Journal of Tourism and Services

International Tourist’s Perspective of Environmentally Responsibility Behaviour

Rakotoarisoa Maminirina Fenitra — 2024-06-14

This study aims to determine the factors forming an intended general and site-specific environmentally responsible behavior intention (ERBI) and actual environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). The proposed conceptual framework of this study was drawn from the knowledge-belief-norm (KBN) Model. Using a convenient sampling technique, a survey of 560 international tourists in Bali was conducted. The data were analysed following Anderson and Gerbing’s two-step approaches to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) demonstrate that beliefs are critical in enriching personal norms and lead to a strong intention toward both general and site-specific ERBI. Further, the findings emphasize the positive influence of intended site-specific and general ERB on actual ERB. Specifically, Ascribed responsibility has a strong influence on personal norms. The influence of personal norms on specific ERBI was the strongest. However, among the thirteen proposed hypotheses, only the impact of biospheric value on awareness of consequences was not supported. These results can guide effective strategies and policy-making processes relevant to environmental protection in tourism destinations. Also, it would be a valuable asset for tourism destination managers in reducing tourist’s footprint. This study is one of the few studies using the Knowledge Belief Norm Model to explore this issue in the context of international tourists in Bali. Besides this work's theoretical and practical contribution, this also provides a limitation that provides suggestions for future study.

Dimensions for Measuring Brand Equity in the Airlines Industry

Campo Elías López- Rodríguez — 2024-06-14

The structuring of brand equity is a fundamental aspect at a strategic level for marketing management since its consolidation strengthens the market orientation of organizations, as well as the relationship with one of their main interest groups, consumers. The objective of this research is to design an instrument to measure the dimensions of brand equity in the airline industry from the users' perception. At the methodological level, an instrumental, analytical, and transversal study is carried out, complemented with an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis based on an instrument applied to 429 frequent consumers of Colombian airlines, which was analysed with the software The R Project for Statistical Computing and JASP software. The results determine that the new proposed instrument is composed of the following dimensions: the importance of Brand loyalty (IBL), quality and brand associations (QBA), brand awareness (BA), and brand performance (BP); from these, organizations in the airline sector will be able to strengthen the management of their brand equity and recognize the impact it has on their customers. It is concluded that this sector should continue to consolidate its brand equity as a strategic activity based on these dimensions, allowing it to increase the market

Travelling During Travel Bubble: Assessing the Interrelationship between Cognitive, Affective, Unique Image, and Future Revisit Intention

Muhammad Aliff Asyraff — 2024-06-14

This research study utilises Mehrabian and Russell's Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model to explore the connections between various components of a destination image (cognitive, affective, and unique) and the intention of travellers to revisit Malaysia. A total of 402 responses were collected using purposive sampling. The Partial-Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method was employed to examine the research model and its proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that the cognitive and unique aspects of the destination image significantly influence the affective image. This quantitative analysis confirms that the destination image's unique and affective components significantly impact the intention to revisit. Interestingly, the cognitive image does not significantly impact the intention to revisit. The bootstrapping analysis demonstrates that the affective image mediates the relationship between the cognitive image and the intention to revisit. However, the unique image, indirectly through affective image, does not influence the intention to revisit. This study contributes to our understanding of the application of the extended SOR model by Mehrabian and Russell in the context of tourism, particularly regarding destination image dimensions in different settings, such as islands and travel bubble destinations. From a practical standpoint, the travel bubble is seen as an effective crisis management strategy employed by certain countries to stimulate their tourism industry in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders regarding creating a positive experience while maintaining appropriate preventive measures within the travel bubble program.

Shopping Tourism: A Bibliometric Review from 1979 to 2021

Foued Ben Said — 2024-06-14

The discipline of shopping tourism has seen a surge in published research in recent years, covering a wide range of topics and issues. However, there are surprisingly few reviews and/or bibliometric studies to review and visually map the literature in this field of research. As a result, the present work has employed a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic review concerning shopping tourism-related articles published in academic journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science databases between 1979 and 2021. Two methodologies were used in this bibliometric analysis. The first is performance analysis, which analyzes the contributions of the components that comprise research in shopping tourism. The second method is scientific mapping, which outlines the connections (i.e., intellectual, social, and conceptual structure) between facets related to shopping tourism. Using Bradford's and Lotka's laws, the research revealed a remarkable increase in shopping tourism sources, authors, and articles, reflecting a substantial evolutionary curve of this research theme. Various affiliations and countries have contributed considerably to shopping tourism research during the period. The analysis of science mapping produced a substantial understanding of shopping tourism's social, intellectual, and conceptual structure. This review article provides several implications for research via perspicuous overviews and insights into shopping tourism, Big Data, and its knowledge structures. It also holds a variety of practical implications for tourism policymakers, destination management organizations (DMOs), and tourism marketers regarding the key themes, new trends, and main contributors to shopping tourism research over four decades of research.

