No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Perceived cultural distance and international destination choice: The role of destination familiarity, geographic distance, and cultural motivation
Abstract
Cultural distance is a key factor in international tourism. This study aims to use the perceptual measure of cultural distance to investigate 1) the impact of destination familiarity and geographic distance on perceived cultural distance (PCD); and 2) the moderating effect of cultural motivation on PCD and Chinese potential outbound tourists’ international destination choices. Findings reveal that while destination familiarity and geographic distance are important antecedents of PCD, PCD has no significant impact on international destination choice. When moderated by cultural motivation, however, PCD exerts a positive impact on destination choice for respondents with a higher level of cultural motivation and a negative impact on those with a lower level of cultural motivation. In closing, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Cultural distance has been acknowledged as the extent to which a tourist's home country's culture is different from or similar to that of a destination [37]. According to Crompton [17], international tourists have two common reasons for travelling: escape from their everyday environment and the search for novelty. ...
... That means, other conditions being equal, Spain could attract more Chinese tourists because of its close to optimal cultural distance. Other researchers like Liu et al. [37] reported that perceived cultural distance does not significantly impact international destination choice except when cultural motivation moderates. Specifically, people with higher levels of cultural motivation to travel were more likely to visit culturally distant destinations. ...
... The first variable was estimated with three items: (1) I intend to visit Spain in the future; (2) I want to visit Spain, and (3) It is likely that I will visit Spain in the future [47,48]. The recommendation variable was measured by asking the respondents to answer: (1) I will recommend Spain to my friends or family as an ideal travel destination; (2) I would say positive things about Spain to other people; (3) I will encourage my friends or family to visit Spain [37,49]. All items were scored on a five-point Likert Scale, measuring whether the respondents' agreed or disagreed with each statement. ...
The language barrier has been typically studied as a constraint in international tourism. Little research has focused on how learning the destination language could affect the potential tourists’ motivations, perceptions, and intentions. This paper investigates this topic through a survey aimed at Chinese university students as potential visitors to Spain. The primary objective is to explore how these differences influence their travel motivation, perceived cultural distance, perceived destination image of Spain, and behavioural intentions to visit Spain. Statistical analyses, including exploratory factor analysis and one-way ANOVA tests, were conducted to examine these factors. Our findings reveal the statistically significant differences among the students with different Spanish language proficiency. Practical implications are provided for Spanish destination management on attracting more Chinese tourists after the pandemic of COVID-19.
... Among factors that influence both the destination's perceived attractiveness and the destination's image, familiarity is often pointed out. It is often highlighted that the higher degree of familiarity, the more preferable the image of the destination possessed by particular prospective tourists [12,13]. In this context, familiarity might be regarded as comprising both previous experiences with the destination and the level of knowledge on this destination [14]. ...
... Destination familiarity is often split into several dimensions, including self-rated familiarity, informational familiarity, and experiential familiarity [11,13,63,64]. Self-rated familiarity is a tourist's overall level of familiarity with a destination [64], while informational familiarity reflects the amount of destination-related information to which individuals are exposed via various sources [63], and, finally, experiential familiarity refers to one's previous experiences when visiting a destination [13,63]. ...
... Destination familiarity is often split into several dimensions, including self-rated familiarity, informational familiarity, and experiential familiarity [11,13,63,64]. Self-rated familiarity is a tourist's overall level of familiarity with a destination [64], while informational familiarity reflects the amount of destination-related information to which individuals are exposed via various sources [63], and, finally, experiential familiarity refers to one's previous experiences when visiting a destination [13,63]. ...
Destination familiarity has been analyzed for many years as an important factor influencing the perceived attractiveness of a destination and its image. However, previous research has concentrated on this relation considering familiarity with a destination as a whole, while the issue of familiarity with particular elements of a destination has not been explored. The current research aimed to detect if and how familiarity with three selected elements of a destination, namely, tangible tourism attractions, events, and traditional cuisine and dishes, impacts the perceived attractiveness of a city destination. The research was conducted using the following four Polish cities as examples: Gdańsk, Katowice, Łódź, and Wrocław. The research questionnaire was distributed among the citizens of another Polish city—Krakow. Over 200 responses were received. The results show that familiarity with tangible attraction was correlated with high perceived attractiveness of a destination, while the other two factors did not impact the level of perceived attractiveness. The results were achieved on the basis of the indication of several scientific and practical conclusions.
... While it has been recognized that culture shapes tourists' perceptions and therefore determines tourist behavior and tourism demand (Hadinejad et al., 2019), cultural factors have long been overlooked in international travel research (Yang et al., 2019). Crotts (2004) noted that cultural distance, which is the cultural difference between origin countries and destination countries, could describe the influences of culture on tourist behavior in more detail theoretically (Ng et al., 2007), could evaluate the influence of cultural factors on international tourism methodically (Liu et al., 2018), could be a central selling point (Reisinger and Crotts, 2010) and could also be a constraint (Zhang et al., 2013). Therefore, it is speculated that cultural distance may positively and negatively affect international inbound flows. ...
... Research has also employed cultural distance to assess the heterogeneity between tourist source cultures and tourist destination cultures in an international tourism context (Liu et al., 2018), which found that cultural distance significantly affected tourism demand, motivation and behavior as well as travel decision-making and destination choices (Bi and Lehto, 2018;Liu et al., 2018;Ahn and McKercher, 2015). However, the cultural distance effect is complex and subtle as it can be both a motivating factor and a travel constraint and can therefore have either a positive (Reisinger and Crotts, 2010) or negative (Zhang et al., 2013) effect on tourism demand and behavior (Yang et al., 2019;Bi and Lehto, 2018). ...
... Research has also employed cultural distance to assess the heterogeneity between tourist source cultures and tourist destination cultures in an international tourism context (Liu et al., 2018), which found that cultural distance significantly affected tourism demand, motivation and behavior as well as travel decision-making and destination choices (Bi and Lehto, 2018;Liu et al., 2018;Ahn and McKercher, 2015). However, the cultural distance effect is complex and subtle as it can be both a motivating factor and a travel constraint and can therefore have either a positive (Reisinger and Crotts, 2010) or negative (Zhang et al., 2013) effect on tourism demand and behavior (Yang et al., 2019;Bi and Lehto, 2018). ...
Purpose
Some researchers have found that disasters may have a “blessing in disguise effect” that some disaster sites transformed into more popular tourism destinations; however, no studies have analyzed the heterogeneity of the “blessing in disguise effect”. This paper aims to explore and determine the effect of cultural distance on international inbound tourist arrivals to a post-disaster tourist destination that could explain this heterogeneous phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a threshold regression model and a differences-in-differences (DID) approach to analyze 2000–2016 international tourist arrival data from 13 main origin countries to Sichuan Province before and after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China.
Findings
The effect of cultural distance on post-disaster inbound arrivals from the various origin countries followed a non-linear U-shaped “double-edged sword” pattern rather than displaying a simple linear relationship. Most notably, the disaster appeared to have a more positive effect on arrivals from countries with larger cultural distances, while the effect on arrivals from countries with shorter cultural distances was negative.
Originality/value
This study found that cultural distance could explain the heterogeneous “blessing in disguise” phenomenon, and it had both positive and negative impacts on tourism destination recovery; that is, a definite “double-edged sword effect” of cultural distance was found, which could help destination marketing organizations and management departments to design appropriately targeted marketing for post-disaster tourism destination recovery.
... Cultural differences exert well-documented impacts on many aspects of individuals' behavior (Hofstede, 2001). Scholarly evidence indicates that culture plays a critical role in perceived destination branding and destination choice (Aguirre- Rodriguez, 2014;Liu, Li, Cárdenas, & Yang, 2018). Several studies have also theorized about the roles of cultural factors in consumer-brand relationships. ...
... Although these dimensions have been applied internationally to conceptualize culture (Kirkman, Lowe, & Gibson, 2006), several limitations persist, such as relatively unrepresentative samples (Steenkamp, 2001), outdated measurement methods (White & Tadesse, 2008), and thin theoretical support (Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, 2007). Tourism researchers have further contended that cultural differences only reflect temporal changes in perceived value heterogeneity among individuals from the same country (Liu et al., 2018). Such variation has led Hofstede's cultural dimensions to be interpreted differently across cultural backgrounds. ...
Drawing upon self-congruity theory and Hofstede's notion of uncertainty avoidance, this paper empirically investigates the roles of destination personality, destination image, self-congruity, uncertainty avoidance, and revisit intention in two cities: Auckland, New Zealand and Glasgow, UK. Data were collected from a sample of 318 Chinese tourists in Auckland and 226 Chinese tourists in Glasgow. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to assess the measurement and structural models and to compare the relationship between these destinations. Findings showed that actual and ideal self-congruity served as mediators between destination personality, destination image, and revisit intention; uncertainty avoidance was not a significant moderator between self-congruity (i.e. actual and ideal) and revisit intention in both cities. Partial least squares–Henseler's multigroup analysis further indicated that the mediating role of actual self-congruity between destination image and revisit intention was especially strong for Auckland versus Glasgow. However, findings revealed non-significant differences between Auckland and Glasgow for all hypotheses (i.e. the mediating role of self-congruity and the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance). The present study offers theoretical and managerial implications for academics and practitioners.
... Similarly, Nigeria as the giant of black Africa, the richest, most populous, and most advanced nation in black Africa is highly gifted with outstanding cultural attractions, representing a rich and varied heritage which, if scientifically marketed, using the social media could draw millions of "Lovers of Black Beauty" [15]. In the festival-growing market, the success of tourism destination marketing is focused on detailed analysis of tourists' cultural motivations and the interplay in tourists' revisiting intentions [146]. Therefore, it can be deduced that the positive effect of value on satisfaction can be construed from logic that value creates satisfaction [147]. ...
... The cultural motivation, derivable from the cultural affinity African-Americans have with Africa, enhances the festival satisfaction and propels the intention to revisit the festival destination. This is in line with the submission Liu et al. [146] and Hernández-Mogollón et al., [147], who revealed that the success of tourism destination marketing is affected by tourist satisfaction and its relationship with tourists' revisiting intentions is largely dependent upon the tourists' cultural motivation. ...
