Written Vignette Experiment versus Virtual Reality Experiment in Tourism Research: An Empirical Comparison

Hyunseo (Violet) Yoon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests are the applications of the virtual environment, such as virtual reality and metaverse to enhance tourism benefits. Suiwen (Sharon) Zou, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on marketing practices (e.g., pricing) that address the financial issues of tourism and leisure services. (Dr. Zou’s research website here)Tourism scholars call for more experimental research to further our understanding of the tourism phenomenon. Due to the difficulty of conducting field experiments, most experimental research in tourism has been laboratory experiments. The use of virtual reality (VR) in laboratory experiments has been discussed to overcome the external validity criticism of laboratory experiments. However, its validity has not been scientifically explored yet. This study conducted a written vignette experiment and a VR experiment with the same research design to examine if the two experiments provide comparable results. The results showed that the two experiments yielded different results from the same research design. Specifically, the VR experiment provided more valid results in behavioral outcomes (e.g., revisit intentions) than the written vignette experiment, while both experiments showed similar results in mentalistic outcomes (e.g., satisfaction, perceived price value). Several practical implications were suggested

The Impacts of Entrance Fee on National Park Visitors’ Post-Purchase Evaluations and On-site Behaviors

Public lands in the U.S. are under pressure to increase self-generated revenues due to the gradual budget reduction. Implementing entrance fees is considered an option, but its impact on visitation and revenue is controversial. This study aimed to examine the impacts of entrance fees on national park visitors’ post-purchase evaluations and on-site behaviors. Additionally, the framing effect for the free entrance was assessed. This research adopted a scenario-based experimental approach. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three entrance fee conditions: a fee condition, a free condition, and a discount-framing condition. The results showed that visitors perceived lower price value and lower intentions to revisit when there was an entrance fee. Moreover, it was found that visitors intended to spend more money when the free entrance was framed as discounted. This research suggested that public land managers should cautiously adopt entrance fees and strategically impose the free admission

Written Vignette Experiment versus Virtual Reality Experiment in Tourism Research: An Empirical Comparison

Tourism scholars call for more experimental research to further our understanding of the tourism phenomenon. Due to the difficulty of conducting field experiments, most experimental research in tourism has been laboratory experiments. The use of virtual reality (VR) in laboratory experiments has been discussed to overcome the external validity criticism of laboratory experiments. However, its validity has not been scientifically explored yet. This study conducted a written vignette experiment and a VR experiment with the same research design to examine if the two experiments provide comparable results. The results showed that the two experiments yielded different results from the same research design. Specifically, the VR experiment provided more valid results in behavioral outcomes (e.g., revisit intentions) than the written vignette experiment, while both experiments showed similar results in mentalistic outcomes (e.g., satisfaction, perceived price value). Several practical implications were suggested

Allocations of Government Funding for Public-owned Tourist Attractions in China: An Empirical Examination

Junya Liu is a doctoral candidate at the College of Business at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Her research focuses on organizational behavior and financial sustainability in tourism and leisure. Her Email Address is [email protected]. Suiwen (Sharon) Zou, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Zou's research focuses on the pricing and financial issues of tourism and leisure services. Jamie M. Chen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Norwegian School of Hotel Management at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Dr. Chen’s research focuses on tourism economics, service modeling, digital marketing, consumer behavior, social media analytics, and international business. Email: [email protected]. For public tourist attractions, financial viability heavily depends upon sufficient government funding. However, research on government allocations has historically been quite rare. This study addressed this relevant gap by using a panel dataset of 171 public attractions in China from 2015 to 2018. Double-hurdle models and quantile regressions were employed to examine the determinants of government funding for public attractions. The findings suggested that attraction attributes played an influential role in the amount of government appropriations, but they were less impactful on the attractions’ likelihood of receiving government funding. Besides, it was revealed that attraction attributes exerted stronger impacts as attractions’ government funding level increased. The local economic condition was also a significant factor of both the possibility and the amount of government funding

Allocations of Government Funding for Public-owned Tourist Attractions in China: An Empirical Examination

For public tourist attractions, financial viability heavily depends upon sufficient government funding. However, research on government allocations has historically been quite rare. This study addressed this relevant gap by using a panel dataset of 171 public attractions in China from 2015 to 2018. Double-hurdle models and quantile regressions were employed to examine the determinants of government funding for public attractions. The findings suggested that attraction attributes played an influential role in the amount of government appropriations, but they were less impactful on the attractions’ likelihood of receiving government funding. Besides, it was revealed that attraction attributes exerted stronger impacts as attractions’ government funding level increased. The local economic condition was also a significant factor of both the possibility and the amount of government funding