Managing Stress and Building Resilience in Tourism and Hospitality Entrepreneurship: The Power of Psychological and Social Capital

Abdallah M. Elshaer — 2024-06-14

The aim of this study is to examine how psychological and social capital might help entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry manage stress and develop resilience. This study follows a unique approach aiming to determine the social and psychological characteristics that can alleviate stress and promote resilient behavior. This study investigates the impact of psychological capital (PC) and social capital (SC) on perceived entrepreneurial stress (PES) and entrepreneurial enterprises’ resilience (EER). Also, it examines the mediating role of PES. The study focuses specifically on owners/managers of fast-food outlets and travel agencies in Egypt, using purposive sampling to select enterprises that exhibit varying degrees of entrepreneurial resilience. PLS-SEM was used to analyze 411 genuine surveys from respondents who dared to delve into tourism and hospitality entrepreneurship and experienced uncertainties. All of the direct interactions, along with the indirect link between PC and EER via PES, were significant. Nonetheless, the indirect association between SC and EER via PES was not supported. Theoretically, this study fills a research gap by examining how psychological and social factors contribute to enhancing resilience among small businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry. Additionally, it advances the COR theory by underscoring the significance of individuals' access to valuable assets in stress management and resource resilience. In practical terms, it is important for entrepreneurs to practice the synthesis of different personality qualities that help them understand and adapt to the unique aspects of their industry. Additionally, Egyptian policymakers need to provide entrepreneurs with training in personality development.

Exploring the Online Hotel Reviews on Travelers’ Green Psychological Cognition

Chung-Ming Chuang — 2024-06-14

Green hotels prioritize safety, health, and environmental sustainability, promoting eco-conscious practices in operations. As for green hotel operators, affecting travelers’ cognitive reactions to environmentally friendly practices and, ultimately, their booking intentions is important, especially since the impact of online hotel reviews on consumer behavior is significant. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to establish a measurement of online hotel reviews corresponding to source credibility and review characteristics for green hotels as well as to explore how green online hotel reviews relate to travelers’ green psychological cognition and influence their green hotel booking intentions based on a cognitive model and a knowledge-attitude-behavior model. The study design is a two-phase quantitative survey in the Penghu area, Taiwan, and investigates online hotel reviews with green issues that consider the perspectives of source attributes and content characteristics. This study distributed questionnaires for the first and second phases, which yielded 350 and 568 responses, respectively. A structural equation model (SEM) is used to examine the hypothesized relationships between source credibility, review characteristics, conformity, green perceived value and online green hotel booking intention. The results revealed that the source credibility and review characteristics represent valuable information to persuade travelers about choosing green hotels. Both conformity and green perceived value play important roles as mediators. This study also extends the current knowledge on the cognitive model and the knowledge-attitude-behavior model. A new path vision thus emerges to fill existing gaps in the literature.

Unraveling the Financial Impact of COVID-19 on the Tourism Industry through a Difference-In-Difference Analysis

Jiří Strouhal — 2024-06-14

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant and enduring effect on the tourism industry, specifically impacting travel agencies. To respond effectively, it is essential to comprehend the financial repercussions and challenges that these agencies confront. This study seeks to address existing gaps in knowledge by conducting a comprehensive examination of the tourism industry's financial performance in the post-COVID-19 era. Our methodology utilizes a Difference-In-Difference (D-I-D) approach, considering multiple investigations to establish a causal connection between the pandemic and the financial stability of tourism service providers. We analyse changes in the overall financial health of the tourism industry relative to other sectors both before and after the COVID-19 outbreak using Altman Z scores. Furthermore, we assess accounting harmonization across diverse jurisdictions and financial frameworks (IFRS, US GAAP, Czech GAAP, German HGB). Data is sourced from 11 multinational corporations in the tourism sector, supplemented with financial data from sectors such as Automotive, Manufacturing, Food and beverage, and Real Estate. Our empirical findings indicate that non-tourism entities experienced a 19% lower likelihood of bankruptcy post-COVID-19. This finding underscores the uniqueness of the tourism industry's challenges during the pandemic. In addition to these findings, we provide practical recommendations designed to assist companies in the tourism industry as they navigate the recovery phase following the pandemic. These insights are pivotal in enabling the industry to build resilient strategies and ensure its sustainability in a post-pandemic landscape.