This study explored how social media is used as a destination marketing tool for the sustainability of heritage festival quality in Nigeria, drawing on the theory of planned behavior. The festival, which is an exploration of heritage, was specifically premeditated to celebrate the slave trade period by highlighting the unique connection of African American history to the diaspora ancestors who were literally taken away as slaves through “the point of no return” in Badagry, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was utilized as a research instrument to gather information aimed at examining the influence of social media (SM), website quality (WQ), and online word of mouth (eWOM) on tourists’ festival satisfaction (FS) and festival revisiting intention (FRI). Data were gathered from samples of 473 diaspora tourists at Badagry Diaspora Festival in Nigeria and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with the aid of WarpPLS (7.0). The findings of the study revealed that social media (SM), festival quality (FQ), website quality (WQ), and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) had a positive and significant relationship with tourists’ festival satisfaction. Additionally, this study found that festival quality had a positive impact on the intention of the tourists to revisit the Badagry Diaspora Festival because tourist attitude is influenced by the socio-cultural background of tourists. Moreover, the result revealed the partial mediating effect of festival satisfaction in the relationship between (a) SM, (b) FQ, (c) WQ, and (d) eWOM and tourists’ festival satisfaction. Similarly, cultural motivation was also found to mediate the relationship between tourists’ festival satisfaction and festival revisiting intension (RI). Based on the findings, the implications of the festival sustainability and future research directions were discussed.
... This has particular relevance with cross-cultural travel. Increasing global tourism has led to a huge amount of research that integrates cultural distance as a crucial variable in tourism studies (J. S. Chen, 2000;Crotts, 2004;Crotts & Erdmann, 2000;Esiyok et al., 2017;Leung et al., 2013;Liu et al., 2018;Ng et al., 2007;Shenkar, 2001;S. Yang et al., 2019;Y. ...
... For instance, scholars argued that the framework is based on a relatively unrepresentative sample (Steenkamp, 2001), outdatedness (White & Tadesse, 2008), coupled with a lack of theoretical support (Soares et al., 2007). As noted by Liu et al. (2018), in tourism, cultural distance only reflects temporal changes in discerning the value heterogeneity between individuals in the same nation. Due to this individual heterogeneity, Hofstede cultural dimensions may be interpreted variedly in different cultural backgrounds. ...
The aim of this article was to propose a framework based on the theory of self-congruity and on Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance. The framework was to combine destination personality, self-congruity, uncertainty avoidance, and tourists’ revisit intention. The present conceptual paper proposed an integrated model of self-congruity which incorporates the effect of uncertainty avoidance. More importantly, the uncertainty avoidance was introduced as a moderator between self-congruity and revisit intention. Based on the theoretical framework proposed in this article, the estimated results affirmed the applicability of the theory of self-congruity for tourism research. Moreover, by extending the theoretical model through the incorporation of a variable of uncertainty avoidance in the context of tourism, this article offers a significant contribution to the tourism literature. It is important to understand how the theory of self-congruity applies across a broad cultural spectrum. This article also offers several implications for destination marketing organizations from a practical perspective.
... Tourism flows between countries have commonly been studied from the perspective of macroeconomic indicators, including the gross domestic product (GDP), bilateral exchange rate, or consumer price index (CPI) of both outbound and inbound countries [5]. Beyond macroeconomic measures, another country-specific but non-economic variable was also brought into this debate to distil additional insights on factors underpinning cross-border tourism: culture [6][7][8]. ...
In this study, the gravity model is applied via the dynamic generalised methods of moments estimation to assess the role of geographical distance in moderating the impact of culture on outbound tourism flows. The results show that cultural distance has a positive impact on Chinese outbound tourism flow. However, the effect of cultural distance on outbound tourism flow decreases as geographical distance increases since travellers to nearby destinations are more strongly influenced
by cultural distance than travellers to more distant markets. These results therefore support the concept of the “diminishing effect of cultural distance” on the Chinese outbound tourism market. In addition, the results of this study serve as a basis for promoting the sustained contribution of Chinese outbound tourism to the development of destination management, which will help with the recovery of international tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic.
... The current consensus on how economic distance affects international trade is not uniform. The demand for, and complementarity of, traded goods have a favorable influence [61][62][63], while the competitiveness of traded goods has a negative impact [64,65]. Economic distance has progressively been a key factor determining trade costs as a result of globalization's ongoing expansion [66]. ...
Agricultural exports are vulnerable to many distance factors such as geographical, cultural, economic and institutional distance. Panel data were collected from 63 countries (from 2002 to 2020), and fixed effects regression models were employed to estimate the impact of multidimensional distance on China’s agricultural exports. Results found that the institutional, geographical, and cultural distance negatively impacted China’s agricultural exports significantly. The economic distance significantly promoted exports due to the demand and complementarity of trade between countries. After the technological added value is considered, the cultural distance significantly promoted the export of high-tech agricultural products. It is confirmed that the institutional distance remained the greatest obstacle to agricultural exports, and economic distance promoted agricultural exports. It is imperative to focus on promoting mutual cultural understanding and communication of institutional policies to stimulate agricultural exports and improve the exports of agricultural products of high technological content.
... Moreover, weather and climate, as well as the language spoken or the perceived understanding of the level of spoken English (or another commonly spoken language in other regions such as Arabic or Spanish), are also taken into account when determining the attractiveness of a destination choice (H. Liu et al., 2018;Masiero & Qiu, 2018). ...
La croissance rapide de l'industrie du tourisme a créé des défis importants en matière de marketing touristique pour de nombreuses destinations. Les destinations touristiques doivent se concurrencer pour attirer de nouveaux touristes ou persuader les précédents de renouveler leur visite. En conséquence, ils doivent imaginer une image tentante pour leur marché cible. Par conséquent, l'image de la destination est un concept marketing crucial qui joue un rôle central dans la compréhension de la sélection de la destination (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999). A l’origine, Echtner et Ritchie (1991) définissent l'image de la destination touristique comme un ensemble de qualités fonctionnelles (utilitaires) liées au comportement touristique, telles que les infrastructures touristiques, les attractions et la tarification des produits touristiques (Echtner & Ritchie, 1993 ; P. Pearce, 1982). Cependant, de nombreux autres facteurs influents peuvent jouer un rôle important. Cette recherche de doctorat en philosophie (PhD) explore le rôle des événements et des innovations culturelles (telles que la gamification) dans l'amélioration de l'image de la destination touristique en étudiant leurs impacts, car l'image peut affecter directement le choix de la destination touristique (Beerli et al., 2007 ; Crompton, 1992 ; MacKay & Fesenmaier, 1997 ; Seddighi & Theocharous, 2002 ; Sirakaya et al., 2001 ; Um, 1998 ; Walmsley & Young, 1998).Les événements, en particulier les plus petits, pourraient être considérés comme l'un des outils utilisés en faveur des destinations touristiques lorsqu'elles sont en concurrence avec d'autres. Cependant, une grande partie de l'attention a été concentrée sur des événements à grande échelle ou méga-événements, avec peu de connaissances ou de compréhension des contributions apportées par leurs homologues beaucoup plus petits. Les événements culturels locaux, contrairement aux méga-événements, nécessitent peu d'investissements ou de développement d'infrastructures (Gursoy et al., 2004), ce qui les rend facilement accessibles aux milliers de petites lieux qui cherchent à renforcer leur image.Outre les événements, les innovations culturelles dans les destinations touristiques deviennent un nouveau mot à la mode dans les destinations ; la gamification fait partie des tendances qui pourraient aider les destinations dans cette compétition, notamment en ce qui concerne le goût des nouvelles générations (Gen Y et Z). Cependant, comme il s'agit d'un nouveau sujet, peu d'études ont été utilisées pour analyser le résultat de cette tendance et si la gamification peut aider les destinations à améliorer leur image. L'objectif global de cette thèse est d'offrir des informations solides sur la façon dont les destinations peuvent améliorer leur image et attirer plus de touristes en utilisant des moyens créatifs, dans les dimensions qui viennent d’être évoquées. De plus, les événements culturels et les innovations, populaires dans de nombreux endroits, ont de bons résultats en matière d'économie, de socialisation et de culture et sont considérés comme des outils pratiques. En conséquence, les organisations de marketing de destination (OMD) et les décideurs auront plus d'informations et de connaissances sur ce domaine d'étude et d’arguments pour soutenir leurs processus de prise de décision. Ce domaine spécifique est actuellement sous-étudié et a sa place dans l'étude plus large de l'industrie du tourisme et des impacts des événements. En conséquence, cette thèse tente d'enrichir la littérature théorique et méthodologique en se concentrant sur la question des événements et des innovations culturelles ; comment peuvent-ils contribuer efficacement à l'amélioration de l'image des destinations et les rendre plus attrayantes ou tentantes pour les touristes ?
... Past travel experience, referring to the extent of travel experience that an individual accumulates in the past (Sönmez and Graefe, 1998), reflects one's expertise and knowledge about travel. In the context of normal travel, past travel experience has been widely acknowledged to influence tourists' future travel behavior and behavior intentions, mostly in a positive way, as past travel experience could positively influence tourists' travel attitude, destination image perceptions, and destination familiarity (Lam and Hsu, 2006;Huang and Hsu, 2009;Liu et al., 2018). Moreover, past travel experience can affect tourist behavior through influences on travel safety and risk perceptions. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the global tourism industry. This study explores why some Chinese residents travel during the pandemic. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, guided by the health belief model and relevant literature. Through 21 interviews with Chinese tourists who took an overnight leisure trip in May 2020, and a national survey among Chinese residents, this study explored factors influencing Chinese residents’ travel-related decisions and behaviors during the pandemic. Results outline the influences of health beliefs, government trust, past travel experience, and psychological capital on tourists’ risk-reduction behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are provided regarding tourism recovery during pandemics.
