tourists (SMTs) who share or acquire information related to the hospitality and tourism on social media platforms. Based on 271 empirical articles retrieved from major databases and top hospitality and tourism journals in the recent five years from 2015 to 2019, this research developed a profiling framework about SMTs using criminal profiling method. The findings showed the possibility of using the criminal profiling method to analyze SMTs and provided a holistic personal, social-psychological, and behavioral profile of SMTs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed

The Influence of eWOM Credibility on Visit Intention: An Integrative Moderated Mediation Model

Purpose: This study examines the process by which eWOM susceptibility moderates the strength of indirect links between the perceived credibility of eWOM messages and the intention to visit a destination via the destination image and the perceived usefulness of these messages. Methods: The research hypotheses were tested according to structural equations modelling and Hayes procedure, which made it possible to study simultaneously and rigorously the mediating and moderating effects, and to have a clear view on the model fittness. Results: The results indicate that the mediation links of the destination image on the relationship between perceived credibility and intention to visit a destination, are moderated by the susceptibility of the eWOM (the comments generated by Internet users or the sharing of tourists' experiences on Facebook). This study also indicates that the relationship between the perceived credibility of the eWOM and the intentions to visit a destination is mediated by the usefulness of the eWOM messages and the destination image. Implications: Tourism practitioners seeking to attract tourists can use the eWOM as a communication technique for product and/or service recommendations. Given the powerful influence of the eWOM, it should not be ignored or misused, but managed to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies in hospitality, tourism and travel

The brand equity of a destination: A user-generated content analysis

Customer-based brand equity can be defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. Although there are already studies focused on the brand equity of destinations, most of them are based on surveys. Still, it is possible to extract and analyse visitors’ opinion by their self-reported experience that is available on travel blogs, in which bloggers write in a way that best represents their experience. Tourism in Lisbon has been increasing over the last years and Portugal is one of the most visited countries in Europe. The novelty of this dissertation is to propose a new methodology of measuring brand equity through text-mining of user-generated blog posts, based on the visitors’ evaluations of Lisbon. For this purpose, 100 posts were collected to test a brand equity model measured by four constructs: brand awareness, brand image - decomposed in cognitive, affective, and unique image components, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Findings revealed that the components of destination image are highly related, with the cognitive image being strongly related to higher destination brand image. Regarding to the constructs, awareness and image are the most important to make the consumers loyal to Lisbon, with image and perceived quality representing the strongest relationship between constructs. Further, higher awareness can lead to negative perceived quality, but the image can work as a moderator of this relationship. Perceived quality was the only construct that did not reveal a significant relationship with destination loyalty.O valor da marca baseado no cliente pode ser definido como o efeito diferencial do conhecimento da marca na resposta do consumidor ao marketing da marca. Embora existam estudos focados no valor da marca dos destinos, a maioria são baseados em questionários. Contudo, é possível extrair e analisar a opinião dos visitantes através do seu relato da experiência, disponível em blogs de viagens, nos quais os bloggers escrevem da forma que melhor representa a sua experiência. O turismo em Lisboa tem aumentado nos últimos anos e Portugal é um dos países mais visitados da Europa. A novidade desta dissertação é propor uma nova metodologia para medir o valor da marca através da mineração de dados de publicações em blogs, baseada na avaliação dos visitantes de Lisboa. Para isso, 100 publicações foram recolhidas para testar um modelo de valor da marca medido por quatro construtos: notoriedade, imagem - decomposta em componentes cognitivos, afetivos e imagem única, qualidade percebida e lealdade. Os resultados revelaram que as componentes da imagem do destino estão altamente relacionadas, com a imagem cognitiva fortemente relacionada à imagem da marca. Relativamente aos construtos, a notoriedade e a imagem são os mais importantes para fidelizar os consumidores a Lisboa, com a imagem e a qualidade percebida representando a relação mais forte entre eles. Além disso, maior notoriedade pode levar a qualidade percebida negativa, mas a imagem pode funcionar como moderadora desta relação. A qualidade percebida foi o único construto que não revelou relação significativa com a lealdade ao destino

Using Social Media Influencers to Promote Qatar as a Tourist Destination

The main objective of this study is to understand the qualities of social media influencers, in the travel and tourism industry, which generate trust in the followers, thereby having an impact on the followers’ intention to visit a destination promoted/recommended by the SMIs. The characteristics identified are Quality of Information provided by SMIs, Attractiveness of their Content on social media platforms, Credibility of SMIs, Authenticity of SMIs and Popularity of SMIs and the Engagement with their followers. Additionally, the study also investigates the effect of Trust on the individual’s intention to visit a destination. The results revealed that out of the five characteristics, Quality of Information was shown to have no impact on the trust generated whereas other factors had a significant positive impact on Trust. Furthermore, Trust had a significant positive impact on the follower’s intention to visit the destination promoted by the SMIs

