An Examination Of Destination Choice Behavior Using Meme Maps, Images and Decision Making Styles

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the destination choice behavior of tourists by using meme maps, images and decision making styles. The current article-based dissertation entails three separate studies that utilized data collected from Chinese, Arab, Russian and German tourists. The first article included within this dissertation assesses the perceived importance of the attributes that form destination images based on general vacation experiences and opinions of tourists and compares the expected performance of destination attributes of Turkey in attracting tourists from its emerging markets (like China as well as Arab countries) using modified version of Importance-Performance Analysis. The second article identifies tourist segments using a factor-cluster approach based on travel Decision Making Styles (DMS) of individuals, and profiles tourist segments and identifies likely differences between these segments using a series of variables such as tourism involvement, destination images and demographic characteristics. The third and the major article of the dissertation advances and transfers the knowledge of Memetics science into the field of tourism and hospitality by creating meme maps of a major tourism destination within Turkey. Versatile findings of the three studies advance the theoretical understanding of the decision-making behavior of tourists. Moreover, these findings create new knowledge in tourism by reconceptualizing and refining constructs such as memes, DMS and tourisminvolvement. Findings also provide invaluable practical management information for destination management organizations (DMOs), and the tourism and hospitality industry. More specifically, the first article verifies that different tourist segments can attach different levels of importance and performance to the perceived destination image of the same destination. Specific practical implications were recommended for the Turkish destination management organizations that want to generate tailored marketing strategies for emerging markets. Moreover, while the second article validates the efficacy of the Consumer Involvement Profile, it concludes that there are attitudinal differences among the DMS tourist segments towards destination image and tourism involvement. Positioning strategies were developed based on the identified key characteristics of the obtained tourist segments. Lastly, the major article of the dissertation also provides significant theoretical and practical implications. There is no certain and well-accepted methodology and statistical procedure to generate meme maps in the tourism and hospitality field. Thus, the major article includes explanation of the employed methodology and statistical procedures in detail to guide the future research on Memetics in the field

Do you Dare to Study Abroad? Examining Cross-Cultural Differences in the Role of Covid-19 Post-Pandemic Stress on Study Abroad Intentions and Country Image Formation

The purpose of this study is to explore the underlying dimensions of Covid-19 stress to determine the extent to which Covid-19 stress has an effect on students’ intentions to participate in future study abroad programs. The underlying stress factors that this work examines include traumatic stress, contamination fears, fears about economic consequences and past Covid illness experience. The paper addresses the cross-cultural differences in these factors’ effects on studying abroad intentions among young individualistic versus collectivistic consumers. The goal of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of Covid related stress phenomena among global young consumer cohorts. The results of this study could inform university study abroad managers to consider the students’ perceptions of Covid-19 stress when developing future study abroad programs. We posit that students are more likely to participate in study abroad programs when the programs address the post-pandemic era stressors, but cross-cultural differences exist

Social media marketing for hotel businesses: A field study on the perceptions of tourism consumers related to the social networking sites

Web 2.0 teknolojisinin oluşumu, sosyal medya olarak adlandırılan, bilgi değişimi ve iletişim için eşsiz bir platformun gelişimini sağlamıştır. Sosyal medyanın artan gücü sayesinde, tüketiciler içeriğin üreticisi ve tüketicisi olmaktadırlar. Bu evrim üretüketici olarak bilinen yeni bir tüketici türünü sağlamaktadır. Turizm bilgiye dayalı bir sektör olduğu için, sosyal medya platformlarında turizm tüketicileri arasında gerçekleşen bilgi değişimini anlamak önem taşımaktadır. Farklı işlevlerde ve özelliklerde birçok sosyal medya platformu bulunmaktadır. Facebook ve Twitter gibi sosyal paylaşım siteleri, en popüler sosyal medya platformları arasında olmaktadır. Turizm tüketicileri, bu sosyal paylaşım sitelerinde sanal topluluklar oluşturmaktadırlar. Sosyal medya pazarlaması, otel işletmelerinin önceden hiç olmadığı kadar hızlı ve oldukça düşük bir maliyetle turizm tüketicilerine ulaşmasını sağlamaktadır. Otel işletmeleri tarafından sosyal paylaşım sitelerinde gerçekleştirilen başarılı sosyal medya pazarlama kampanyaları, viral pazarlama ve söylenti pazarlaması kampanyalarına dönüşeceklerdir. Bu araştırmanın amacı sosyal paylaşım sitelerinin, turizm tüketicilerinin turistik ürünü algılaması ve turizm tüketicilerinin otel işletmelerine karşı tutumları üzerine etkilerini değerlendirmektir The emergence of Web 2.0 technology provides the development of a unique platform, called as social media, for communication and information exchange. By the increasing power of social media, consumers are becoming the producers and consumers of the content. This evolution provides a new type of consumers known as prosumers. Since tourism is an information-based sector, it is important to understand the information exchange between the tourism consumers on the social media platforms. There are many social media platforms those have different functions and features. One of the most popular social media platforms are the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Tourism consumers are forming virtual communities on these social networking sites. Social media marketing provides hotel businesses to reach tourism consumers faster than ever before and with quite low costs. Successful social media marketing campaigns, which are created by hotel businesses for the social networking sites, will turn into viral and buzz marketing campaigns. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the impacts of social networking sites on tourism consumers? perception of tourism product and the attitudes towards the hotel businesses