... Destinations can use technology to provide guests with tailored experiences while also letting them know about the amenities the destination has to offer (Matzler, Strobl, Stokburger-sauer, Bobovnicky, & Bauer, 2016). As a coordinating platform for sharing of knowledge, technology, and others can be used by destination stakeholders to help them make decisions that are of higher quality (Liu, Robert, Cárdenas, & Yang, 2018). The terms "smart mobility" and "accessibility inside a destination," as well as "possibility of arriving at the destination," are used interchangeably. ...
The aim of this study is to determine smart governance, smart tourism, smart mobility, and smart sustainability are used by stakeholders in Lake Toba tourism objects to prepare smart tourism destinations (STD) for the effects of covid-19. This research is in line with the strategic plan of the Medan State University research which focuses on the development of tourism areas in North Sumatra. This study uses a Research and Development type with a basic-based research approach through needs analysis, model confirmation, and evaluation. Tourists that visited Lake Toba attractions in April 2022 were given questionnaires, and data were analyzed using pls-sem. The study shows that smart governance influences smart travel, smart tourism, and smart sustainability. On the other hand, smart mobility does not have a positive effect on smart sustainability, smart tourism has a positive and significant effect on smart sustainability. Overall, further research are needed to use other variables.
... temporal changes which determine value heterogeneity among citizens within one country (Liu et al., 2018). As a result, various perceptions of Hofstede's cultural dimensions would be formed by people from different cultural backgrounds. ...
Destination image is essential to tourists' loyalty and has been discussed in length among researchers and marketers in the tourism industry for decades. Based on a literature review, the destination image model, including cognitive image, affective image, and conative image, has been firmly established as an acceptable means to gain an understanding of tourists' behavior toward revisiting and recommendations. The understanding of the moderating role of cultural constructs is still unclear, especially in cross-cultural travel behavior. Therefore, this conceptual paper proposes an integrated model of cognitive-affective-conative image that includes the constructs of individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Based on the underpinning theories and empirical studies, this paper proposes affective image potentially mediates the correlation between cognitive image and conative image. This model also incorporated individualism and uncertainty as potential moderating effects between affective image and conative image. By integrating individualism and uncertainty avoidance into the theoretical model from the perspective of tourism, this paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of travel behavior on emerging tourism marketing.
... Destinations can use technology to provide guests with tailored experiences while also letting them know about the amenities the destination has to offer (Matzler, Strobl, Stokburger-sauer, Bobovnicky, & Bauer, 2016). As a coordinating platform for sharing of knowledge, technology, and others can be used by destination stakeholders to help them make decisions that are of higher quality (Liu, Robert, Cárdenas, & Yang, 2018). The terms "smart mobility" and "accessibility inside a destination," as well as "possibility of arriving at the destination," are used interchangeably. ...
... image will create product appeal to revisit intention. This supports the research conducted by Wirastomo (2012) which revealed that if a product has a good picture in the minds of consumers, then the product has high brand equity, and this brand equity will shape the attractiveness of the product. This research also supports research conducted by Liu et. al. (2018) which says that the intention of tourists to visit Taiwan is one of the causes, namely the destination image of the city of Taiwan itself. ...
Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi minat kunjung kembali pada objek wisata religi Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Pertanyaan dari penelitian ini adalah bagaimana meningkatkan minat kunjung kembali pada objek wisata religi Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan cara menguji pengaruh Citra Wisata, Mutu Wisata dan Nilai Pelanggan guna meningkatkan minat kunjung kembali pada obyek wisata Religi Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Daya tarik wisata digunakan sebagai variabel intervening. Populasi dari penelitian ini adalah wisatawan yang berkunjung ke objek wisata Religi Sunan Ampel, dan yang sudah pernah berkunjung sebanyak dua kali. Dengan criteria usia mulai dari 16 sampai 40 tahun di kalangan remaja sampai orang tua. Sampel dari penelitian ini adalah 150 responden yang didapat dengan metode purposive sampling. Metode analisis data pada penelitian ini menggunakan path analysisdengan software smartPLS. Hasil penelitian ini membuktikan tiga hipotesis diterima dan satu hipotesis ditolak. Tiga hipotesis yang diterima mencakup mutu wisata berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap dayatarik wisata, citra wisata berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap dayatarik wisata, dan nilai pelanggan berpengaruh positif dan signifikan dengan minat kunjung kembali. Hipotesis yang ditolak adalah dayatarik wisata berpengaruh negatif terhadap minat kunjung kembali.
... These studies imply that individuals are attracted to others whose attitudes and beliefs are like theirs and that similarities presumably provide reassurance for affiliation and recognition for leisure tourism. In line with our assertion, Liu et al. (2018) found an insignificant relationship between perceived cultural distance and destination choice, which means that high cultural distance does not necessarily put culturally distant destinations at a disadvantage. ...
Purpose
Little empirical attention has been paid to the effects of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), electronic referral (eReferral), familiarity and cultural distance on behavioral outcomes, especially within the context of educational tourism. Based on the social network theory, this paper aims to explore the effects of eReferral, eWOM, familiarity and cultural distance on enrollment intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data ( n = 931) were obtained from educational tourists using a judgmental sampling technique. Linear modeling and artificial intelligence (i.e. artificial neural network [ANN]) techniques were used for training and testing the proposed associations.
Findings
The results suggest that eReferral, eWOM, familiarity and cultural distance predict intention to enroll both symmetrically (linear modeling) and asymmetrically (ANN). The asymmetric modeling possesses greater predictive validity and relevance.
Originality/value
This study contributes theoretically and methodologically to the management literature by validating the proposed relationships and deploying contemporary methods such as the ANN. Implications for practice and theory are discussed.
... In essence, cultural differences and similarities have the potential to improve or worsen the communication quality between the service provider and the tourist. Also, tourists' cultural knowledge reduces the perceived cultural distance between their host country and country of origin, which in return positively affects tourists' behaviors, and attitudes towards the destinations (Liu et al., 2018). Thus, one can claim that the cultural intelligence levels of tourists may affect their evaluation of destinations. ...
The role of expat’s community has emerged as a cornerstone for branding tourism destinations. This study focused on 307 expats (across Korea and Turkey) and investigated the effects of perceived destination personality (DP) on destination
brand equity (DBE), under the moderating influence of expat’s cultural intelligence
(ECI). The findings empirically confirmed the significant positive effect of DP on
DBE, however, the cross-country differences in DBE were significantly influenced by
ECI. The study findings offer strategic directions for destination marketers to reassess the vital role of global expats in boosting DP and DBE, especially when ECI
remains superior over general tourists.
... The aforementioned situation can be explained by the concept of «Cultural distance». This concept is defined as the comparison between norms and practices among two cultural groups, it involves the differences in religious beliefs, race, ethnicity, language, social norms and social values [Ghemawat, 2001;Liu et al., 2018]. Consequently, cultural distance is a measure of the degree of differences that exists between two cultures [Gavrila, Brandt, 2013;Melkonian et al., 2019]. ...
The accurate perception of culture-specific emotions of the people living in the host country, may be the most significant, and yet the most underestimated challenge for the international students in the process of adjusting to a new culture. The latest report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) about Russia, confirmed that, in the year 2020, around 353,000 international students are currently studying in the Russian Federation. The studies of van de Vijver in 2007 and 2009 have confirmed that the foreign students from former Soviet republics or former USSR countries (students from post-soviet states, not including Russia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) have lower degrees of perceived cultural distance with Russian culture, this can be explained by the fact that the students from former Soviet republics can speak Russian language fluently, and share religion and traditions with Russian culture. Consequently, the group of students from former USSR countries adapt better to Russia in comparation to the rest of international students. The results of our study in 2020, revealed that the perception of Russian culture-specific emotions among international students studying in the Russian Federation, is significantly predicted by the similarity between the culture of the international students living in Russia and the culture of Russian society. Moreover, our study confirmed that the group of students from former Soviet republics, or former USSR countries, perceived more similarities with Russian national culture; therefore, this result is consistent with the findings of the aforementioned studies of van de Vijver in 2007 and 2009. Thus, we can consider that the accurate recognition of Russian culture-specific emotions and the perceived similarities to Russian cultural standards, may be very significant for the international students studying in the Russian Federation, especially for their process of adjusting to Russian culture. Nevertheless, further research on this topic is needed.
... Psychological studies on preferences and beliefs have shown that individuals prefer to operate in an environment with which they are more familiar, particularly in high-risk situations (Heath & Tversky, 1991). Regarding tourists' choice of location, cultural familiarity is also an important psychological and cognitive factor infuencing destination preference (Basala & Klenosky, 2001;Lee & Tussyadiah, 2012;Liu et al., 2018). Cohen and Cooper (1986) argued that the familiarity of the language of the host country can strongly infuence tourists' prospective destination choices. ...
... Psychological studies on preferences and beliefs have shown that individuals prefer to operate in an environment with which they are more familiar, particularly in high-risk situations (Heath & Tversky, 1991). Regarding tourists' choice of location, cultural familiarity is also an important psychological and cognitive factor infuencing destination preference (Basala & Klenosky, 2001;Lee & Tussyadiah, 2012;Liu et al., 2018). Cohen and Cooper (1986) argued that the familiarity of the language of the host country can strongly infuence tourists' prospective destination choices. ...
... On the one hand, the authors expect that, being influenced by a high interpretation level, tourists with greater cultural distance are more likely to ignore the "loss" brought by crowding (White et al., 2011). On the other hand, due to the lack of knowledge and experience of targeting destinations, the authors also expect that tourists with greater cultural distance always need to spend more searching costs to develop their traveling plans (Liu, Li, Cárdenas, & Yang, 2018). Rational action theory suggested that individuals always considered both the benefits and costs before making decisions (Liang, Schuckert, Law, & Chen, 2017). ...
Although crowding at a destination has been regarded as a critical factor influencing tourist experience, no consistent conclusion has been reached regarding the relationship between perceptions of crowding and tourist satisfaction. This study intends to explore the influence of perceived crowding on satisfaction, and the moderators of this relationship. It is based on an analysis of 72,890 user-generated reviews covering 218 destinations in China. The level of satisfaction of tourists who mention crowding in their reviews was generally lower than that of tourists not mentioning this factor. Among tourists who mentioned crowding, the perceived degree of crowding had a larger impact on those tourists with greater travel experience. The findings contribute to the literature and have practical implications for destination management.