Co-creation of tourism experiences and the use of social media (ICTS) as key tools for innovation and value creation in the tourism industry

Portugal is an emerging tourism market, being worthy of attention. Besides, the tourism industry has been connected to fast changes due to the influence of social media (Web 2.0) on the lives of consumers and the shift in the economic value from products and services to the staging of experiences. This study aims to analyze the effect that several types of social media platforms (as mediators) have on the co-creation of tourism experiences (before, during and after) and the consequent satisfaction, happiness, memorability and motivation to share it online. For that effect, an online survey was developed and conducted on a sample of 410 national and international tourists. The findings showed that the use of social media has a more significant effect while planning the trip, serving as a source of inspiration for the next trip and of information about the chosen destination. Moreover, it also leads to a substantial increase in the satisfaction that tourists feel towards the trip, since the expectations are met by what they experience during the trip, which generates a greater level of happiness and memorability. This is crucial since it leads to a greater perception of value, a positive image of the destination, a bigger willingness to recommend and share the experience with followers. This makes it important for Portuguese tourism service providers and tourism department to understand how Portugal is being represented on social media pages and the reasons that motivate tourists to share their experiences online, thus influencing their followers to visit.Portugal é, atualmente, um mercado turístico emergente, sendo uma área importante a analisar. Além disso, a indústria do turismo tem estado ligada a mudanças rápidas devido à influência das redes sociais (Web 2.0) na vida dos consumidores e à mudança no valor económico, de produtos e serviços para a criação de experiências. Este estudo pretende analisar o efeito que vários tipos de redes sociais (mediadores) têm na cocriação de experiências de turismo e a consequente satisfação, felicidade, memorabilidade e motivação para as partilhar online. Assim, foi realizado um inquérito online a uma amostra de 410 turistas nacionais e internacionais. Os resultados mostraram que o uso das redes sociais tem um efeito mais significativo no planeamento da viagem, servindo como fonte de inspiração para a próxima viagem e de informação sobre o destino escolhido. Além disso, também leva a um aumento substancial na satisfação que os turistas sentem em relação à viagem, uma vez que as expectativas correspondem ao que eles vivenciam durante a viagem, o que gera um maior nível de felicidade e memorabilidade. Isto é crucial porque leva a uma maior perceção de valor, uma imagem positiva do destino, uma maior disponibilidade para recomendar e partilhar a experiência com os seguidores. Isto torna importante que os prestadores de serviços de turismo e o departamento de turismo português compreendam como Portugal está a ser representado nas redes sociais e as razões que motivam os turistas a partilhar as suas experiências online, influenciando assim os seus seguidores a visitar o destino

Travelling for Umrah:destination attributes, destination image, and post-travel intentions

This paper examines the links between cosmopolitanism, self-identity, and a desire for social interaction perceived destination image and behavioural intentions. A model tested using a sample of 538 Iranian visitors to Mecca for the purpose of Umrah. The result from the structural model suggests that destination attributes influence perceived destination image. Further, such tourists are likely to revisit or recommend Islamic destinations if their experience matches their perceived image of the destination. This implies that, while the religious characteristics of the destination remain important, destination managers cannot disregard the tangential, non-religious attributes of a destination which are crucial in order to satisfy more conventional tourist desires. As such, this study suggests that those managing religious travel destinations should endeavour to foster a welcoming image, where experience, interaction and tolerance are at the forefront of the destination’s offering

The intellectual structure of destination image research in tourism (2001-2023): Background, pre-pandemic overview, shifts during COVID-19 and implications for the future

We aim to map the intellectual structure of destination image (DI) research and its theoretical development in two longitudinal periods: firstly, from 2001 and before the outbreak of Covid-19 and approval of vaccines (2001–2020); and secondly, during Covid-19 (2021–2023). This is the first article to use co-citation analysis that focuses solely on DI, identifying the main clusters, intellectual turning points, and citation burst papers in this field. Studying bibliometrics pre- and during Covid-19 can help to understand the impact of the pandemic on research output and the shift in research focus. This methodology expands tourism science by recognising the intrinsic nature of DI from an evaluative and relational point of view. Co-citation refers to the cited not the citing papers. The results in the first period show: 1) theoretical background on DI associated with branding from Destination Management Organisations (DMO); 2) the components of DI and their relationship with visitor behaviour; 3) how the Internet and User-Generated Content (UGC) have become the main sources to perceive DI. Whereas, in the second period, two main shifts have been identified: 1) the impact of the pandemic on tourism and perceived travel risk; 2) the emergence of a new approach focusing on the engagement of people with the destination through life experiences. The conclusions could help suppliers, DMOs, and policymakers to understand the components of DI before and during the pandemic, as well as provide valuable insights for the tourism industry to adapt to the new normal