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Refereed/Peer-reviewed Design of advertising stimuli is critical for marketing, especially to destinations which have limited exposure to visitors. Existing studies postulate the design of advertising affects the amount and valence of thoughts (Cognition), thought confidence (Metacognition) and attitudes towards a destination. Despite this, limited research has considered the influence of emotional arousal and perceived credibility of advertising on cognition, metacognition and attitude. This research implemented a two-by-two experimental design to examine how cognition, metacognition and attitude differ across different levels of emotional arousal and perceived credibility of an advertisement of Iran. Results demonstrate participants showed higher cognitive engagement with the advertisement and more thought confidence and developed more favourable thinking and attitude to Iran in response to a highly credible and emotionally arousing tourism stimulus. A key contribution of this research is that high emotional arousal evokes more favourable cognition, metacognition and attitude towards a destination.

Prior self-validation hypothesis studies suggest that an individual’s attitude toward advertising is affected by the cognitive processing of the message and the valence of emotion. Yet, the effect of emotional arousal and stimulus credibility on attitudes toward a destination has not been discerned. This study employs the self-validation hypothesis to investigate the effect of the three dimensions of thinking on attitudes toward Iran. Participants (N = 416) were randomly assigned to a two (high vs. low arousal) × two (high vs. low source credibility) experiment. The partial least squares multigroup analysis results indicated that the emotionally arousing stimulus led to a greater influence of the amount and confidence of thought on attitudes. The effect of the amount of thought on attitude was greater in response to a credible stimulus. This research advances knowledge by revealing that emotional arousal has a significant positive impact on three dimensions of thinking and positive attitudes. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore recent trends in the theories and methods applied to studies on residents’ attitudes. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the objective of this research, this paper provides a review of 90 journal articles on residents’ attitudes towards tourism published between 2011 and 2017. The relevant articles were then analysed using content analysis. Findings Key findings revealed that although social exchange theory is still dominant in exploring residents’ attitudes towards tourism, new frameworks are beginning to emerge such as institutional theory and bottom-up spillover theory. Nonetheless, alternative theoretical perspective has only been applied once or twice and requires further engagement. Quantitative methods still dominate the field, with the geographic dispersal of studies spanning 33 countries. Research limitations/implications A potential limitation of this review is that articles published only in four leading tourism journals, namely, ATR, JTR, TM and JOST, were analysed. Originality/value This review contributes to the literature in tourism by assessing the shift in the application of theory and methodological approaches in residents’ attitudes studies from previous systematic reviews. This study adds to the body of knowledge by providing an overview of the existing status of research on residents’ attitudes towards tourism, providing direction for future scholarly inquiry. A further contribution of this review is an indication of not only the data collection methods but also data analysis techniques which have not been done in previous review articles on residents’ attitudes towards tourism. As opposed to other systematic reviews, this paper assessed the geographical setting of studies on residents’ attitudes towards tourism.

Traditionally, tourists’ emotional responses to advertising and associated stimuli have been assessed using self-report questionnaires. Image recognition software, such as FaceReader™ provides a means to analyse emotional responses to stimuli, specifically the type of emotion, valence (positive/negative) and arousal (intensity) via facial expressions. This research note reports on the benefits and drawbacks of FaceReader™. Respondents from Iran (5) and Australia (5) were invited to a laboratory to watch a tourism advertisement (ski resort in Iran). A video camera was used to record the facial expressions of respondents while viewing the advertisement. Results provide an indication that participants had overall low arousal and positive emotions while watching the tourism video. FaceReader™ proved useful for collecting and analysing real time data concerning seven discrete emotions plus valence and arousal. Since FaceReader™ is sensitive to light and participants with thick frame glasses, it is recommended that future studies apply this software with additional physiological and self-report measures to advance understanding of the measurement of emotions in the tourism field. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations is an established area of scholarly attention. This research note provides a critical commentary of the theoretical trends in visitor attitude studies based on a systematic review of 162 journal articles in top tier journals between 1977 and 2019. This short communication contributes to tourism research and scholarship by demonstrating that prior research on visitor attitude is predominantly descriptive and lacks theoretical engagement, with the gap between a theoretical and theoretical articles expanding proportionally over time. Scholars should consider the application of active theory from parent (sub)disciplines such as social psychology and cognitive psychology to provide future research on visitor attitudes to tourism destinations with much needed depth, substance and theoretical maturity. Refereed/Peer-reviewed