... In order to examine the keys to a tourism destination choice, Pestana, Parreira, and Moutinho (2020) proposed a more comprehensive model of seniors' push and pull motivations, which includes the interaction between their emotions and the satisfaction experienced in a particular place. In addition, other studies also show that factors such as demographic characteristics, individual's neighbourhood context, previous experience, and destination familiarity influence the decisions of older tourists when choosing a travel destination (Chi, Pan, & Del Chiappa, 2018;Dryglas & Salamaga, 2018;Huang & Tsai, 2003;Liu, Li, Cárdenas, & Yang, 2018;Losada, Alén, Cotos-Yáñez, & Domínguez, 2019). In studies on short-term retirement migration destinations, previous research has mainly been conducted at the national and regional level. ...
In 2005 China commenced significant reforms in the provision of care for those over the age of 60 years. Subsequent developments have created a synergy between (a) senior care, (b) tourism policies that seek to alleviate rural poverty by (c) creating additional employment opportunities and the improvement of medical facilities. However, the success of such initiatives are partially based on the choices being made by Chinese over the age of 60 years as to where they wish to holiday and their preference for rural or urban areas as potential retirement regions. In turn these decisions rest on several factors described in the paper, including the presence of care-home facilities, pensions and other income. Based on a survey of those taking holidays who take into account access to medical care should it be needed, the paper reports holiday preferences and their determinants. Findings indicate that approximately 45% of the sample of Beijing residents would prefer a rural location, but while pensions had little impact on decisions, total income did matter.
... From a distance decay perspective, cultural distance may affect tourists' inclination to travel to a certain destination negatively. The negative effect of cultural distance is found on international tourist flows (Liu, Li, Cárdenas & Yang, 2018;. ...
The ambiguous effect of cultural distance on travel attitude and tourist behaviours has long been debated, but its implications are vital to the success of achieving a sustainable tourist-host relationship. The study explored the direct and indirect effects of perceived cultural distance on travel attitude by adopting a mixed-methods approach and introducing a multi-dimensional perspective regarding the tourists’ social contact with the local. The mediating role of tourist-host social contact was also confirmed. The study found that the relationship between perceived cultural distance and travel attitude is “contact elastic”. Results empirically support the co-existence of the paradoxical effects of cultural distance on travel attitude. Implications are provided to policy-makers, practitioners and local communities regarding achieving a sustainable tourist-host bond.
... Tal sepa-ración, mostrada a conveniencia, se descubre condicionada por la limitación temporal (transitoriedad) de la relación, el anonimato y desconocimiento del otro (que en algunas formas se oculta tras el rol interpretado por los anfitriones), la disparidad ocio-trabajo (incluyendo en la categoría 'ocio' el voluntariado) y la capacidad de elección (ejercicio manifiesto del poder económico). El análisis de esta caracterización, on-site y online (etnografías virtuales y análisis de redes sociales virtuales) seguirá aportando conocimiento para entender los mecanismos con los que la distancia cultural (Andrade 2011;Froese y Peltokorpi 2011;López y Vidal 2011;Popli et al. 2016;Liu et al. 2018) y la expectativa del otro condiciona las relaciones entre grupos de personas, entre turistas y poblaciones residentes en el destino. De importancia para la disciplina, también lo es su transferencia al sistema turístico, en tanto que, por una parte, aportará valor al desarrollo de productos y servicios, y, por otra, podrá redundar en una minoración de efectos no deseados sobre las poblaciones residentes. ...
En los márgenes están las oportunidades de innovación y crecimiento para la antropología social. Y el turismo fue, hace ya cuarenta años, una de esas apariciones intersticiales a los que antropólogos y antropólogas se enfrentaron en sus investigaciones de campo. Contribuyendo posteriormente a su constitución epistemológica, hoy se encuentra reconocido como objeto de estudio, dinámico, transversal y continuamente sugerente. Este proceso ha llevado a la implicación de la antropología en la transferencia de sus aportaciones al ámbito institucional y empresarial, además del social. El encuentro turístico, la imagen y el patrimonio cultural, son tres de los subcampos que manifiestan un importante potencial de desarrollo laboral a corto plazo. La adaptación y renovación metodológica para comprender el sistema turístico abre el futuro a la construcción de escenarios y, con ello, a la actuación predictiva sobre situaciones socioeconómicas y socioculturales.
Language barriers have always been considered as constraints on tourists’ intentions to visit an overseas destination. However, little research has focused on how learning the destination language could affect tourists’ behavioral intentions. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the moderating effect of Spanish language proficiency on young Chinese travelers’ intentions to visit Spain. A quantitative research method was adopted involving data collection through a structured questionnaire survey. A total of 642 Chinese university students were used as the sample in this study. The relationships between motivation, perceived cultural distance, destination image, and future behavioral intention were examined using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The moderating effects of Spanish-language proficiency on these relationships were tested through MICOM and multi-group PLS-SEM analysis. The results show that Spanish-language proficiency could moderate four hypothesized relationships in the model. Hence, this study contributes to tourism literature by highlighting the role of potential tourists’ destination-language proficiency on their future behavioral intentions. Additionally, practical implications are also provided for DMOs to attract more Chinese young travelers in the recovery process from COVID-19.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of culture and literature in tourism. Most studies have relied on qualitative evidence to the exclusion of precise secondary data to show a direct link between literature and tourism. Using a novel and unique index of Tang poems ranks as a proxy for cultural status and heritage accumulation to quantify the effects of Tang poetry on the expansion of domestic and international tourism, this research adds significantly to the body of knowledge on literary tourism. Based on ordinary least squares and bias-corrected propensity score matching regression analysis, the top 100 Tang poetry rankings are favorably associated with domestic tourist growth but not with international tourism expansion. These findings are crucial for the development of literary tourism.
It has been recognized that cultural institute programs that first started after World War II and aim to improve language familiarity and cultural awareness are beneficial for FDI and trade. We use gravity models to examine the impact from both the German Goethe-Institut and Chinese Confucius Institute (two large-scaled cultural institute programs) on tourism arrivals, a form of international trade. We find a positive impact on tourism arrivals from the Confucius Institute program but a negative impact from the Goethe-Institut program. In addition, both the Goethe-Institut and Confucius Institute programs help to reduce the impact of linguistic distance on international tourism.
Previous research identified perceived severity and efficacy beliefs (including response efficacy and self-efficacy) as two major predictors that affected the usage of hearing protection devices (HPD). However, whether the relative effects of perceived severity and efficacy beliefs on HPD usage varies across different populations remains unknown. Drawing upon the construal level theory of psychological distance, the present study aims to examine whether age and seniority, which were related to psychological distance, might moderate the effect of perceived severity of noise damage, response efficacy, and self-efficacy on HPD usage by Chinese workers at noise-exposure positions. A paper–pencil survey was conducted face to face with 449 Chinese workers in five factories who were exposed to noise at work. Age moderated the effect of perceived severity on HPD usage such that its positive effect was only significant for younger workers. In addition, seniority moderated the effects of both response efficacy and self-efficacy on HPD usage such that both types of efficacy beliefs exhibited stronger effects on HPD usage among senior workers compared to junior workers. Therefore, campaign messages targeted at younger workers should emphasize the severe consequences of noise exposure, whereas messages targeted at senior workers should elevate their response efficacy and self-efficacy in HPD usage.
Festivals showcase cultural heritage, popularise travel destinations, and generate economic benefits. Additionally, studies have shown that participating in the festivals of a destination whose culture is proximate to their own helps tourists resonate with the destination better. Thus, this study investigates the impact of cultural proximity on destination image and tourists’ festival perception. It also examines the mediating roles of festival perception and cognitive destination image. Lusofonia festival, an annual Portuguese cultural festival of Macao, was chosen for the questionnaire-based data collection. I employed factor and correlations analyses and tested the hypotheses using structural equation modelling. The results consolidated the relationship between cognitive destination image and affective image, provided insight into the role of cultural events in enhancing destination image, and identified the attributes of parity in terms of home-destination culture that steer festival perception and cognitive destination image positively. The study indicates that tourism managers should align destination branding with tourists’ expectations and experiences.
Customer retention is an important basis for International Trade shows to obtain sustained competitive advantage, and the retention of multinational exhibitors is largely influenced by cultural heterogeneity. This study intends to explore the influence of cultural distance on the retention of multinational exhibitors based on Hofstede’s national culture model. It is based on an analysis of 4476 multinational exhibitors from 7 famous international trade shows in China through web crawler technology. The results reveal that total cultural distance has a significant positive effect on the retention of multinational exhibitors. However, different sub-dimensions under cultural distance may have different effects. In terms of sub-dimensions including power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, the greater the cultural distance, the easier it is to retain customers. As for sub-dimensions of long term orientation, the estimated results display an opposite tendency. The findings contribute to the literature and have practical implications for international trade shows’ service and management.
Solo travel has grown as a significant segment in the tourism market, and outbound travel for solo travel is also increasing. However, the phenomenon remains anecdotal and lacks academic investigation. Therefore, based on of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and focusing on Chinese solo tourists in the outbound travel market, the current study aims to examine the relationships among cultural distance, emotional solidarity and perceived safety and their effect on both solo male and female tourists' behavioural intentions. The similarities of solo travellers and their gender differences are prioritized in the findings, which sheds light on destination practitioners taking measures to serve the solo tourism market considering tourists' gender.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of travel advisory perception and cultural distance on travel intention based on the push and pull theory, the stimulus–organism–response model and protection motivation theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper conducts an empirical test with a questionnaire survey. The authors asked respondents to answer questions on a five-point Likert-type scale, which included threat severity, threat susceptibility, advisory perception, perceived cultural distance, travel motivation and travel intention.