Tourism Destination Performance and Competitiveness: The Impact on Revenues, Jobs, the Economy, and Growth

Rudi Purwono — 2024-06-14

We analyzed the relationship between tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) and economic performance using the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) and various tourism metrics. Employing a Structural Equation Model (SEM) and the latest available 2021 data, we focused on factors such as connectivity, infrastructure, demand drivers, sustainability, and the enabling environment. The findings indicated a positive correlation between these factors and the pillars of destination competitiveness. Key elements such as connectivity, infrastructure, demand drivers, sustainability, and enabling environment significantly influence TDC in Asia. Our research demonstrates that these indicators strongly affect various aspects of performance in Asian countries, including tourism arrivals, revenue, and job creation. We found a negative correlation between certain aspects of destination performance and tourism growth, suggesting that highly competitive destinations may experience lower growth rates than less competitive ones, thereby affecting the overall development of the sector. This highlights the necessity of specific strategies to leverage the positive influence of competitive tourist destinations on economic dynamics and job creation within a destination. This study highlights the crucial role of core resources and infrastructure in enhancing tourism performance and competitiveness, and advocates targeted efforts for sustainable and resilient sector growth. These findings offer valuable insights into the relationship between competitiveness and performance in the Asian tourism industry.

Local Events’ Marketing Mix Effect on Visit Intentions: Destination Image as a Mediator

Mohamed Abou-Shouk — 2024-06-14

Events have become increasingly significant in marketing and branding strategies. This study aims to examine the impact of local events on the destination marketing mix. It tests the effect of local events on destination image which in turn impacts visit intention and facilitates tourism recovery post-crises. To quantitatively explore the effect of local events, data were collected with an e-survey from three developing countries: the United Arab Emirates (535), Egypt (613), and Jordan (370). Using structural equation modelling, findings extended our knowledge about the positive role of local events on tourism destinations’ marketing, developing destination image, and fostering tourism recovery. The study provides managerial implications for enhancing marketing and promotion strategies. It presents useful insights for marketers and event planners on the positive effect of local events on tourism destinations' images, revisits intentions, and its subsequent effect on tourism recovery. Unlike previous studies, this study focuses on the impact of events on destination marketing mix and its effect on destination image, visitation intention, and tourism recovery.

Website Quality of Entities Managing Nautical-Sports Facilities as a Leisure and Active Tourism Alternative

Francisco-José Borrego-Baslalobre — 2024-06-14

The quality of use of websites of entities managing nautical facilities was explored with the main objective of knowing its ability to attract potential users in the field of active tourism in nature. This activity is increasingly on the rise and has a significant impact on the economy. 304 websites were evaluated using the multipurpose model 2QCV3Q. It obtained these spaces have a good quality or even above average quality above average reference entities with a value of 3.55 (±0.7) in the Overall Evaluation. The best results were for the dimensions of Identity, Location, and Maintenance, identified as spearheading factors for good ratings. There was significance (p<0.05) between the Regions that were on the coast and those that were not, with the former performing better. Their websites can serve as reference models for those who want to position themselves in the sector through digital marketing. This was not the case when differentiating between island and mainland entities due to the great weight of mainland coastal institutions in the market. Furthermore, there is a quantity and quality predominance of Yacht Clubs, opposed to Companies, Schools and other types of entities, with more lucrative form of organisation. These Yacht Clubs' values position them as reference entities for the rest. The research's added value comprises that, in order to attract potential users, the elements on which web communication efforts should be focused are those related to brand identity, technical and maintenance aspects, and those related to interaction, communication with the user, and positioning in social networks. Selling the uniqueness of the natural space where the activity is carried out and the richness of its biodiversity can position the entity against others in the network through a strong brand identity.

The Adoption of Mobile Augmented Reality in Tourism Industry: Effects on Customer Engagement, Intention to Use and Usage Behaviour

Bee Lian Song — 2024-06-14

The purpose of this study is to examine the consumer adoption of mobile augmented reality (AR) in the tourism industry in Malaysia. Drawing on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), interactivity, vividness, and information content factors are examined in relation to perceived usefulness (PU). and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Subsequently, both PU and PEOU are hypothesised towards customer engagement (CE), behavioural intention to use (BIU) and usage behaviour (UB). The study consists of 500 samples from consumers who have experienced the usage of mobile AR in the tourism industry in Malaysia. Using a quantitative approach, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that interactivity, vividness, and information content have positive effects on the PU and PEOU. PU and PEOU have positive effects on the CE, BIU, and UB. In theoretical contributions, the study contributes to the extension of TAM by adding interactivity, vividness, and information content as antecedents to PU and PEOU. This research also validated CE as the new dimension for consumer behavioural engagement that affects BIU and UB in the extended TAM. In practical contributions, the findings will assist tourism providers in strategic marketing planning and formulation to enhance mobile AR.

