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This study aims to analyse how memorable local gastronomic experiences and tourists' gastronomy-related traits influence destination loyalty and future intentions. A fuzzy set model is used to examine these intricate relationships using samples of US tourists who visited Europe and Asia. The findings reveal that dimensions of memorable local gastronomic experience and their influence on destination loyalty differ based on tourists' personal gastronomic traits. Hospitality explained destination loyalty well when combined with social interaction, neophilia, and local gastronomy tourism-induced wellbeing. Theoretical and practical insights are provided to aid destination planning and local food marketing efforts. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Drawing on work on the “more knowledgeable other” (MKO) and the mere exposure theory (MET), this study envisaged that visitors' engagement and interaction with key informants, along with their perceptions of the attractions visited, affect their image of and satisfaction with the destination. Findings drawn from two studies indicate that interaction with MKOs and perceptions of attractions determine cognitive, affective, and conative image along with overall satisfaction. Events held in local attractions that promote visitors' interaction with MKOs are proposed for tourists to gain better insights to the place and its locals.

Purpose This research aims to examine the role of perceived threat (i.e. COVID-19) on people’s preferences for destination logo designs. In addition, it investigates the influence of childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and sensation seeking on the aforementioned effect. Design/methodology/approach Five experiments are used. Studies 1 A and 1B examine the impact of the threat of COVID-19 on visiting intentions as influenced by different destination logos. Study 2 replicates the previous studies and tests for evidence of mediation by the perceived risk. Studies 3 and 4 investigate the moderating role of childhood SES and sensation seeking. Findings The results show that a salient threat of COVID-19 leads people to display higher visiting intentions when presented with simpler (vs complex) destination logo designs. The perceived risk mediates this effect as well. This preference is evident only for people with low (vs high) childhood SES and only for relatively low sensation seekers. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the branding literature by investigating how situational factors can influence affective reactions to brand logos and to the tourism literature by further investigating the impact of logos on visiting intentions. Practical implications This study provides actionable insights for tourism marketers and logo designers, allowing them to select or create positively perceived destination logos during a potential global crisis. Originality/value This research offers the first evidence that pandemic-related threat perceptions influence people’s visiting intentions when presented with different destination logos, and that these effects are influenced by individual characteristics such as childhood SES or sensation seeking. In doing so, the current study offers a more sophisticated understanding of the potential boundary conditions driving people’s brand logo evaluation.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed This article investigates how the perceived threats caused by COVID-19 affect consumers’ travel choices and actions by influencing their intentions to seek variety. Four studies show that the perceived threat of COVID-19 increases variety seeking in travel choices. Study 1 finds that travelers who perceive a greater threat of COVID-19 tend to undertake more varied activities during their travel. Study 2 shows that the main effect exists only for individuals who have previously visited the destination. Study 3 replicates the moderating effect of previous visiting experience by using a different way to manipulate the perceived threat of COVID-19. Study 4 illustrates the moderating impact of another important factor: the number of travelers included in the companies’ communication messages. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

This article investigates the role of diverse nudging communication strategies on perceived threat and stockpiling intention. Across three studies, the authors examined the various effects of “nudging” on consumer behavior. Study 1 demonstrates that a commonly used picture has a stronger impact on perceived threat than a less frequently exposed picture regardless of its accuracy. Study 2 shows that the perceived threat of COVID-19, in terms of severe health consequences, is lower when using an indirect (vs. direct) explanation of the virus, as well as when reducing the amount of information about the virus. Study 3 investigates the impact of salient negative information and childhood socioeconomic status (SES). Findings reveal that negative information about deaths associated with the virus increases the level of perceived threat and stockpiling intention, especially among people of low childhood SES.

This article attempts to empirically test a model to explain the hypothesized relationships between important constructs such as emotional experience, personal involvement, destination image, destination satisfaction, and place attachment as antecedents of the future intentions of mature/senior diaspora tourists. The hypothesized relationships were explored using a sample of 419 mature/senior diaspora tourists visiting Ghana. A three-step process was used to explore, confirm and test the interrelationships between the constructs. The results showed that emotional experiences related to joy and love influenced personal involvement. While other hypothesized relationships were supported, unpleasantness and positive surprise did not have a direct effect on personal involvement. Future studies can apply this model to understand other types of tourism.