Findings
In this paper, through a questionnaire of 424 respondents, the authors found that threat severity has a positive impact on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, and that advisory perception indirectly affect travel intention through travel motivation.
Originality/value
Previous literature has discussed the influencing factors of travel intention but rarely does it consider the intrinsic relationship and interaction between advisory perception and cultural distance. The results of this study help fill some gaps in the research on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, guide governments on how to better formulate travel advisories and provide a new perspective for tourism industry practitioners to improve their travel products after the COVID-19 pandemic especially.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationships among destination brand equity, brand authenticity and revisit intention. The mediating role of tourist satisfaction and the moderating role of destination familiarity in these relationships are also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the stimulus–organism–response theory, a structural equation model was constructed to test the relationships among the study variables. The original data was obtained using a questionnaire survey method from domestic tourists who have traveled to Guilin in China.
Findings
The findings revealed that brand equity and brand authenticity not only positively and directly affect revisit intention but also have an indirect influence on revisit intention through the mediating role of tourist satisfaction. Destination familiarity positively moderates the direct influence of brand equity on revisit intention. Furthermore, brand authenticity significantly and positively affects brand equity.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide a certain enlightenment for brand marketing and tourist destination management.
Originality/value
This study reveals the impact path of brand equity and brand authenticity on revisit intention, compensating for the lack of attention on impact mechanism among them. This study proves the impact of brand authenticity on destination brand equity. This compensates for the deficiencies that ignore possible antecedents affecting destination brand equity and the impact of brand authenticity on brand equity in the context of tourism destination. This study also confirms the specific dimensions of brand equity and brand authenticity in the context of Chinese tourism destinations in response to the current controversy.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of the servicescape on experiential state, delight and memorability in the context of the cruise experience. This study also analyzes the moderating effects of sociodemographic characteristics (income and place of residency) and prior travel experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory, structural equation modeling via partial least squares path modeling was applied to a sample of 415 cruisers. A multi-group analysis was used to test the moderating effects.
Findings
Study results confirm the predictive role of the servicescape in creating experience, delight and memorability, with a place of residence, past travel experience and income exerting moderating effects on the aforementioned relationships.
Practical implications
The results offer useful insights for managers who operate not only in the cruise industry but also in other service contexts. Moreover, the moderating effects offer novel insights into smarter marketing on the part of service companies oriented toward value co-creation.
Originality/value
Only a few recent studies have focused on the servicescape in the context of the cruise industry. This study contributes to the literature by providing a theoretical framework and empirical evidence for analyzing the role of the onboard servicescape in cruisers’ experience, delight and memorability while also considering the moderating effects that of sociodemographic and travel-related characteristics exert on the different paths.
The study of cultural similarity between cities is of great significance for understanding the association of cities. However, there are still the following challenges in measuring and expressing cultural similarities: finding reliable data source to reveal urban cultural features and designing effective analysis and visualization model for cultural similarity. As a cultural symbol, place name can effectively reflect urban cultural characteristics. Therefore, this paper constructs a cultural eigenvector based on the semantics of place names. A measurement method is proposed to identify the cultural similarity between different cities and to explore and express similar patterns. In the form of OD flow, a cultural semantic similarity flow (CSSF) is defined to formally express cultural relations between cities. The cultural semantic similarity flow contains three patterns, namely one-to-one patterns, one-to-many patterns, and one-to-all patterns. These patterns explain the form of cultural similarity among cities from different perspectives, as follows: (a) One-to-one patterns may well represent the potential path of cultural diffusion; (b) one-to-many patterns reveal the regional cultural center to some extent; (c) one-to-all patterns show the spatial differentiation of culture on global scale. This general analysis and visualization method aim to accurately quantitatively analyze cultural similarities and their forms.
Purpose
This paper aims to capture real-time images of tourists during their visitation. This effort is to clarify a debate among scholars that there is a lack of current effort to genuinely represent an accurate image of the tourist experience during their visit. Previous studies on destination image focused on measuring and successfully capturing the tourists' perceived image using the perspective of “before and after” visitation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies volunteer-employed photography and questionnaire methods to capture real-time tourist images. The paper was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, involving 384 international tourists. The data are analysed by supplemental photo analysis, was categorised into manifest and latent content.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights into the changes in tourists' image when visiting an urban destination. The insights suggest that a city's image during visitation continuously changes based on the tourists' movement and preferences.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper are critical in assisting tourism agencies and authorities in portraying an accurate image to achieve greater tourism satisfaction.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the interpretation and portrayal of the real-time image of Kuala Lumpur based on the manifest and latent content of the photos taken.
This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of various distance measures on the relationship between relative pandemic severity and bilateral tourism demand. After confirming its validity using actual hotel and air demand measures, we leveraged data from Google Destination Insights to understand daily bilateral tourism demand between 148 origin countries and 109 destination countries. Specifically, we estimated a series of fixed-effects panel data gravity models based on the year-over-year change in daily demand. Results show that a 10% increase in 7-day smoothed COVID-19 cases led to a 0.0658% decline in year-over-year demand change. The moderating distance measures include geographic, cultural, economic, social, and political distance. Results show that long-haul tourism demand was less affected by a destination's pandemic severity relative to tourists' place of origin. The moderating effect of national cultural dimensions indulgence versus constraints was also confirmed. Lastly, a discussion and implications for international destination marketing are provided.
Travel is about leaving home. Immersing in a non-daily environment spontaneously gives people a sense of away-from-home (SAFH)-a concept natively related to travel, but rarely discussed in prior studies. This study proposes this novel concept of SAFH building on the dualistic context of home and away to describe the emotive states people develop at a tourist destination, relative to their home environment. The components of SAFH, and the influences of cultural proximity, destination familiarity, and geographic distance on these senses, are investigated. A set of data (498 samples) was collected from domestic tourists from other regions of China visiting the city of Hangzhou. The findings indicate that tourists' SAFH comprises of five senses: Novelty, uncomfortableness, insecurity, situational uncontrollability, and emotional isolation. Tourists' destination familiarity significantly influences their SAFH. The direct and indirect impacts of cultural proximity on the SAFH mainly exist in the long-haul traveling group. In conclusion, when traveling in a particular destination, tourists generate a sense of away-from-home which varies due to their different origins and familiarities with the destination.
Purpose
“Library + cultural tourism” (LCT) is a new direction for the sustainable development of libraries, but few scholars have researched it from a tourist perspective. The purpose of this paper is to identify what factors affect tourist satisfaction (TS) with LCT, reveal the interaction among these factors and provide strategies for better library services.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 5,308 comments on Tianjin Binhai Library from three popular online travel communities. Grounded theory was adopted to identify what factors affect TS with LCT and reveal the interaction among these factors.
Findings
The results indicated that TS with LCT was affected by complex factors related to tour plans, tour expectations, cultural characteristics, environment, support services and emotions. Cultural characteristics, environment and support services were impacted by tour plans and tour expectations, which directly or indirectly affected TS mediated by emotions. TS further influenced their expectation of their next tour.
Originality/value
This paper uncovered critical problems with LCT using a case study of Tianjin Binhai Library. The results provide a reference for library practitioners to develop better library services for tourists and regular users/readers.
Evolution of family leisure time have increased the demand for attractive destinations. In tourism, destination choice (DC) is considered a critical, complex and contextual decision. This, first of its kind, comprehensive, mix method bibliometric analysis of 627 papers from Scopus database spanning 25 years, is aimed to identify and review the most influential DC literature. It shows that DC is an interdisciplinary and evolving subject. Five themes, namely DC conceptualization, DC decision-making, DC modelling, DC internal and external factors are prevalent. DC conceptualization is explained by modified TPB and other models. DC decision-making process is hierarchical, sequential, multistage and varies across psychological, demographic and social profiles. Multiple choice, econometric and utility maximization models along with push–pull internal and external motivational factors have been extensively published. Growing academic interest in DC is evident from a threefold jump in average number of articles post-2007, 2500+ citations in 2019 out of 21,664 across 25 years, a growing trend of cross-country collaboration, rising number of publications in mainstream journals and 9 out of top 10 authors getting published in the short period of 2008–2016. Future research themes include empirical investigations of models, non-linear multifaceted decision-making and the pandemic’s impact on motivational factors.
Destination familiarity is an important non-economic determinant of tourists' destination choice that has not been adequately studied. This study posits a literary dimension to the concept of destination familiarity—that is, the extent to which tourists have gained familiarity with a given destination through literature—and seeks to investigate the impact of this form of familiarity on inbound tourism to Mainland China. Employing the English fiction dataset of the Google Books corpus, the New York Times annotated corpus, and the Time magazine corpus, we construct two types of destination familiarity based on literary texts: affection-based destination familiarity and knowledge-based destination familiarity. The results from dynamic panel estimation (1994–2004) demonstrate that the higher the degree of affection-based destination familiarity with a province in the previous year, the larger the number of inbound tourists the following year. Examining the influence of literature and its consumption on tourism activities sheds light on the dynamics of sustainable tourism development in emerging markets.
Chen, He and Yan present a range of applications of multiple-source big data to core areas of contemporary sociology, demonstrating how a theory-guided approach to macrosociology can help to understand social change in China, especially where traditional approaches are limited by constrained and biased data. In each chapter of the book, the authors highlight an application of theory-guided macrosociology that has the potential to reinvigorate an ambitious, open-minded and bold approach to sociological research. These include social stratification, social networks, medical care, and online behaviours among many others. This research approach focuses on macro-level social process and phenomena by using quantitative models to statistically test for associations and causalities suggested by a clearly hypothesised social theory. By deploying theory-oriented macrosociology where it can best assure macro-level robustness and reliability, big data applications can be more relevant to and guided by social theory. An essential read for sociologists with an interest in quantitative and macro-scale research methods, which also provides fascinating insights into Chinese society as a demonstration of the utility of its methodology.
