Pub Date : 2023-09-12DOI: 10.1177/00472875231194272
Phiona Stanley, Alexander Craig Wight
This study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism studies. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students, teachers, and managers in Australian English language schools to understand what language-travelers expect from their Australian experiences and the implications for language schools. The findings propose that sojourners’ experiences are framed by pre-visit imaginaries of object authenticity, wherein the “object” is both Australian culture and the wider Anglophone “West.” Such imaginaries are found to be validated by language schools, which face pressure to balance letting students glimpse the “backstage” and staging out-group imagined “authenticities,” such as by hiring fun, approachable, and above all White teachers. We identify opportunities for language centers to understand their role within tourism as cultural mediators and suggest ways forward in promoting and inculcating critical intercultural competence among language-traveler sojourners.
{"title":"Interrogating Racialized “Cultural Authenticity” Discourses Among Language-Learner Tourists in Australia","authors":"Phiona Stanley, Alexander Craig Wight","doi":"10.1177/00472875231194272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231194272","url":null,"abstract":"This study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism studies. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students, teachers, and managers in Australian English language schools to understand what language-travelers expect from their Australian experiences and the implications for language schools. The findings propose that sojourners’ experiences are framed by pre-visit imaginaries of object authenticity, wherein the “object” is both Australian culture and the wider Anglophone “West.” Such imaginaries are found to be validated by language schools, which face pressure to balance letting students glimpse the “backstage” and staging out-group imagined “authenticities,” such as by hiring fun, approachable, and above all White teachers. We identify opportunities for language centers to understand their role within tourism as cultural mediators and suggest ways forward in promoting and inculcating critical intercultural competence among language-traveler sojourners.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135827308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/00472875231197203
Jiaxin Tian, Jing Ma
This paper applies information dissemination theory, consumer information behavior theory, signaling theory, and value co-creation theory to investigate the effects of companies’ online platform operations from a tourism company perspective. We gathered data from 51 listed tourism companies in China between 1992 and 2022 to test these impacts. Results showed that using online platforms could improve listed tourism companies’ performance, but not all platforms played the same role. Of the three online platforms we tested, official websites and WeChat accounts had significant positive influences on listed tourism companies’ performance; Weibo had no effect. Group research revealed that online platforms most effectively enhanced hotels’ performance, followed by comprehensive tourism companies. Resource tourism companies received no obvious impact.
{"title":"Online Platform Use and Performance Among Listed Tourism Companies in China","authors":"Jiaxin Tian, Jing Ma","doi":"10.1177/00472875231197203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231197203","url":null,"abstract":"This paper applies information dissemination theory, consumer information behavior theory, signaling theory, and value co-creation theory to investigate the effects of companies’ online platform operations from a tourism company perspective. We gathered data from 51 listed tourism companies in China between 1992 and 2022 to test these impacts. Results showed that using online platforms could improve listed tourism companies’ performance, but not all platforms played the same role. Of the three online platforms we tested, official websites and WeChat accounts had significant positive influences on listed tourism companies’ performance; Weibo had no effect. Group research revealed that online platforms most effectively enhanced hotels’ performance, followed by comprehensive tourism companies. Resource tourism companies received no obvious impact.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135980785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gaze describes the experiential way that tourists perceive destinations during trips. Destination-related risks are inevitable in tourism; however, little attention has been given to the tourist gaze based on travel risk. Our research addresses this disparity by proposing and exploring the concept of tourist risk gaze. In Study 1, findings suggest that this type of gaze involves three interrelated aspects: risk information gaze, risky attraction gaze, and risky behavior gaze. In Study 2, we invited 50 Chinese university students to participate in an eye-tracking experiment to test tourist risk gaze. Participants displayed distinct visual attention patterns toward these three aspects when tourists encountered them during trips. This research offers a new lens through which to consider the tourist gaze and risk perception. It also introduces a novel eye-tracking method to analyze travel risk and the tourist gaze.