The Effects of Virtual Reality on Nostalgia Evocation and Revisit Intention

Hyunseo (Violet) Yoon is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interest is using the virtual environment to enhance tourism benefits. Suiwen (Sharon) Zou is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on marketing practices (e.g., pricing) that address the financial issues of tourism and leisure services. Carla A. Santos is a professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focus is the examination of communicative practices as a means of addressing the socio-political and cultural impact of tourism on the world's people and cultures. It is important for destinations to retain repeat visitors, but it is relatively unknown how to manage revisit intention of past visitors. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study examines the effects of a sense of presence, facilitated by a virtual reality (VR) experience of a previously visited destination, on revisit intention by personal nostalgia mediation. A mixed research method is adopted. A qualitative study is embedded within a quantitative study. A VR laboratory experiment is conducted for the quantitative study. Using a 360-degree video about a visit to New York City as a research stimulus, a mixed experimental design involving a 2 (between-subject: a high vs. a low sense of presence) by 2 (within-subjects: personal nostalgia and revisit intention before vs. after a research stimulus) is adopted. For the qualitative study, a qualitative survey consisting of a series of open-ended questions is used to support the quantitative study results

Financial Implications of Customer Engagement Behavior on Business Profitability

Karen P.S. Tan ([email protected]), is a PhD Candidate and Presidential Fellow at the Department of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Temple University. Having worked on numerous tourism and hospitality industry projects across Asia Pacific, her research interests include the study of tourist behavior and emotions as well as hospitality finance and real estate. Suiwen (Sharon) Zou, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the pricing and financial issues of tourism and leisure services. Xiang (Robert) Li, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is a professor and Director of Temple’s U.S.-Asia Center for Tourism and Hospitality Research. Robert's research mainly focuses on destination marketing and tourist behavior, with special emphasis on international destination branding, customer loyalty, and tourism in Asia. Robert is a current TTRA board member.General SubmissionThis study investigated the financial value of online reviews, an important customer engagement behavior (CEB). Total revenue, operating expenses and operating profits of a given period from each property were collected for 111 hotels in five Asian countries. These were matched with each hotel’s TripAdvisor reviews for the same time period, yielding a sample of 53,474 reviews. Panel regression analysis showed that review variance, volume and length had varying levels of association with gross operating profit indicators, thus providing empirical evidence linking CEB and business profitability. In comparison, only review volume was significantly associated with a hotel’s total revenue. Meanwhile, review valence is not significantly related with all measures of total revenue, total expenses and operating profits. The reviews were also assessed for their relationship with room revenue for comparisons with profitability and total revenue indicators. Theoretical and empirical implications of the study were discussed

The Effects of Virtual Reality on Nostalgia Evocation and Revisit Intention

It is important for destinations to retain repeat visitors, but it is relatively unknown how to manage revisit intention of past visitors. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study examines the effects of a sense of presence, facilitated by a virtual reality (VR) experience of a previously visited destination, on revisit intention by personal nostalgia mediation. A mixed research method is adopted. A qualitative study is embedded within a quantitative study. A VR laboratory experiment is conducted for the quantitative study. Using a 360-degree video about a visit to New York City as a research stimulus, a mixed experimental design involving a 2 (between-subject: a high vs. a low sense of presence) by 2 (within-subjects: personal nostalgia and revisit intention before vs. after a research stimulus) is adopted. For the qualitative study, a qualitative survey consisting of a series of open-ended questions is used to support the quantitative study results

Economic Empowerment in Rural Tourism Development

Although empowerment plays an essential role in sustainable tourism development, most empowerment research in the tourism literature has been focused on the non-economic dimensions. Building on the typology of power (i.e., Power over, Power to, Power within, and Power with), this study explored and accessed economic empowerment in the context of tourism development in rural communities. Specifically, we investigated how economic empowerment or disempowerment occurred among individuals and communities. The four dimensions of power were presented as a process of change that transformed the lives of rural community members through tourism development. The findings indicated that tourism development can facilitate/hinder the process whereby tourism stakeholders in rural communities are transformed from having limited access and power to experiencing economic advancement and enhanced power. Also, the findings revealed that collaboration within the community can facilitate attaining the power of community members in the economic domain. Discussion and implementation are also presented