Leveraging guest-room technology: a tale of two guest profiles

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine hotel guests' attitudes toward guest room technologies (GRTs) and determine whether hotel guests' characteristics and attitudes regarding GRTs vary according to hotel guest typologies. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered from a sample of 508 hotel guests who had stayed in a hotel in the past 12 months via a self-administered survey on Qualtrics survey software. The analysis of the study consisted of two main research steps: identification of cluster groups via the K-means cluster analysis algorithm and discriminant analysis; and performing a series of chi-square analyses to determine whether hotel guests' characteristics and attitudes vary according to obtained hotel guest typologies. Findings Results indicated significant attitudinal (e.g. internet payment preference) and demographic (e.g. age) differences among the obtained hotel guest typologies regarding their attitudes toward GRTs. Practical implications - The results provide valuable guidance and a pragmatic approach for those hotel managers that aim to generate tailored marketing strategies for guest segments that are interested in GRTs. Originality/value This study concentrates on GRTs with a market segmentation approach by using advanced statistical procedures. It contributes to the body of related research literature by offering empirical evidence where the study evaluates the impact of the availability of new GRTs on guest decision-making based on the principles of the theory of planned behavior. Practitioners will be able to use the presented findings to generate marketing and pricing strategies with respect to the technological needs and wants of each typology

Twitter ve facebook'un otellerde bir pazarlama aracı olarak kullanılmasına ilişkin bir analiz

Sosyal medya, tüketicilerin içeriğin hem üreticisi hem de tüketicisi olmaya başladıkları dönemde iletişim ve bilgi alışverişi için eşsiz bir platform sunmaktadır (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Saperstein and Hastings, 2010; Wigmo and Wikstrom, 2010). Sosyal medya işletmelere başarılı sosyal medya pazarlaması kampanyaları yürütebilmeleri için fırsatlar yaratmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı sosyal iletişim sitelerinin turistlerin otellere yönelik tutumlarına ve bilgi toplama alışkanlıklarına etkilerini değerlendirmektir. Çalışmada 225 yanıta ulaşılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonuçları katılımcıların %70'inin oteller ile ilgili bilgi toplarken sosyal iletişim sitelerine başvurduklarını ve bu sitelerde yer alan bilgilerin katılımcıların %64'ünün otel seçimini etkilediğini göstermektedir.  Social media provides a unique online platform for communication and information exchange where consumers are becoming the producers and consumers of the content (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Saperstein and Hastings, 2010; Wigmo and Wikstrom, 2010). Social media creates opportunities for businesses to run successful social media marketing campaigns. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of social networking sites (SNS) on information gathering and tourists' attitudes towards hotels. The study received 255 fully completed responses. The results showed that about 70% of study participants use SNS to obtain hotel information and that information posted on SNS affects a hotel choice of about 64% of respondents.&nbsp

Destination imagery diagnosis model ::the case of Switzerland

This research investigates destination imagery of Switzerland as a travel destination. This research first conducted survey and content analysis to identify 23 unique statements reflecting travel in Switzerland. Through an online survey, this research collected 399 responses from French and Italian respondents. Based on the comparisons of association strength and association valence of every statement to the aggregated association strength and association valence, this research developed the Destination Imagery Diagnosis model. The results show that, overall, French and Italian respondents have strong and positive associations to statements related to Switzerland’s nature and opportunities for outdoor activities. Furthermore, respondents rated “Healthy lifestyle” and “Welcoming and friendly” positively but the associations to Switzerland were weaker. This research also identified marketing opportunities specifically for French and Italian respondents. The Destination Imagery Diagnosis Model serves as a new tool to compare destination imageries between markets or keep track of changes of destination imagery