Social Media in Tourism: A Twitter (X) Social Graph Approach to #Alula

Alanawd Alshehri — 2024-06-14

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030 to diversify its economy beyond oil-related government revenue and grow tourism investments. This multifaceted road map includes promoting the country as a tourism destination on social media platforms. Alula is a key Saudi tourism destination characterized by mountainous landscapes and archaeological discoveries. This study investigates the dissemination of social media content that promotes #Alula on the Twitter (X) platform in order to examine the effectiveness of social media in reviving the tourism sector by disseminating tourism messages and connecting individuals with tourist destinations. We captured and analyzed the social graph of this hashtag using the social network analysis (SNA) tool – NodeXL - through December 2022. The findings reveal the structure and shape of the social media impact of #Alula on network clusters and influencers. We identified the main clusters, along with the powerful influencers that played a role in cultivating the network. These findings have important implications for the design and management of a social media presence and the promotion strategies for tourism destinations by focusing on cultivating a social network to actively promote a tourism destination and identify key players in such networks as they play important roles in disseminating content. Our findings is of interest to practitioners and academics. Practitioners can focus on incorporating SNA for tourism planning, management, and marketing strategies, while academics can pursue further research, focusing on cultivating social networks and identifying influential factors on network size and traverse.

Climate Change Mitigation Performance in the EU Tourism Destination Sector

Dalia Streimikiene — 2024-06-14

Climate change mitigation in the tourism sector is expanding research areas due to the importance of this sector and its rapid expansion. Aviation's contribution was found to be the most important source of GHG emissions from tourism. Also, the hospitality sector contributes a lot to GHG emissions in tourism destinations. Hospitality, constituting an essential component of the tourism industry, is a sector that has a high potential to reduce GHG and use of energy and water resources. Therefore, it is important to monitor the climate change mitigation performance of tourism destinations to achieve decarbonization of the tourism sector. The main objectives of this paper are to develop indicators of climate change mitigation performance of tourism destinations based on GHG indicators for the transport and hospitality sectors and apply this framework to assessment and ranking based on climate change mitigation performance of 4 main EU geographical regions as tourism destinations: Central, Northern, Southern, and Western Europe. This paper's main methodological approach is comparing and ranking different geographical regions in the European Union by assessing their climate change mitigation performance as tourist destinations. The study's main results showed that Finland, representing North Europe, is the best-performing country in climate change mitigation in tourism destinations. The second-best-performing geographical region is Western Europe. The worst-performing EU region based on climate change mitigation in tourism destinations was Central Europe. The South Europe region was found to be in a slightly better position than Central Europe but worse in comparison with Western Europe and especially in comparison to Northern Europe. The study's main implications provide policy recommendations for Central Europe as a tourism destination to increase energy and water use efficiency and the carbon footprint of the tourism sector.

Modern Green Hotels Initiatives from Guests Perspective

Katarzyna Szczepańska-Woszczyna — 2024-06-14

The green hotel concept has generated interest among researchers and policymakers due to the increasing environmental and green practices awareness. In Thailand, the Green Leaf Certification is used to indicate the eco-friendly status of a hotel. It contains all or most aspects covering environmental policies such as waste management, energy, and water efficiency, procurement of hotel supplies, air and water quality, noise pollution, hazardous material management, ecological impact, collaboration with community and local administration, etc. The research explored a different perspective on modern green hotel initiatives by analyzing real-life guests' perspectives, adopting a survey research design method. Green Leaf-certified hotels in the Central region of Thailand were selected using a convenience sampling technique. Primary data was obtained from hotel guests using a structured online questionnaire hosted on Google Forms. A sample of 375 respondents completed the online questionnaire. The data was analyzed through discussions and multiple regression analysis for the quantitative data. The results indicated that modern green hotels in the Central region of Thailand have adopted various green initiatives to be recognized as green hotels. Among them are Green Leaf Certification, recycling, organic food, food waste composting program, bioextract production program, water conservation and energy savings, and prohibition of smoking. The results indicated that green practices (green hotel practices, green consumption, and green innovation) positively and significantly affect guest perspectives (guest satisfaction and guest loyalty). The study concludes that green hotel initiatives help hotels comply with the green regulations and monitoring bodies pushing the hospitality sector towards green initiatives, increase guest satisfaction, especially the green champions, improve guest loyalty, and boost hotels' competitiveness and market share.