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This study aims to assess the factors that influence consumer attitude towards a destination, and to present a new conceptual framework for further investigation of the role of cognition and metacognition in tourism attitudinal research. Existing research in social psychology has established that three factors influence consumer attitude; amount of thought, valence of thinking and thought confidence. While cognition, amount and valence of thinking, has been studied previously in tourism research, metacognition, measured as thought confidence, is often overlooked in the field. To address this gap, this research note employs the self-validation hypothesis from social psychology to explore consumers' attitudes towards a tourism destination. The findings show metacognition plays a central role in forming destination attitude. Also, valence of thinking has the strongest impact on attitude. This research note contributes to tourism knowledge by exploring the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of attitude formation. In addition, this study adds value by proposing a model to guide future tourism attitudinal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 atheoretical 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. • Visitor attitudes to tourism destinations are assessed across a 42-year period. • Research is primarily descriptive and lacks theoretical maturity. • Atheoretical papers dominate studies on visitor attitudes. • Application of cutting-edge theory from parent disciplines would advance future inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]