The purpose of this research was to identify the effects of message framing relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic in enhancing behavioral intentions to engage in international air travel. A survey of 1,300 respondents was conducted using the Posttest Control Group experimental design method. The “loss” message regarding cash-redeemable coupons was most effective in raising intentions to take an international flight and obtaining a favorable assessment of the presented message contents. Covariates including income level, travel purpose, premium card ownership, perceived risk, importance of airline brand, and sanitation were significant in determining the intention to take an international flight. The results of this study can help to establish promotional strategies to foster international travel once the pandemic recedes.

Prior research in behavioral economics has examined the effects of nudging and the diverse aspects of choice on individuals’ decisions and behaviors. Based on this premise, the current research offers a novel and timely view by examining how communication messages in public service advertisements (PSAs) can alter the perception of threat under uncertain situations such as the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic. This article investigates the role of additional relative statistical information on the perception of threat and stockpiling intention. First, we examine whether there is a reduction in the perceived threat of the coronavirus if information about the potential severity of an alternative threat (car accidents) is activated, when compared to offering only statistics on the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is known as COVID-19. Furthermore, we established the mediating role of a perceived threat in consumers’ decisions and behavior in times of severe crisis. This suggests that organizations and policymakers can influence individuals by increasing or decreasing their perceived level of threat depending on the desired outcomes (e.g., respecting authorities’ recommendations or avoiding stockpiling). This research offers a deeper understanding of how consumers can be “nudged” toward desired behavior in the context of public health and safety.

Robots and artificial intelligence represent a newly emerging trend in tourism and hospitality. However, studies examining how cultural perceptions influence tourists’ experiences interacting with service robots are lacking. In response to the industrial trend, the experiential components of robot-staffed hotels are assessed in this study. A qualitative approach is adopted to compare the semantic networks of Japanese and non-Japanese tourists’ online reviews, using 1,498 reviews from nine robot-staffed hotels in Japan. The results indicate that hotel guests’ interaction with robots is one of the main experiential components in robot-staffed hotels. The semantic network analysis results demonstrate noticeable differences, with Japanese reviews demonstrating more emotional responses to human-robot interaction and non-Japanese reviews valuing the functional and technical aspects of robot-provided services more.

Combining conceptual perspectives from emerging research on COVID-19, safety-seeking motivations, and extremeness aversion in choice (i.e., compromise effects), we examine how and why the perceived threat of COVID-19 affects consumers’ choice and decision making in the hotel and restaurant domains. Across seven studies (two studies from secondary data sets and five experimental studies), we provide novel evidence that the perceived threat or threat salience of COVID-19 amplifies the general tendency to select compromise options, avoiding extreme ones, within a choice set. We highlight the role of safety-seeking motivations as the underlying mechanism in the relationship between perceived threat and extremeness aversion in choice. We further document a boundary condition that the extremeness aversion effect is stronger for leisure travelers than for business travelers.

Before understanding customers’ perceptions of hotel CSR, it is important to understand service providers’ responses to hotel CSR because they are the key person to implement the CSR strategy. Therefore, this study investigates the structural relationship among multidimensional CSR performance, attitude, emotions, and resultant behaviors as perceived by hotel employees. In addition, moderating role of employees’ positional levels in the proposed model is evaluated. The findings show that environmental, ethical, and financial/economic domains consisting of hotel CSR performance effectively explain the resultant behaviors that follow. However, social/philanthropic and legal domains do not have considerable effects. The positions held by hotel employees partially moderate the relationships between the proposed constructs. The results of this study add important insights to the existing literature and help hotel practitioners better understand how multidimensional CSR causes positive attitudes, emotions, and behaviors and how the structural model changes depending on the position levels. These results are achieved by using the newly developed hotel CSR measurement scale, which was made through careful and rigorous six-stage procedures.

This study investigates the relationship between the COVID‐19 threat and consumer evaluation of a product with authenticity appeals in advertisements. We propose that threatening situations like COVID‐19 motivate consumers to lower their uncertainty and increase their preference for products with authentic advertising messages. Because individuals react differently to threatening environments according to their early‐life experiences, commonly reflected in childhood socioeconomic status, we examined whether childhood socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between threat and consumer evaluation of authenticity in advertisements. First, secondary data from Google Trends provided empirical support for our predictions. In additional experimental studies, participants evaluated different target products in four studies that either manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) or measured (Studies 4 and 5) COVID‐19 threat. Our results provide converging evidence that consumers positively evaluate products with authentic advertising messages under the COVID‐19 threat. Consumers' motivation to lower their uncertainty underlies the effect of COVID‐19 threat on their evaluation of authentic messages (Study 3). This attempt to reduce uncertainty is more likely to occur for consumers with relatively higher childhood socioeconomic status (Studies 4 and 5). These findings suggest that using authenticity appeals during a pandemic could effectively reduce consumers' perceived uncertainty and generate positive consumer evaluations.