{"title":"Concept and Evidence of Tourist Risk Gaze","authors":"Chaowu Xie, Jun Yu, Jiangchi Zhang, Mao-Ying Wu, Zhibin Lin, Ping Feng","doi":"10.1177/00472875231197993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231197993","url":null,"abstract":"Gaze describes the experiential way that tourists perceive destinations during trips. Destination-related risks are inevitable in tourism; however, little attention has been given to the tourist gaze based on travel risk. Our research addresses this disparity by proposing and exploring the concept of tourist risk gaze. In Study 1, findings suggest that this type of gaze involves three interrelated aspects: risk information gaze, risky attraction gaze, and risky behavior gaze. In Study 2, we invited 50 Chinese university students to participate in an eye-tracking experiment to test tourist risk gaze. Participants displayed distinct visual attention patterns toward these three aspects when tourists encountered them during trips. This research offers a new lens through which to consider the tourist gaze and risk perception. It also introduces a novel eye-tracking method to analyze travel risk and the tourist gaze.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136024574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195736
Gloria Crabolu, Xavier Font, Graham Miller
Evaluating whether sustainability indicator schemes contribute to better sustainable destination management has proven challenging. We adopt a systems thinking approach to shed light on the elusive impacts of sustainable tourism indicator schemes. We conduct online participatory workshops with 19 experts in sustainable tourism monitoring, to produce a causal loop diagram that illustrates how destination systems behave when indicator schemes are implemented. The results show that until now, these schemes have been expected to follow utopian, evidence-based, policy pathways to change, but we now understand that this linear-thinking approach fails to recognize the complex interplay of factors that occur during implementation. We find that indicator schemes can spark a rich, yet unappreciated, series of conceptual, instrumental, and structural dynamics. We conclude that the hidden power of these schemes lies in their ability to foster dialog, stimulate learning, incentivize network development, challenge stakeholder worldviews, and steer systems change toward sustainable destination management.
{"title":"The Hidden Power of Sustainable Tourism Indicator Schemes: Have We Been Measuring Their Effectiveness All Wrong?","authors":"Gloria Crabolu, Xavier Font, Graham Miller","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195736","url":null,"abstract":"Evaluating whether sustainability indicator schemes contribute to better sustainable destination management has proven challenging. We adopt a systems thinking approach to shed light on the elusive impacts of sustainable tourism indicator schemes. We conduct online participatory workshops with 19 experts in sustainable tourism monitoring, to produce a causal loop diagram that illustrates how destination systems behave when indicator schemes are implemented. The results show that until now, these schemes have been expected to follow utopian, evidence-based, policy pathways to change, but we now understand that this linear-thinking approach fails to recognize the complex interplay of factors that occur during implementation. We find that indicator schemes can spark a rich, yet unappreciated, series of conceptual, instrumental, and structural dynamics. We conclude that the hidden power of these schemes lies in their ability to foster dialog, stimulate learning, incentivize network development, challenge stakeholder worldviews, and steer systems change toward sustainable destination management.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135981185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195738
Ermias Kifle Gedecho, Seongseop (Sam) Kim, Dagnachew Leta Senbeto
This study explores the emotional experiences of individuals attending diaspora festivals using guided interviews of members of the Ethiopian diaspora. A constructivist grounded theory method was applied and a conceptual model comprised of emotional experiences was created. The findings demonstrated five main emotional experiences associated with diaspora festivals: happiness (the most common), pride, arousal, feeling at home, and feeling not lonely. The study confirmed that feeling at home and not lonely were emotions that were unique to diaspora festivals. The study also identified various specific emotion evokers, including homeland atmosphere, homeland people, religious activities, and the availability of the festival. Key theoretical and practical implications include constructing the diaspora festival emotional experience model, broadening our understanding of hedonic well-being, and incorporating the perspectives of contemporary African migrants, all of which can inform marketing strategies, policy development, and societal problem-solving.
{"title":"Emotional and Hedonic Well-Being Experiences of Diaspora Festival Visitors: A Contemporary Migrants’ Perspective","authors":"Ermias Kifle Gedecho, Seongseop (Sam) Kim, Dagnachew Leta Senbeto","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195738","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the emotional experiences of individuals attending diaspora festivals using guided interviews of members of the Ethiopian diaspora. A constructivist grounded theory method was applied and a conceptual model comprised of emotional experiences was created. The findings demonstrated five main emotional experiences associated with diaspora festivals: happiness (the most common), pride, arousal, feeling at home, and feeling not lonely. The study confirmed that feeling at home and not lonely were emotions that were unique to diaspora festivals. The study also identified various specific emotion evokers, including homeland atmosphere, homeland people, religious activities, and the availability of the festival. Key theoretical and practical implications include constructing the diaspora festival emotional experience model, broadening our understanding of hedonic well-being, and incorporating the perspectives of contemporary African migrants, all of which can inform marketing strategies, policy development, and societal problem-solving.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135935269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-09DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195062
Lujun Su, Zeyue Lai, Yinghua Huang
Souvenir shopping has always been a subject of significant tourism research, but the impact of different purchase channels, including the Internet, on tourists’ souvenir purchase behavior has been largely ignored. This study proposes that the dual channel of souvenir purchase positively affects tourists’ purchase intention through the serial mediation of perceived convenience and perceived usefulness, and the offline single channel positively affects tourists’ purchase intention through the serial mediation of perceived scarcity and perceived value. The results also revealed that when the authenticity of souvenirs is low, only the dual-channel path plays a role in the model, it has a positive effect on purchasing intention through perceived convenience and perceived usefulness. Conversely when the authenticity of souvenirs is high only the offline single-channel path works, and perceived convenience and perceived usefulness play a sequential mediating role. Important theoretical contributions and practical implications are offered for souvenir merchants’ marketing and decision-making.
{"title":"How do Tourism Souvenir Purchasing Channels Impact Tourists’ Intention to Purchase? The Moderating Role of Souvenir Authenticity","authors":"Lujun Su, Zeyue Lai, Yinghua Huang","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195062","url":null,"abstract":"Souvenir shopping has always been a subject of significant tourism research, but the impact of different purchase channels, including the Internet, on tourists’ souvenir purchase behavior has been largely ignored. This study proposes that the dual channel of souvenir purchase positively affects tourists’ purchase intention through the serial mediation of perceived convenience and perceived usefulness, and the offline single channel positively affects tourists’ purchase intention through the serial mediation of perceived scarcity and perceived value. The results also revealed that when the authenticity of souvenirs is low, only the dual-channel path plays a role in the model, it has a positive effect on purchasing intention through perceived convenience and perceived usefulness. Conversely when the authenticity of souvenirs is high only the offline single-channel path works, and perceived convenience and perceived usefulness play a sequential mediating role. Important theoretical contributions and practical implications are offered for souvenir merchants’ marketing and decision-making.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136192346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-07DOI: 10.1177/00472875231194275
Shu-Ning Zhang, Wenqi Ruan, Yong-Quan Li, Rui Li, Mei-Yu Wang
Cultural distortion risk (CDR) threatens and challenges the cultural sustainability of heritage sites. This study adopted a sequential exploratory mixed-method design comprising grounded theory and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the influencing factors, formation process, and avoidance paths of cultural distortion risk. The results indicate that CDR is caused by the “institution-market-production” framework, which involves eight influencing factors and 21 indicators. There are no necessary conditions for CDR formation, but weak cultural production plays a universal core role in forming high CDR. Moreover, our study highlights that the generation logic of CDR consists of four configurations and that the avoidance paths cover three configurations. These findings clarify the generation mechanism of CDR and expand the theoretical system of cultural sustainability research from a risk perspective. Heritage sites can use 21 indicators to reduce the cultural distortion risks by establishing institutional guarantee mechanisms and strengthening multiparty collaborative governance.
{"title":"How to Avoid the Cultural Distortion Risk at Heritage Sites? A Configuration Analysis Perspective","authors":"Shu-Ning Zhang, Wenqi Ruan, Yong-Quan Li, Rui Li, Mei-Yu Wang","doi":"10.1177/00472875231194275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231194275","url":null,"abstract":"Cultural distortion risk (CDR) threatens and challenges the cultural sustainability of heritage sites. This study adopted a sequential exploratory mixed-method design comprising grounded theory and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the influencing factors, formation process, and avoidance paths of cultural distortion risk. The results indicate that CDR is caused by the “institution-market-production” framework, which involves eight influencing factors and 21 indicators. There are no necessary conditions for CDR formation, but weak cultural production plays a universal core role in forming high CDR. Moreover, our study highlights that the generation logic of CDR consists of four configurations and that the avoidance paths cover three configurations. These findings clarify the generation mechanism of CDR and expand the theoretical system of cultural sustainability research from a risk perspective. Heritage sites can use 21 indicators to reduce the cultural distortion risks by establishing institutional guarantee mechanisms and strengthening multiparty collaborative governance.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42012619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195731
Wenqi Ruan, Yan Zhou, Yong-Quan Li, Xinwei Su, Shu-Ning Zhang, Fang Deng
The communication of unethical destination incidents (UDIs) through social media can be quite complex. Interestingly, the relationship between information forms of UDIs and users’ online behavior has been grossly ignored, especially in the case of secondary crisis communication (SCC). We investigate the heterogeneous impact of UDIs’ information forms on SCC rooted in the Defleur model of communication. Results from three experimental studies revealed that UDIs in video form elicit higher levels of presence and SCC than those in image-text and text forms. Risk perception and anger are important guiding factors in this process. In brief, the diffusion process of UDIs includes the three stages of reception, transformation, and transmission. The study’s findings suggest a new perspective for understanding destination crisis communication and offer practical implications for alleviating the negative impact of destination crisis.
{"title":"Spread the Word: Secondary Crisis Communication of Unethical Destination Incidents via Social Media","authors":"Wenqi Ruan, Yan Zhou, Yong-Quan Li, Xinwei Su, Shu-Ning Zhang, Fang Deng","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195731","url":null,"abstract":"The communication of unethical destination incidents (UDIs) through social media can be quite complex. Interestingly, the relationship between information forms of UDIs and users’ online behavior has been grossly ignored, especially in the case of secondary crisis communication (SCC). We investigate the heterogeneous impact of UDIs’ information forms on SCC rooted in the Defleur model of communication. Results from three experimental studies revealed that UDIs in video form elicit higher levels of presence and SCC than those in image-text and text forms. Risk perception and anger are important guiding factors in this process. In brief, the diffusion process of UDIs includes the three stages of reception, transformation, and transmission. The study’s findings suggest a new perspective for understanding destination crisis communication and offer practical implications for alleviating the negative impact of destination crisis.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48033266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-31DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195734
Connor Clark, Gyan P. Nyaupane
Despite increased militarization along international borders, border communities share elements of natural and cultural heritage. This shared heritage invokes a form of solidarity whose influence on cross-border tourism and bordering processes is understudied. The purpose of this study is to analyze how community solidarity influences tourism and border processes at the highly militarized U.S.-Mexico border by using photo-elicitation. Data were collected from 21 participants from Mexico and the U.S. A direct and indirect analysis of the interviews and photos found major themes and common focal points within photos, and the findings demonstrate binational solidarity for heritage and a desire for sharing this heritage with visitors. The paper contributes a conceptual framing of how borders are reinforced through militarization and softened through tourism, cross-border collaboration, and biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. The implications of these findings for border theories and frameworks are discussed in further detail.
{"title":"Cross-Border Tourism and Community Solidarity at a Militarized Border: A Photo Elicitation Approach","authors":"Connor Clark, Gyan P. Nyaupane","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195734","url":null,"abstract":"Despite increased militarization along international borders, border communities share elements of natural and cultural heritage. This shared heritage invokes a form of solidarity whose influence on cross-border tourism and bordering processes is understudied. The purpose of this study is to analyze how community solidarity influences tourism and border processes at the highly militarized U.S.-Mexico border by using photo-elicitation. Data were collected from 21 participants from Mexico and the U.S. A direct and indirect analysis of the interviews and photos found major themes and common focal points within photos, and the findings demonstrate binational solidarity for heritage and a desire for sharing this heritage with visitors. The paper contributes a conceptual framing of how borders are reinforced through militarization and softened through tourism, cross-border collaboration, and biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. The implications of these findings for border theories and frameworks are discussed in further detail.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46356533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-31DOI: 10.1177/00472875231195314
S. Uthaisar, A. Eves, X. Wang
Tourist information search behavior is one of the most important aspects of risk reduction in the travel decision-making process. Understanding tourists’ behavior when searching for online information has been heavily weighted toward user-generated content (UGC), mainly employed deductive research approaches. This study examines the influence of both UGC and marketer-generated content (MGC) on tourists’ choice of restaurant, using eye-tracking technology to measure customers’ visual behavior combined with retrospective think-aloud interviews. Data was collected from 28 participants in a laboratory-based study. Video recordings of participants’ eye movements during the task aided participant recall in follow-up interviews. This study offers insights into the integrated investigation of the influence of UGC and MGC on tourists’ information search behavior. It validates and extends understanding of the roles of pictorial information, written information, and other factors, and newly clarifies the role of both positive and negative reviews in influencing restaurant selection from international tourists’ perspectives.
{"title":"Tourists’ Online Information Search Behavior: Combined User-Generated and Marketer-Generated Content in Restaurant Decision Making","authors":"S. Uthaisar, A. Eves, X. Wang","doi":"10.1177/00472875231195314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231195314","url":null,"abstract":"Tourist information search behavior is one of the most important aspects of risk reduction in the travel decision-making process. Understanding tourists’ behavior when searching for online information has been heavily weighted toward user-generated content (UGC), mainly employed deductive research approaches. This study examines the influence of both UGC and marketer-generated content (MGC) on tourists’ choice of restaurant, using eye-tracking technology to measure customers’ visual behavior combined with retrospective think-aloud interviews. Data was collected from 28 participants in a laboratory-based study. Video recordings of participants’ eye movements during the task aided participant recall in follow-up interviews. This study offers insights into the integrated investigation of the influence of UGC and MGC on tourists’ information search behavior. It validates and extends understanding of the roles of pictorial information, written information, and other factors, and newly clarifies the role of both positive and negative reviews in influencing restaurant selection from international tourists’ perspectives.","PeriodicalId":48435,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Travel Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43013834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}