Familiar tourists, associated with repeat tourism, demonstrate both behavioural and affective commitment to their special, or familiar, places. Yet they remain overlooked in favour of volume measurements of generic repeat tourists. This interpretive study provides a more holistic understanding of the relationship between tourists demonstrating loyalty and attachment to place (familiar tourists) and the place commanding such behaviour (familiar place). It also evaluates ways in which familiar places enter and evolve in the lives of individuals (familiar place formation). The preparatory phase of the research used focus groups with informants who self-identified as familiar tourists. The main fieldwork was conducted concurrently in two tourist destinations in Wales, UK, namely Gower and Mawddach. It comprised field interviews with familiar tourists, interviews with tourism providers, and a self-completion written instrument for other (non-interviewed) familiar tourists. Overall, the two research phases captured the familiar tourism experiences of 289 informants. The findings showed familiar place relationships as spanning decades and even generations. An original, evidence-based typology of familiar place formation: namely conversion, inheritance (heirloom or genealogy) and discovery (other-led or self-led) is offered. Subsequently, these five types of familiar place formation are interpreted as five corresponding strategic and creative themes for practical marketing campaigns.
Search engines and over-the-top (OTT) services, which provide Internet media content, have become increasingly important as Internet usage and the number of websites have spread worldwide. This study examined 1) how Internet proliferation in a given country affects the market shares of domestic and global search engine companies, and 2) how search engine shares in domestic markets affect the global market share of domestic OTT industry. The results showed that 1) wired Internet proliferation has a positive effect on the market shares of domestic search engines, while wireless Internet proliferation has a negative effect. In contrast, wired Internet proliferation has a negative effect on the market shares of global search engines, while wireless Internet has a positive effect. In addition, 2) an increase in the market shares of domestic search engine companies has a positive effect on the global market share of domestic OTT industry. The findings of this study have practical implications for strategy development of related companies and offer empirical evidence for the interdependence of growth in the Internet and entertainment and media markets.
This study examines the impact of the national happiness level of a country on Chinese tourists' travel choices using panel data of 113 countries from 2012 to 2017, controlling for other factors that contribute to Chinese outbound tourism. The results show that the happiness level of a destination country is positively and significantly associated with Chinese tourist arrivals in that country. Examination of the moderation effect reveals cultural distance plays an important role in the impact a destination's happiness level has on Chinese outbound tourism. The influence of a destination's happiness level decreases when the cultural distance increases.
Purpose-This paper aims to examine the relationships between brand equity, customer satisfaction and cultural distance for a tourism destination. The mediating role of customer satisfaction and the moderating effect of cultural distance in these relationships are assessed.
Design/methodology/approach-The direct-indirect-moderating relationships were assessed by applying covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), mediating and multi-group analysis. A paper survey was used to collect data from 618 tourists (domestic and international tourists) visiting a destination in Vietnam.
Findings-The findings support direct positive links between the dimensions of brand equity and customer satisfaction, except for the effect of destination brand awareness on destination brand loyalty. This work further demonstrates the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the indirect relationships between the dimensions of brand equity. Cultural distance was found to moderate the connections between the research concepts.
Research limitations/implications-Future research should explore the model's relationships based on comparisons in different destinations, to better understand the impact of cultural factors.
Originality/value-This study identifies specific factors to increase branding efficiency by developing and testing the relationship between brand equity and customer satisfaction. Using moderating variables through the lens of cultural distance, it proposes a mediated model. This work contributes to practice by informing destination managers on how to improve brand equity and satisfaction based on the cultural characteristics of international and domestic visitors.
Celem pracy jest analiza czynników wpływających na aktywność turystyczną, zamieszkałych w Polsce, seniorów - słuchaczy uniwersytetów trzeciego wieku
Destinasyonlar konaklama, ulaşım, yeme içme, vb. çok çeşitli turistik ürünlerin ve hizmetlerin bileşiminden oluşan ürünlerdir. Çok bileşenli bu turistik ürünlerin seçim süreçlerinde, tavsiye kararlarında ve turistlerin memnuniyetlerinin sağlanmasında da çok fazla sayıda faktör belirleyici olabilmektedir. Bu çalışmada genç turistlerin destinasyon seçim kararlarında dikkate aldıkları faktörlerin belirlenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Bu kapsamda hazırlanan 460 anket formu 1 Kasım 2019-1 Şubat 2020 tarihleri arasında Kırklareli ilinde yaşayan ve daha önce en az bir kez turistik faaliyetlere katılmış ve bu kapsamda bir destinasyonu ziyaret etmiş 18-24 yaş grubunda yer alan katılımcılara yüz yüze iletişim kurularak ulaştırılmıştır. Yapılan analizler (SPSS) sonucunda gençlerin ilgili araştırma ifadelerinden destinasyona yönelik kaliteli ve uygun havayolu ulaşım imkânlarından, destinasyon hakkındaki sosyal medya araçlarındaki bilgilerin varlığından, destinasyon hakkında arkadaş ve sosyal çevre tavsiyelerinden, destinasyon gece hayatı ve eğlence olanaklarından, destinasyondaki kaliteli ve uygun fiyatlı konaklama olanaklarından ve destinasyonun alternatif turistik çekiciliklerin varlığından etkilenmeleri oldukça yüksek ve olumlu düzeyde gerçekleşmiştir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Destinasyon Pazarlaması, Destinasyon Seçim Süreci, Genç Turistler, Kırklareli, Türkiye.
Geographic distance has been studied extensively as an obstructer of tourism flows, whereas another distance measure, cultural distance (CD), receives less attention in tourism demand research. Using international tourist arrival data between 94 countries for the period 1995-2012, we estimate several Poisson gravity models incorporating a CD measure based on national cultural scores from the World Values Survey (WVS). Our estimation results show a negative and significant effect of CD on international tourist flows, the elasticity of which is -0.158, and the effect appears significantly smaller between countries with historical colonial linkage. Most notably, the tourism-inhibiting effect of CD began a downward trend in 2003. In particular, we find that economic globalization and technology advancement can be used to explained the declining effect of CD. Major conclusions are substantiated in a robustness check using two alternative CD measures.
This paper examines the differential effects of celebrity and expert endorsements on consumer risk perceptions via three studies. Using source model theories, it is hypothesized that for high technology—oriented products there will be stronger effects of expert endorsers than celebrity endorsers in reducing consumer risk perceptions. In addition, for high technology—oriented products, there is likely to be an interaction effect between endorser type and consumer knowledge on respondents' risk perceptions. Such an interaction effect is likely to be absent for products with a low technology orientation. These hypotheses are supported by the first two studies. The third study examines the underlying theoretical processes of internalization versus identification and shows that the stronger effects of expert (versus celebrity) endorsers for high technology-oriented products is somewhat neutralized for certain types of perceived risks when there is high congruency between the celebrity endorser and the product.
This study was designed to obtain a collective mental picture of the United States as a travel destination among Chinese long-haul outbound travelers. In addition to identifying major features and components of the America travel brand, the authors also attempted to map the links and associations among various image components and sketch an associative network. Findings of this study revealed that overall, Chinese outbound tourists’ perceptions of America are highly urban, featuring advanced economic development, an open and democratic system, high technology, and big cities. Most American destinations and attractions Chinese tourists can think of are located on the East and West coasts. By analyzing the data from multiple perspectives and using various tools, the authors also hope to contribute some methodological insights on how to make sense of a large amount of categorical image data.
The geographical and cultural distance between two places may influence the manner in which tourists from one country view the other country as a destination. The purpose of this study was to examine the imagery of Taiwan as perceived by Mainland Chinese visitors within the context of the unique historic and geopolitical relations between the two nations. The destination image and travel intentions of both actual and potential visitors to Taiwan were measured. Findings revealed four factors in both actual and potential Chinese visitors' destination image of Taiwan: destination quality, cultural proximity, destination uniqueness, and negative image. Specifically, cultural proximity was found to be the most significant and effective predictor of travel intention in the overall model as well as the actual and potential visitor models. Closer examination showed that visitors from Mainland China perceived the image of Taiwan as being home-like yet a place of mystery and adventure. The contradictory nature of this factor suggested that the cultural proximity and political tension between China and Taiwan created an ambivalent sense of mystery and familiarity towards Taiwan in the minds of Chinese visitors, which has a positive influence on their intention to visit Taiwan.
A growing literature provides evidence for the multicultural experience–creativity link such that exposure to the juxtaposition of two cultures facilitates individual creativity. The underlying mechanisms for this relationship, however, are still far from being well explored. Drawing upon the novel perspective of motivated cognition, we hypothesize that two factors interact to affect creative outcomes: (a) perceived cultural distance between the two juxtaposed cultures, and (b) comparison mind-sets. Specifically, we argue that individuals’ creative performance will be increased only when a difference mind-set is employed to process the cultural stimuli that are sufficiently different from each other. In two studies, individuals exposed to dual cultural primes with higher levels of perceived cultural distance consistently performed more adeptly in creative insight tasks when they personally predisposed to or experimentally manipulated to adopt a difference (vs. similarity) mind-set. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Successful international joint ventures entail both learning to operate across national boundaries and learning to cooperate. Hypotheses grounded in organizational learning theory were tested with event-history analysis and data on 1,493 expansions of 25 large Dutch firms between 1966 and 1994. Experience with domestic joint ventures and with international wholly owned subsidiaries contributed to the longevity of international joint ventures, but prior experience with international joint ventures did not.
Since its launch in 1985, SERVQUAL has become a widely adopted technology for measuring and managing service quality. Recently, a number of theoretical and operational concerns have been raised concerning SERVQUAL. Reviews these concerns and proposes a research agenda.
Studies of the relationship between purchase intentions and purchase behavior have ignored the possibility that the very act of measurement may inflate the association between intentions and behavior, a phenomenon called "self-generated validity." In this research, the authors develop a latent model of the reactive effects of measurement that is applicable to intentions, attitude, or satisfaction data, and they show that this model can be estimated with a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, the authors use data from surveyed consumers to predict the presurvey latent purchase intentions of both surveyed and nonsurveyed consumers. In the second stage, they compare the strength of the association between the presurvey latent intentions and the postsurvey behavior across both groups. The authors find large and reliable self-generated validity effects across three diverse large-scale field studies. On average, the correlation between latent intentions and purchase behavior is 58% greater among surveyed consumers than it is among similar nonsurveyed consumers. One study also shows that the reactive effect of the measurement of purchase intentions is entirely mediated by self-generated validity and not by social norms, intention modification, or other measurement effects that are independent of presurvey latent intentions.
This study focuses on the analysis of the determinants of China inbound tourism flows and seeks to determine the influence of cultural distance on tourism flows from a macro perspective. Three models were investigated including a traditional tourism demand model, a gravity model, and a mixed panel data gravity model with different sets of relevant variables. The result confirmed that cultural distance, measured by social axioms at the country level, had a significant negative effect on inbound tourism flows. In addition, the moderation effect of uncertainty avoidance on cultural distance is revealed in the findings. Differences in income elasticities and impacts of cultural and geographical distances between western and eastern countries of tourist origin are also found in this study.
"This book demonstrates that people's basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behavior. These changes are roughly predictable: to a large extent, they can be explained by the revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85 percent of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernization is a process of human development, in which economic development gives rise to cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely. The authors present a model of social change that predicts how value systems are likely to evolve in coming decades. They demonstrate that mass values play a crucial role in the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions."--BOOK JACKET.
National cultures represent complex configurations of values rather than a collection of distinct individual value dimensions. This presentation applies qualitative (configural) comparative analysis (QCA/CCA) to consider how cultural recipes--complex configurations of national culture affect international experiential behavior. The QCA method focuses on considering asymmetric relationships--reporting conditions that are sufficient (but not necessary) to cause an outcome condition (e.g., high-dollar expenditures). Using measures of consistency and coverage the QCA method provides estimates of how well alternative configurative models explain behavior rather than relying on symmetric data analysis methods (correlations and multiple regression). The method includes the use of Hofstede's country value scores with data from group-level and sub-group (by age and prior consumption experience) exit survey responses of visitors to Australia from 14 Asian, European, and North American countries. The analysis applies QCA software (www.fsQCA.com) and the presentation includes XY plots of country-level value configurations and group-level consumption for total visit expenditures, length of visit, shopping behavior, and group touring behavior.
Collinearity refers to the non independence of predictor variables, usually in a regression-type analysis. It is a common feature of any descriptive ecological data set and can be a problem for parameter estimation because it inflates the variance of regression parameters and hence potentially leads to the wrong identification of relevant predictors in a statistical model. Collinearity is a severe problem when a model is trained on data from one region or time, and predicted to another with a different or unknown structure of collinearity. To demonstrate the reach of the problem of collinearity in ecology, we show how relationships among predictors differ between biomes, change over spatial scales and through time. Across disciplines, different approaches to addressing collinearity problems have been developed, ranging from clustering of predictors, threshold-based pre-selection, through latent variable methods, to shrinkage and regularisation. Using simulated data with five predictor-response relationships of increasing complexity and eight levels of collinearity we compared ways to address collinearity with standard multiple regression and machine-learning approaches. We assessed the performance of each approach by testing its impact on prediction to new data. In the extreme, we tested whether the methods were able to identify the true underlying relationship in a training dataset with strong collinearity by evaluating its performance on a test dataset without any collinearity. We found that methods specifically designed for collinearity, such as latent variable methods and tree based models, did not outperform the traditional GLM and threshold-based pre-selection. Our results highlight the value of GLM in combination with penalised methods (particularly ridge) and threshold-based pre-selection when omitted variables are considered in the final interpretation. However, all approaches tested yielded degraded predictions under change in collinearity structure and the ‘folk lore’-thresholds of correlation coefficients between predictor variables of |r| >0.7 was an appropriate indicator for when collinearity begins to severely distort model estimation and subsequent prediction. The use of ecological understanding of the system in pre-analysis variable selection and the choice of the least sensitive statistical approaches reduce the problems of collinearity, but cannot ultimately solve them.
The literature of tourist destination choice pays great attention to the direct impact of the attributes of “distance to the destination” and “prices of the destination”, but does not reach any consensus around them regarding their—inhibitory or attraction—effect. Alternatively, our study proposes that the effects of distance and prices are moderated by tourist motivations at the moment of choosing a destination, which leads us to make hypotheses to explain this decision through the interaction between destination attributes and the personal motivations of the individual tourists. The methodology applied estimates random coefficient logit models, which control possible correlations between different destinations and consider tourist heterogeneity. The empirical application carried out in Spain on a sample of 2127 individuals, shows that the dissuasive influence of distance and prices on the selection of destinations is moderated by motivations, in the sense that the motivations have a direct (increasing the dissuasive effect) or inverse (reducing the dissuasive effect) moderating effect on the influences of distance and prices.
Culture has long been recognized as a possible reason why people in different countries make different decisions, but research into its impact in tourism contexts has been limited. This study addressed this gap by examining the influence of cultural distance on tourists’ destination choices. Five cultural distance measures were examined. Of the five measures, perceived cultural distance and Clark and Pugh's index were found to be most strongly related to Australian tourists’ intentions to visit a variety of holiday destinations. The perceived cultural distance measure appeared to be a better predictor and offers some advantages to researchers as it allows respondents to include relevant cultural information in tourism research. However, as Clark and Pugh's method provided similar information, cultural differences can be inferred when it is not possible to survey tourists directly.
This study explores the impacts of Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions on international tourist flows. A panel data gravity model was used to analyse bilateral tourist flows between 81 origin countries and 32 destination countries from 1995 to 2008. This model highlights cultural factors using the push and pull framework and explains their influence vis-a-vis self-image congruity theory, arousal theory, and cultural theory of risk. Results indicate that when controlling for the effects of distance, population, and GDP per capita, international tourists tend to flow out of countries with lower Power Distance, higher Individualism, lower Masculinity, higher Long-Term Orientation, and higher Indulgence. Countries with higher Individualism, lower Uncertainty Avoidance, and higher Indulgence tend to attract more international tourists. In the push and pull model, tourist source countries’ cultural values, such as low Power Distance, Individualism, Femininity, and Indulgence can be considered push factors in international travel, while destination countries’ cultural values of Individualism, Uncertainty Acceptance, and Indulgence act as pull factors. Self-image congruity theory is supported in the cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance Index. Recommendations for destination marketing are made based on the findings.
This paper investigates perception of self and others by hosts and guests, which may be critical for sustainability of a destination receiving tourists with different cultural backgrounds. Specifically, the study investigates self-perception of hosts and reciprocal perception between hosts and guests on several service personnel characteristics using importance and performance analysis. Thus, a triple lens of hosts’ evaluation of self, hosts’ evaluation of the guests, and hosts’ evaluation by the guests is involved in a multi-cultural tourism experience context. Results report differences between the lenses, hosts’ self-evaluation being harsher than guests’ evaluation of hosts. Suggestions are provided for destination marketing and management organizations to design effective tourism experiences for both hosts and guests for a more sustainable gaze between hosts and guests.
This study analyses the relationships between the origin countries of international patients and their cultural distance from the destination country in the context of medical tourism. A novel panel dataset is used, covering 109 origin countries whose citizens came to Turkey and received medical treatment during 2012–2014. After accounting for control variables such as religious similarity, Turkish diaspora in the origin country, physical distance, GDP per capita and number of inbound tourists, the study finds that cultural distance has an impact on the choice of destination for medical tourism. This impact persists at the medical specialty level.
In recent years there has been a considerable interest in the cultural aspects of tourism such as the impacts of culture on tourism planning, development, management, and marketing. However, the focus has been on material forms of culture such as arts, music, or crafts. The impacts of national culture on tourist behavior and travel decision-making have not been paid much attention. Only in the last two years have cross-cultural issues begun to generate significant interest among academics. An examination of cultural characteristics and differences is extremely important to the tourism industry because today's tourism environment is becoming increasingly international. Information on the nature of the cultural differences between international tourists and locals is not readily available in tourism literature. The concept of culture is very complex and includes such abstract concepts as satisfaction, attitude and loyalty. International Tourism brings these concepts to the undergraduate student in tourism, as well as students in the related fields of marketing, management, international business, and cross-cultural communication. Designed as a textbook, it isorganized and presented in an integrated and relevant way for the benefit of a worldwide audience.
This article attempts to bring an economic underpinning to tourism research. It uses the gravity model to derive an econometric model to explore the relationship between cultural similarity and tourism demand, with special reference to Australia inbound tourism from 42 source countries.
Since language and religion are thought to be the main exposition and carrier of culture, we developed a continuous, normalized, and time variant index to capture the similarity in language and religious profile between a source country and Australia. The inclusion of these indexes in an empirical
model yields OLS and quantile results that support the belief that there is a close link between culture similarity and tourism demand.
This paper investigates how the factors of psychological and geographical distances in conjunction with medical competence influence potential Chinese customers when they select a destination country for international healthcare services. We also explore how the severity of the customer's illness affects his/her choice. In this study data is collected with reference to the Chinese perceptions of the United States of America (USA), Republic of Korea (Korea), Thailand, Singapore, and India. The sample comprises of 1292 potential Chinese customers, and is analyzed using McFadden's conditional logit model. The results indicate that medical competency is the most important determinant of destination choice. In addition, customers contemplating treatment for major diseases tend to choose healthcare services from economically more developed countries, such as the USA, in spite of the differences in language, economic condition, and political system. However, respondents considering treatment for relatively minor diseases are more likely to select countries, such as Korea, for which there is a small psychological distance. Along with suggestions for future research, the implications for international healthcare are discussed.
Novelty and familiarity play an important role in tourists’ perceptions, and these have been regarded as contrasting concepts for a long time. However, recent cognitive science literature suggests that novelty and familiarity are separate concepts, independently influencing consumer behavior. Based on this, our study aims to examine the differences between the effects of novelty and familiarity on satisfaction and destination loyalty. These relationships are explored by analyzing the responses of tourists in Takayama City, Japan. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The results show that both novelty and familiarity contribute to destination loyalty; however, only novelty has an effect on the formation of satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications of these are also discussed.
This study attempts to understand the position of the United States against its major non-Asian competitors in Mainland Chinese tourists' minds. A multistep procedure of destination positioning analysis was designed, which involved a combination of multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, and logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, this study connects positioning analysis with market segmentation research, as the perceptual mapping analyses were performed at both aggregate and segment levels. Overall, it was found that the United States holds a unique position that is isolated from all other five destinations. The authors discussed the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.
Intention to return is often used as a surrogate measure for actual repeat propensity, especially in loyalty studies. A direct, predictive correlation is assumed to exist between intention and actual repeat visitation rates in accordance with the principles of the theory of planned behavior. However, the existence of such a relationship has rarely if ever been tested empirically in a tourism context, and as such, the validity of this assumption is open to question. This article examines that relationship through an analysis of secondary data provided by a number of National Tourism Organizations. Two tests are conducted, one using longitudinal data from 30 markets that visited either Hong Kong or New Zealand, and a second one using cross-sectional data from 152 markets that visited 16 destinations. The study determined that no statistically significant correlation exists between intention and actual repeat visitation rates, primarily because intention is typically measured as a vague aspiration and not in a probabilistic manner.
Tourism TV commercials (TVCs) are one of the channels (or agents) used to form destination images, yet this channel is rarely researched.The objectives of this article are to identify the relations among visual elements,TVC effects, and destination image formation. University students who have never visited New Zealand nor watched New Zealand’s latest tourism TVCs were recruited to participate in a TVC recall test. The audience found video frames of snow and water, dolphins, and hongi (a traditional Maori greeting) to be most memorable and impressive. Findings suggest that something old (i.e., something familiar to viewers), something new (i.e., something that cannot be seen or done in the viewer’s immediate environment), and something white and something blue (i.e., clean and pristine) should be included when developing promotional tourism videos. Video frames showing people’s interaction among themselves and with the environment were positively related to audience desires to visit the depicted destination.
The impact of national cultural differences on overseas travel behavior was the focus of this study. Drawing from a sample composed of 302 U.S. residents traveling abroad for the first time for leisure related purposes, this study tested two competing propositions that not only took into account the cultural orientation of the visitor’s home country but also that of the host culture. Though cultural distance as measured proved only moderately effective in explaining behavior, the research put forth several tenets and measurement strategies that are arguably more reflective as to what consumers take into account when planning international trips. Implications for future research are discussed.
This study examines two different types of vacation experiences as the experimental factors and empirically incorporates a context specific approach into the measurement of destination attractiveness. A total of 400 respondents were interviewed by telephone. Three areas were examined for two different vacation experiences: (1) the relative importance of touristic attributes in contributing to the attractiveness of a travel destination, (2) the variations in the perceived ability of destinations to satisfy tourists' needs, and (3) the influence of previous visitation experience with each destination on perceived attractiveness. A multiattribute situational attitude measurement model was employed to obtain a numerical index of the touristic attractiveness for each of the five destinations studied. Finally, the implications of these findings concerning marketing and development initiatives to improve the physical and perceptual attractiveness of the various destinations under study are discussed.
Travel is more popular than ever, so why should destination managers worry? Because their location's attractiveness may be spinning away even as they watch.
This study examines the relevance and conceptualizations of the authenticity concept in cultural tourism from the managerial standpoint. We propose a consumer-based model in which authenticity is a key mediating construct between cultural motivation and loyalty. The model is empirically examined by means of a survey conducted on 25 Romanesque heritage sites in four European countries. A confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed using LISREL 8.72. The results indicate that cultural motivation is an important antecedent of both object-based and existential authenticity, which in turn influence tourist loyalty. Theoretical, managerial and marketing implications of authenticity are discussed, showing that the consumer-based perspective can transcend some 'irreconcilable tensions' related to this concept.
Cultural distance is a widely used construct in international business, where it has been applied to foreign investment expansion, entry mode choice, and the performance of foreign invested affiliates, among others. The present paper presents a critical review of the cultural distance construct, outlining its hidden assumptions and challenging its theoretical and methodological properties. A comprehensive framework for the treatment of the construct is developed and concrete steps aimed at enhancing rigor are delineated.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: measure the differences in importance of cultural values between Turkish hosts and European guests; measure perceived cultural difference (distance) to see if importance of cultural values are commensurate with cultural distance perception; and identify potential influence of perceived cultural distance on job satisfaction for Turkish service providers (hosts) and trip satisfaction for European consumers (guests).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey research was conducted in tourist towns in the Southwest part of Turkey to gather data from Turkish hosts (service providers) and European tourists. Two stepwise regression analyses were conducted to assess the magnitude of the relative impact of several variables on job satisfaction for hosts and trip satisfaction for guests.
Findings
Although results revealed differences in cultural values, cultural distance perception and satisfaction, the stepwise regression analyses did not reveal any influence of perceived cultural distance on satisfaction for either hosts or guests.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study may not apply to all tourism consumption settings since respondents were surveyed in a general tourism setting context rather than limiting them to a certain consumption setting such as a restaurant, a hotel or a cruise ship.
Originality/value
By shedding light on cultural distance and its influence on both demand and supply side aspects, this study addresses a long‐neglected aspect in literature. Although several studies provide discussions on the impact of culture on both service providers' and consumers' attitude and behavior, there is a lack of empirical studies on the relationship between cultural distance and satisfaction.
Purpose
To develop a more thorough understanding of culture in a rapidly changing global environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The recent literature dealing with ways in which cultural dynamics are influencing the nature and meaning of culture are examined. Different perspectives of culture related to three key components of culture, intangibles, material culture and communication, are explored. Based on this, directions for research on the content of culture are discussed as well as how it should be approached.
Findings
Culture is becoming increasingly deterritorialized and penetrated by elements from other cultures. This is resulting in cultural contamination, cultural pluralism and hybridization. It has become more difficult to study culture as it is becoming diffuse. At the same time, it is becoming more important to study it because of its pervasive influence on consumer behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Given that culture is no longer a phenomenon defined by and isolated to a particular locale, research on culture must carefully specify the role of culture, define the appropriate unit of analysis, isolate confounding influences and expand the range of contexts.
Originality/value
The parallel trends of globalization and multiculturalism make it increasingly important to develop a deeper understanding of culture and its various manifestations. For progress to be made, research designs must account for this complexity and span multiple contexts to establish the generality of findings. This will result in improved knowledge of culture and its role in molding consumption behavior.
The Second Edition of this classic work, first published in 1981 and an international bestseller, explores the differences in thinking and social action that exist among members of more than 50 modern nations. Geert Hofstede argues that people carry "mental programs" which are developed in the family in early childhood and reinforced in schools and organizations, and that these programs contain components of national culture. They are expressed most clearly in the different values that predominate among people from different countries. Geert Hofstede has completely rewritten, revised and updated Cultures Consequences for the twenty-first century, he has broadened the book's cross-disciplinary appeal, expanded the coverage of countries examined from 40 to more than 50, reformulated his arguments and a large amount of new literature has been included. The book is structured around five major dimensions: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism versus collectivism; masculinity versus femininity; and long term versus short-term orientation. --Publisher.
The ''tourist realities'' or verisimilitudes of cultural tourists to the Edinburgh Old Town are analyzed using both their own voices and their responses to marketeers' ima-ges and descriptors. Specifically, the study tests the utility of familiarity in the modeling of image recognition and propensity to visit. It uses a typology of familiarity: informational, experiential, proximate, self-described, and educational. As a result of the analysis, an expansion of the typology is proposed to include two further types: self-assured and expec-ted familiarity. Educational familiarity is further expanded into a multi-aspect concept. This septet of familiarity is proposed as a conceptual framework and methodology for character-izing ''particle'' markets for experience marketing.
Statistical analysis of variability in assemblages of material culture obtained at different villages on the North Coast of New Guinea indicates that similarities and differences among these assemblages are most strongly associated with geographic propinquity, irrespective of linguistic affinities. When assemblage similarity is adjusted for the effect of distance, diversity in material culture appears unrelated to the linguistic relationships of these communities. This study shows that similarity in material culture assemblages can mask marked heterogeneity in language. Language, however, is frequently used to index people in Melanesia on the assumption that language is a useful key to their other human characteristics. This analysis does not lend support to this common practice, and it has implications for how prehistoric cultural complexes in Melanesia are defined and interpreted.
abstract We enhance the theoretical precision of cultural intelligence (CQ: capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings) by developing and testing a model that posits differential relationships between the four CQ dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural) and three intercultural effectiveness outcomes (cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance in culturally diverse settings). Before testing the model, we describe development and cross-validation (N = 1,360) of the multidimensional cultural intelligence scale (CQS) across samples, time and country. We then describe three substantive studies (N = 794) in field and educational development settings across two national contexts, the USA and Singapore. The results demonstrate a consistent pattern of relationships where metacognitive CQ and cognitive CQ predicted cultural judgment and decision making; motivational CQ and behavioural CQ predicted cultural adaptation; and metacognitive CQ and behavioural CQ predicted task performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our model and findings.
In recent years, scholars have become increasingly critical of Kogut and Singh's [(1988). The effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode. Journal of International Business Studies, 19(3), 411-432] cultural distance index and of Hofstede's [(1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications] underlying national culture framework. We therefore examine and compare the effects of five cultural distance measures on the choice by multinational enterprises (MNEs) between expanding abroad through greenfield or acquisition. Two of these measures are based on Hofstede (1980), another two on Schwartz [(1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, methods, and applications (pp. 85-119). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications; (1999). A theory of cultural values and some implications for work. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48(1), 12-47], and one on managerial perceptions. Analyzing a sample of foreign expansions by Dutch MNEs and controlling for other factors, we find that high scores on all cultural distance measures significantly increase the likelihood that MNEs choose greenfields, and that the explanatory power of the Hofstede and Schwartz-based measures is comparable, while that of the perceptual one is somewhat lower. We conclude that it may thus be premature to dismiss Hofstede's work as outdated or as inaccurately reflecting national cultures, and to consider Schwartz's framework to be superior.