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VIRTUAL VS FACE-TO-FACE EVENTS: THE EFFECTS OF EVENT TYPE ON ATTENDEES’ ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

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Abstract

The recent situation with COVID-19 led to significant changes in the event industry and forced event planners to organize virtual events. However, virtual events are lacking social interactions and are characterized by lower levels of engagement. This study aims at exploring relationships between event types and attendees’ behavioral intentions using experimental design. The measurement model fit and constructs’ validity were assessed with Confirmatory Factor Analysis, while the study hypotheses were tested with the Structural Equation Modelling. The results demonstrate that event types have significant effects on attendees’ risk perceptions that influence attendees’ visit intentions. The study also revealed significant moderating effects of attendees’ age on the relationship between event type and visit intentions. The study provides important theoretical and managerial implications by introducing new factors affecting attendees’ behavioral intentions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the relationship between risk perceptions and attendees’ behavioral intentions, and providing practical recommendations for event planners.

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Purpose This paper aims to examine whether a customer’s perceptions of hotel tablet apps serve as determinants of customers’ behavioral intention in terms of the app’s ease of use, usefulness, credibility and subjective norm. It also explored age and gender as moderators of the relationships between these determinants and customers’ behavioral intention as well as customers’ likelihood of using specific app functions across age and gender. Design/methodology/approach A research model, grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), used data collected from 751 hotel customers in the USA. The model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results showed that three of the four proposed determinants positively influenced customers’ behavioral intention toward hotel tablet apps. Neither gender nor age played significant moderating roles in the relationships between the four determinants and the behavioral intention. The study also revealed age- and gender-related differences in preferences for specific hotel tablet app functions. Practical implications This study helps operators successfully plan for investing in and implementing hotel apps. It assists operators in developing effective marketing strategies by understanding factors influencing customers’ app adoption and between group differences in their preferences on app functions. Originality/value This is the first tablet app adoption study that extends TAM to the hotel industry. Thus, it extends the literature on technology adoption by exploring both existing and new variables and testing them in a new context.
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This study examines the effects of event advertising on peoples' attitudes and visit intentions toward event-hosting cities. One hundred and ninety-two samples were collected for this study. A 2 × 2 factorial multivariate-analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the first and second set of hypotheses, whereas a separate univariate-analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run to test the last hypothesis. Event advertising was found to have a positive effect on people's attitude toward the hosting cities. Also, people's different levels of city recognition (well-know vs. unknown) significantly influence their attitudes toward the city. However, the effects of event advertising on peoples' attitude toward the city are greater if the city is relatively unknown. In this sense, an unknown city could benefit more than a well-known city by improving the image of the city using event advertising as a promotional tool. Lastly, image congruence affects peoples' attitude toward the event-hosting city.
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Planning Research in Hospitality and Tourism provides a concise and clear approach to planning research projects which are a necessity in most hospitality and tourism courses taught at degree level. The text considers the particular characteristics of the hospitality and tourism industry, whilst providing a balanced approach toward both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. The text also carefully considers the international aspect of the industry and the people it employees, which supports the books aims of: Providing an excellent understanding of the basic principles of conducting research, in a straight forward "no nonsense" guide Carefully considering the particular characteristics of the hospitality and tourism sectors in relation to embarking on a research project in the area Including in each chapter an "International Dimension" section, as well as case studies, questions and reflections on the research process. © 2008 Levent Altinay and Alexandros Paraskevas. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the mediating effects of the impact of the perceived image of celebrity endorsers on tourists' intentions to visit, using celebrity-endorsed print advertisements for travel destinations. The results indicate that celebrity endorsers have a significant impact on people's attitudes and visit intentions, thus verifying the mediating effects of this variable. The study also provides clues to what extent celebrity-endorsed advertisements differ from nonendorsed advertisements and explores such differences in terms of destination match-up between native and nonnative celebrity-endorsed advertisements.
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Tourists' repeat patronage is a prerequisite for sustainable festivals. Past studies have examined tourist cognition, affection, and conation to festivals. Government involvement in festivals has increased during the past decade; however, few studies have examined how government policy and environment quality influence visitor loyalty to festivals. Using sample data collected from 931 visitors during spring music festivals held in Southern Taiwan, this study used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent variables to examine these influences. The results suggest that government policy positively influences perceived environment quality, visitor satisfaction, and loyalty to festivals. Furthermore, the results from a multigroup SEM approach reveal that tourists' revisit reason (revisit festival versus other) and occupation type (student versus nonstudent) moderate the relationships between government policy and festival loyalty. Implications on festival planning and government policymaking are discussed.