Local food is a motivation that drives international tourists to visit a certain destination and to enrich their experiential quality. Although considerable effort has been exerted in investigating the relationship between the importance of local food and satisfaction and future intentions, no study has explored gastronomical experience by using fuzzy set analysis. The present study aims to explore the influence of local food attributes on customer satisfaction and intentions to recommend through a fuzzy set analysis. This study uses empirical data from 1,376 international tourists visiting Hong Kong. Findings suggest that the attributes of local food and their influence on the intentions to recommend vary in accordance with the type of restaurants operating in Hong Kong. The results of this study shed practical implications, such as the development of different symbolic meanings of gastronomy and service for international diners at different restaurants. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This study assesses the benefits of hiking for visitors to the Jeju Olle Trail on Jeju Island in Korea, which has been designated as a World Heritage Site. Data were collected from a total of 318 tourists visiting the Jeju Olle Trail. The study focused on comparing the benefits sought by first-time visitors and those of repeat visitors. Analytical results found that first-time visitors and repeat visitors sought different benefits from their hiking experiences. First-time visitors sought to observe nature and interact with people. For first-time visitors, benefits that delighted them were buying unique souvenirs and enjoying educational experiences, whereas repeat visitors demonstrated a good assessment on interactions with new people and buying unique souvenirs.

This study aimed to identify variations of three types of perceived image including affective, cognitive, and overall image over three points in time and to test the efficacy of image in explaining satisfaction, knowledge, and attachment with a destination. Although previous studies used results collected through a cross-sectional survey, this study surveyed the same samples at three different times, that is before, during and after travel, to enrich our understanding of how image develops through the three key stages of a trip. The findings indicate there is significant variation in perceived image domains, extracted as a result of factor analysis, and overall image across time. To predict satisfaction, attachment, and knowledge, “vividness” of the affective image domains and “diverse tourism attraction” of the cognitive image domains showed significance on regression models. Interestingly, “developed tourism industry” was not reported being significant predictor in any model. The results suggest that future studies need to measure destination image over time in line with traveller’s movement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation markets. However, how the interplay between tourists and destination attributes has affected P2P accommodation consumption during the pandemic has not been investigated. To address this gap, this study first explored the spatially varying relationship between destination attributes and COVID-19-disrupted Airbnb performance change across Florida counties. Subsequently, we performed two experimental studies to examine whether trip purpose and the level of perceived threat affect Airbnb use intention. The results of the spatial analysis show that, depending on the type of destination attribute, Airbnb listings experienced different revenue losses across urban and rural areas. Additionally, results of experimental studies show that business tourists with a low perceived threat of COVID-19 are more willing to consume Airbnb listings than leisure tourists. This study contributes to ascertaining the destination and behavioral heterogeneity in pandemic-induced P2P accommodation consumption using spatial analytic and experimental studies.

This study examined the antecedents and consequences of rapport between customers and salespersons in the context of duty-free shops. Specifically, this study proposed six sub-dimensions of service-dominant orientation (i.e., relational, ethical, individuated, empowered, concerted, and developmental interactions). These dimensions have a positive influence on rapport. In addition, rapport is hypothesized to aid in the formation of customer satisfaction and brand preference, which in turn positively affects word-of-mouth communications. Data were collected from 649 Chinese shoppers who have purchased a product in a Korean duty-free shop. In addition, this study employed confirmatory factor analysis to check the adequacy of the measurement items and structural equation modeling to test 11 hypotheses. Data analysis results indicated that five sub-dimensions of service-dominant orientation, excluding individuated interaction, play an important role in the formation of rapport. Furthermore, rapport has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and brand preference, which in turn positively affects word-of-mouth communications. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for managers of duty-free stores into the most effective methods for managing their operations and providing an appropriate blend of products. Furthermore, this paper contributes to theoretical understanding in this area by improving the acceptability of a commonly believed shopper behavior model.

Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • The information presented and the design of health campaigns significantly influence perceived threats and irrational behaviors such as stockpiling intentions. • Childhood socioeconomic status of individuals has an impact on the effectiveness of these advertising strategies. • The results lead to definite practical implications for organizations and policy makers for increasing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming more prominent in the tourism industry. Nowadays, consumers are faced with multiple options involving both human and robot interactions. A series of experimental studies were implemented. Four experiments demonstrated that consumers had a more positive attitude toward robot-staffed (vs. human-staffed) hotels when COVID-19 was salient. The results were different from previous studies, which were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the moderating role of perceived threat in consumers’ preference for robot-staffed hotels was significant, the respondents’ preference was attributed to the global health crisis. This research provides a number of theoretical and managerial implications by improving the understanding of technology acceptance during a health crisis.

This study explores how familiarity and attachment, along with cognitive and affective image explain destination loyalty across visitors with divergent degrees of frequency of visitation (low vs. high). Serbians (n = 401) who have previously visited Greece comprised the sample population for this study and were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. Findings reveal that overall familiarity shapes cognitive and affective destination image, while each image component uniquely explains destination loyalty (R2 = 0.51). Differences also exist in the magnitude of the relationships tested among the two groups. Implications for theory and practice, along with limitations and research directions, are discussed.

This article explores consumer tendencies to opt for luxury or economy hotels by identifying their most and least important selection attributes. The researchers investigate how sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics influence traveler assessments of hotel attributes. In explaining consumer hotel selection preferences, the researchers used an unconditional method—best–worst scaling (BWS). Based on an analysis of responses from 397 luxury hotel customers and 351 economy hotel customers in the United States, it was found that the two groups perceive hotel attributes differently. Differentials were also identified on the basis of gender, income, and frequency of purchase. While acknowledging that the task is complex, there is an urgent need to identify the factors influencing hotel selection, because hoteliers need to attract new markets and also balance this by retaining existing patrons. The findings extend existing literature by applying BWS to the identification of hotel selection attributes.

It is important to understand customer dissatisfaction in order to maintain a sustainable business, given that the negative effects of customer dissatisfaction in service businesses may be even gre...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze online hotel reviews produced by customers to identify and compare factors known as satisfiers and dissatisfiers based on Herzberg’s two-factor theory. This approach was applied to compare full-service and limited-service hotels, which can show different levels of customer expectation. Design/methodology/approach A content analysis of 919 satisfaction- and dissatisfaction-indicating reviews of 100 hotels in both full-service and limited-service hotel segments in New York City on Trip Advisor was conducted. Findings Results show that satisfiers and dissatisfiers in full-service hotels were distinct, with the exception of two common service-related factors, namely, “staff and their attitude” and “service”. On the other hand, “staff and their attitude” and four room facilities-related factors, “room cleanliness/dirtiness”, “bed”, “bathroom” and “room size”, were revealed as common satisfiers and dissatisfiers in limited-service hotels. To fulfill customer satisfaction and resolve dissatisfaction in both full-service and limited-service hotels, satisfiers and dissatisfiers should be highlighted according to the hotel class; the most critical factor is “staff and their attitude”. Practical implications Analysis of online hotel reviews provides understanding of customers’ satisfiers and dissatisfiers, and the results are very useful to hotel management. Therefore, hotel operators should monitor electronic word-of-mouth, recognizing and acting upon previous and current customers’ satisfactory and unsatisfactory reactions. Originality/value As technologies such as social media develop, customers are increasingly sharing their satisfactory and unsatisfactory experiences on consumer-generated online review sites. These have become a major source of information not only for customers deciding on a hotel stay but also for hotel managers trying to understand their customers and competitors.

This exploratory study, based on 316 questionnaires completed by mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong, investigates whether certain conditions are sufficient to motivate tourists’ decisions to buy luxury products. The results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis reveal that a combination of four conditions (emotional attachment, fashion leadership, prestige sensitivity, and social value) is sufficient to influence tourists to shop for luxury brands. It must be pointed out, however, that the four conditions are unnecessary in some social and shopping contexts, and thus the findings do not reject the possibility that alternative conditions may also influence luxury shopping decisions. This study using fuzzy-set theory demonstrates that tourists who score highly in all four conditions constitute an almost perfect subcategory of luxury shoppers. Therefore, it is recommended that other scholars examine the conditions that are sufficient to influence tourists rather than concentrating on other factors.

Seeing is believing. This idiom may not be true when virtual reality and perceived reality are ubiquitous in our daily life. However, visual (and audio) content is more effective in stimulating one...