Investigating Tourists’ Revisit Proxies: The Key Role of Destination Loyalty and Its Dimensions

Literature in tourism marketing has focused on understanding tourists’ revisit patterns, mostly through its proxies (i.e., destination loyalty, past visitation, intention to revisit). Interestingly, however, consensus has not been reached yet, regarding not only the distinctiveness of these proxies but also their interrelationships. This study hypothesizes the impact of past visitation, along with holistic image and subjective norms, on tourists’ intention to revisit directly, and via destination loyalty, expecting place attachment to serve as key moderator. Additionally, since research remains quite vague in terms of the destination loyalty components and their operationalization, this study tests other than the baseline model, a competing one, in which we replace destination loyalty construct with two of its main components, namely, destination commitment and intention to recommend. Evidence coming from 1,292 British tourists visiting Crete, Greece, verifies the distinctiveness of the three proxies and identifies the superior explanatory power of the competing model. © The Author(s) 2018

The affective impact of sightseeing bus tour experiences: using Affective Events Theory (AET) to examine length-of-stay and electronic word-of-mouth

This study investigates the key components and influences of positive affect and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on tourist visits at two developing urban destinations, namely Birmingham, United Kingdom and Valencia, Spain. These two data collection sites yielded evidence gathered from 615 and 627 sightseeing bus tourists, respectively. Through the analytic lens of Affective Events Theory (AET), data were examined, and results verify the significant mediating role of affect in two regards: (1) tourists’ decision to extend their visits and (2) eWOM of sightseeing bus tour experiences. The moderating role of past sightseeing experiences in these relationships was also supported by the data analysis. This paper further strengthens the role of affect in tourism management scholarship as well as expands AET from the work-setting into the tourism context thus marking a new research trail. Practical implications for tourism destination management organizations (DMOs) are also discussed. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Predicting hotel attractiveness via personality traits of applicants: The moderating role of self-esteem and work experience

Purpose: Despite the fact that hotels rely heavily upon frontline employees, extant evidence on what makes a hotel attractive in the eyes of job applicants is scarce. Thus, this paper aims to incorporate the Big Five personality traits model to identify what potential hotel job applicants are likely to seek in their prospective employers. Design/methodology/approach: Applicants for non-managerial, frontline posts at upscale hotels were approached via three branches of a career agency located in England, UK; their responses were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire. The 522 usable responses were used in a covariance-based, multi-group structural equation modeling scheme to investigate three main research propositions with regards to the applicants’ personality traits’ influence on their perceptions of a hotel’s attractiveness as a potential employer. Findings: Analysis of responses indicates significant differences regarding the impact of extraversion, conscientiousness and openness on perceived facets of employer attractiveness. Additionally, findings suggest that high self-esteem does make applicants more demanding, while work experience also influences their preferences regarding the hotels’ profiles as an employer. Research limitations/implications: The results of this study are limited to applicants for non-managerial, frontline job positions in upscale hotels in the UK. Practical implications: Practically, this study offers practitioners valuable feedback regarding the potential applicant’s personality profile that grants the best fit with an upscale hotel. Originality/value: While different studies tried to identify the organizations’ attributes that attract potential applicants, evidence on what attracts individuals to a hotel is very limited. Hence, the present study tries to address this gap and link potential applicants’ personality profiles with that of hotels as employers. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Destination atmospheric cues as key influencers of tourists’ word-of-mouth communication: tourist visitation at two Mediterranean capital cities

The impact of destination atmospheric cues–as representations of destination characteristics–on tourists’ intention to engage in word-of-mouth (WOM) communication is examined, adopting a well-established retailing theoretical underpinning; the Stimuli-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. In doing so, this research incorporates both affective and cognitive states and processes as Organism. Evidence from 1025 tourists who visited Lisbon, Portugal and 1002 who visited Athens, Greece offers support to the S-O-R model and at the same time (a) exemplifies the explanatory power of Organism in the relationship between destination atmospheric cues and WOM communication intention, (b) recognizes the key role of negative affect for both destinations, as well as of the positive affect for Athens only, and (c) highlights the procedural nature of the cognitive state of Organism. This research corroborates the value of examining tourists’ behaviour through the lens of S-O-R and how both affective and cognitive elements of Organism contribute to decision-making in a procedural manner. Managerial implications for tourism destination marketers are also discussed. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Commentary: Differences of Perceived Image Generated through the Web Site: Empirical Evidence Obtained in Spanish Destinations

[No abstract available

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. © 2016 Elsevier Lt

Editorial: Delineating the Visiting Experience: Matching Destination and Stakeholder Personalities

[No abstract available

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. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

Quality in bank service encounters: Assessing the equivalence of customers’ and front-line employees’ perceptions

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the need to evaluate perception-based quality in service encounters. It sets out to diagnose potential mismatches in how customers and front-line employees perceive quality in high-involvement service settings, based on the premise that any initiative toward quality enhancement in service encounters is advisable only when employees and customers evaluate quality utilizing common perceptual structures. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilizes invariance analysis. The survey involved 165 bank branches and 1,522 respondents (463 front-line employees and 1,059 customers) and operationalized the same set of questions for both groups of participants. Multisample confirmatory factor analysis tested a series of measurement models. Findings: Results revealed equivalence for tangibles, responsiveness and assurance but also mismatches between customers and front-line employees perceptions of reliability and empathy. Practical implications: Findings add to current knowledge of how both groups of participants evaluate quality in service encounters and are discussed with reference to managerial consequences for perception-based quality mismatches. Originality/value: So far only a few studies have simultaneously examined front-line employees’ and customers’ perceptions of service quality in service encounters. Unlike previous research designs, this study addresses the critical aspect of potential mismatches in how customers and employees perceive service quality, and presents a methodological procedure to detect them. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited