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Purpose: This study links SDG goal 9 of industry, innovation strategies and another infrastructural environment to branding relating to destination and interactive marketing. Digital marketing tools with various applications aim to offer hi-tech services to customers in interactive marketing services, namely multiple goods and services, data and innovative techniques in the tourism and travel sector. Exploring the study would add to the existing literature supporting interactive marketing procedures and destination branding. Branding relating to destinations fosters tourists around the globe facilitating economic growth and development and supporting the local economies. Need for the Study: It is observed from the literature that very few studies have been identified across the globe from various researchers on the interactive marketing and destination branding that ensures brand loyalty and reassesses the intent of the tourists just before the epidemic pandemic in the form of COVID-19. Artificial Intelligence, as part of information technology, offers various interactive marketing services in the form of different social media marketing strategies, attractive websites for tourists and travel providers and image building on destination branding. This study would help fill the marketing gap, which results in branding relating to destination, brand loyalty and reassessing the intent of various tours and travel plans just before the pandemic. Methodology: The study focused on the literature, demonstrating the stimulus organism methodology and examining the impact of potential marketing strategy, which is interactive focusing on the destination branding, loyalty relating to the brand and also procedures to revert with the intent that would motivate and facilitate the customer's confidence showering the loyalty relating to the brand in the travel and tourism sector. Findings and their Practical Implications: The study revealed that the marketing relating to interactive methodologies in the hi-tech digital approaches ought to be carried out to create opportunities for prospective tourists willing to get information about various tourists destinations with the help of various marketing techniques such as different social media applications, easy access of websites for accessing the tourist destinations and relevant information, accessing images pertinent to the tourism destinations with the ease of chat box and providing suitable audios and video sources to the potential customers. © 2023 by Seval Kardes Selimoglu and Mustafa Hakan Saldi. All rights reserved.
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Purpose- Brand personality plays an important role in the development of tourists' self-image congruence and revisit intention. This paper attempts to shed light on the relationship between brand personality and self-image congruence and revisit intention through a quantitative analysis.Design - Data were collected from 496 Vietnamese tourists who visited the top five tourist sites in Vietnam, including Ha Long, Phu Quoc, Sapa, Nha Trang, and Hoi An. Methodology - By using SEM in AMOS version 24 CFA was performed to test the the overall measurement model.Findings - Multivariate data analysis demonstrated that five dimensions of brand personality. (Excitement, Sincerity, Sophistication, Competence, and Ruggedness) have a positive effect on self-image congruence and revisit intention. While excitement appears to be most helpful for developing self-image congruence, sincerity has the highest benefit for increasing revisit intention, sincerity has the highest utility for increasing revisit intention. In addition, revisit intention is most influenced by excitement and least influenced by sophistication through self-image congruence. Originality of the research - The findings highlight the important role of attributes associated with tourist destinations. Managers in the tourism sector should be familiar with these characteristics in order to position or strengthen their destination's brand with the aim of delivering to each tourist group a customized experience that resonate with their shared values. The insights provided by this paper also have important implications for travel companies in the gradual recovery of the country's smoke-free industry under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This study investigates the impact of leisure involvement, and place attachment on revisit intention with the mediating role of quality of life. This survey was composed of 300 individuals in a shopping mall in Lahore, Pakistan. The data was analyzed through Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicated that leisure involvement and quality of life predict the place attachment and customers revisit intention. The results show the positive and significant relationship between leisure involvement (LI) and quality of life (QOL);leisure involvement (LI) with place attachment (PA);revisit intention (RI) and QOL with place attachment and revisit intention. The study advances in theory explaining the mediating role of quality of life in consumption in Shopping Malls and presents managerial recommendations that can be applied during and after Covid-19.
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As tourism research focuses on experience, memorable tourism experience (MTE) is gaining importance among academia and destination managers. However, only limited studies have examined the antecedents and consequences of MTE. Therefore, this study will investigate human emotions with their underlying factors in influencing MTE to cater to revisit intention in tourists. For this study, CFA-SEM is applied to a sample of 1120 tourists from central India to access the empirical relationships. The empirically validated model confirmed the significant relationships among human emotions, MTE, and revisit intention. Results suggested that human emotions significantly influence MTE, which is reflected as revisit intention in tourists. Findings also confirmed the moderating role of the perceived risk of COVID-19 further, exploring the health-linked effects on tourism. This study will help the researchers and destination managers make more informed decisions and strategies to make tourism destinations more sustainable by incorporating human emotions as a significant factor in influencing the tourism experience. The findings will also help destination managers in making tourism more risk-averse.
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Purpose: This study aims to investigate city branding as a post-pandemic COVID-19 outcome factor on brand satisfaction, brand experience, perceived risk and revisit intention. In addition, this research contributes to the discussion of post-COVID-19 city branding that needs to be considered in the development of future tourism marketing. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was used with PLS-SEM statistical analysis and a 263-tourist sample. The study was conducted on tourists from Malang Regency in Indonesia by distributing questionnaires modified from previous studies in a similar context. Findings: The results of this study found that there were significant influences of city brand personality on brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand experience on perceived risk, brand satisfaction on revisit intention and perceived risk on revisit intention. This study also presents the mediating role. Research limitations/implications: The study was only conducted on a small regency in Indonesia, and therefore the results cannot be generalized for other cities over the world. Practical implications: The proposed study model suggests that stakeholders must seek to socialize services to potential tourists, so that tourists can understand the description of tourism activities that can be enjoyed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the way they travel in the future. Social implications: Understanding the determinant factors of city branding post-COVID-19 was valuable for developing marketing strategies to cope with intense competition among the city. Originality/value: This study emphasizes the determinants of COVID-19 perceived risk and revisit intentions as explained in the tourism marketing literature by considering the role of brand satisfaction, brand experience and city brand personality which significantly contribute to build the city competitiveness. Therefore, various creative strategies should be implemented to promote the city as well as escalate tourist visits without ignoring the pandemic's risks. © 2023, Andriani Kusumawati, Rizki Yudhi Dewantara, Devi Farah Azizah and Supriono Supriono.
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With the increasing number of foreigners residing in Korea, there is a need for further research on medical service satisfaction for this demographic. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the impact of medical service quality on customer satisfaction and revisit intention of foreigners in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted from 15 March to 15 May 2022 to gather data from foreign residents in Korea. A total of 201 questionnaires were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 and Smart PLS3.0 for empirical analysis. The results of the study demonstrate that reliability, empathy, and COVID-19 regulations (excluding responsiveness, assurance, and tangibles) positively impact customer satisfaction with medical services. Additionally, customer satisfaction with medical services positively affects revisit intention. Furthermore, variables, such as nationality and medical department, show average differences. These findings suggest that hospitals should focus on COVID-19 prevention and the quality of medical services, while also taking into account unique characteristics, such as nationality and medical department. This study provides essential reference data for medical institutions exposed to infinite competition, informing management strategies to increase customer satisfaction and revisit intention during COVID-19. © 2023 by the authors.
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influencing factors of generation Z (Gen Z) consumers' revisit intentions to robotic restaurants in the post-pandemic times. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of Gen Z consumers with dining experiences in an Indian restaurant using service robots, the study empirically tests a research framework based on stimulus–organism–response theory. Findings: The study explains how Gen Z consumer's perceptions of functional attributes (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), socio-emotional attribute (i.e. perceived safety) and relational attribute (i.e. trust) shape their attitude, which in turn leads to their evaluations of performance outcomes and intention to revisit the robotic restaurants. The findings also indicate that perceived risk reduction of viral infection moderates the impact of performance outcomes on revisit intention. Originality/value: Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the changing preferences of consumers have resulted in an increase in demand for restaurants offering robotic services. To support the long-term viability of service robots in restaurant services, the current study investigates what elements of service robots can determine consumers' intentions to revisit the robotic restaurants during post-pandemic times. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Companies that develop social responsibility actions gain legitimacy, which increases consumer trust and revisit intention. However, the effects of both socially responsible actions and legitimacy on customer behavior are not always direct, as they vary depending on the context. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a new context in which emotions play a determining role in consumer behavior. The number of people diagnosed with anxiety continues to grow worldwide, and this is known as a mental health epidemic. The aim of this research is to explore the moderating effect of anxiety on the relationships between social responsibility, legitimacy, and revisit intention. Using a sample of 1,200 supermarket buyers and applying a structural equation system, it is shown that social responsibility and legitimacy influence revisit intention, and the level of anxiety moderates these relationships. This study suggests building trust by adapting business policies to consumers' emotional backgrounds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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During the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated strain on consumption activities, demand for luxury hotels has risen steadily as a safe way to enjoy leisure services. This study aims to examine the consequences of congruence and identification. An online survey generating 315 datasets from international customers of luxury hotel services is conducted. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that perceived brand authenticity by customers influences both revisit and word-of-mouth intentions via engagement. Also, brand congruence leads to customer engagement with luxury hotel services and word-of-mouth intention. In contrast, no direct impact of congruence on revisit intention was found. Results regarding the effects of brand authenticity and congruence demonstrate that luxury service brands have the potential to influence customers' patronage behaviors through different approaches. The findings confirm the importance of engagement with brands in the luxury service setting. © The Author(s) 2023.
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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, safety is one of the top priorities for travellers when choosing a hotel. This work examines the effect of customers' pre-stay expectations of a hotel about its safety-focused services, shaped through its official star-rating, on the during-stay confirmation of those expectations, satisfaction, and revisit intentions. A cross-sectional research design is used spanning temporally from the pre-stay to the during-stay phases. The pre-stay phase was the peak COVID-19 period in India (June–July 2021) to stimulate the safety concerns in the travellers planning their travel, while the during-stay phase was when the planned travel was undertaken with the traveller staying at the planned hotel (October 2021–January 2022). Data were collected from 452 customers and the results supported the proposed model. Further, the star-rating, as a signal for safety-focused services, was found to have a serial effect on revisit intentions, through the pre-stay expectations of safety services, and the during-stay confirmation of expectations and satisfaction. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
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Purpose: Drawing on Schumpeter's theory of innovation and stereotype content model, this study aims to arrive at an integrated model that relates destination innovation type, destination innovativeness and revisit intention to uncover more about the drivers and outcomes of destination innovativeness from a consumer-centric perspective. Design/methodology/approach: Three studies, including content analysis of news media, an onsite survey and an online survey in Chinese special featured towns, were conducted. Findings: This study develops a consumer-centric destination innovation measure. The results reveal that input innovation and product innovation positively influence revisit intention through the serial mediation of destination innovativeness and perceived competence. Research limitations/implications: As the data was collected from tourists in China, any generalization of the results to other regions should be made with caution;accordingly, replication is needed to test the proposed model in different cultural contexts. Second, during the onsite data collection period, special featured town destinations were still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected the perceptions of tourists. Third, the second round of data was collected using an online survey, which may have introduced bias due to a potential lack of representativeness. Fourth, some potential missing variables could also influence the links among innovation, destination innovativeness and revisit intention. Originality/value: This study presents the first empirical test of the impact of innovation type and innovativeness on tourists' response to tourism destinations. The results of this study could guide destinations to deliver more effective consumer-centric innovations to generate competitiveness. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Purpose: Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model, this study aims to investigate how the intention of Chinese guests to revisit a hotel (response) is triggered by the quality of the hotel's hygiene protocols (stimulus) during the pandemic. Brand image, perceived guest satisfaction and perceived customer trust were examined as the organism factors in this model. Design/methodology/approach: The quantitative method was adopted to collect data via a structured online survey of 385 Chinese hotel guests. Their responses were analyzed using SPSS (v.26) and SmartPLS (3.3.2) software. Findings: The quality of hotel hygiene protocols was found to have a significant impact on hotel brand image, perceived guest satisfaction and perceived guest trust. Hotel brand image, perceived guest satisfaction and perceived guest trust, in turn, demonstrated significant relationships with guests' revisit intention. Research limitations/implications: Theoretically, the present study offers a framework to understand the impact of hotel hygiene protocols on guest revisit intention. Practically, the findings of the study encourage industry practitioners to implement proper safety protocols and standard operating procedures related to COVID-19. Originality/value: Since the beginning of the pandemic, hotel hygiene standards have become a key concern for guests. The current study provides important and meaningful insights into whether and how hotel hygiene quality promotes guest revisit intention. © 2023, International Tourism Studies Association.
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With the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic widely visible in the event industry, event organizers face challenges regarding customer retention in the form of return visits. Because event revisit intention is crucial to predicting event attendees' behavior, this study attempts to examine the likelihood of return for customers who have prior event (state fair) experience. Drawing from previous studies on event-related hazards and safety risks, our proposed framework suggests that a certain type of trust (i.e., social trust and confidence) reduces perceived risk, leading to increased event revisit intention in a time of pandemic. To test hypothesized relationships among trust, perceived risk, and event revisit intention, consumer information was gathered through Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Key findings that emerge include the fact that trust in events is a strong predictor of event revisit intention, while perceived risk mediates the relationship between trust and revisit intention, albeit weakly. These results offer event organizers insights into how to enhance revisit intention in the face of health risks and ongoing uncertainty.
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In an age of uncertainties, especially with the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to examine the influencing factors that impact individuals' decision-making process in terms of revisiting a particular destination. We adopted the psychological ownership and resilience theories to understand and explore tourists' revisit intention and used SPSS PROCESS Macro to test the hypotheses and analyze the results. The results confirm a positive relationship between nostalgic intensity and revisit intention, both directly and through the mediating role of psychological ownership . Additionally, we note that both perceived risk and psychological resilience affect this relationship, albeit as a moderator. Based on these findings, we aim to offer practical implications to revive the tourism sector and suggest a few strategies that may help in the recovery measures. In the process, we contribute to the extant literature on tourism, while exploring the role of psychological ownership and psychological resilience.
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The proliferation of digital technologies and the new era of social distancing have created a flood of opportunities, thereby allowing customers to experience services without interacting with them in person. To provide social distancing services, brands and retailers must first understand how their customers perceive them. This study aims to examine the effects of contactless marketing efforts on satisfaction and revisit intention. An online survey of 182 Korean consumers was conducted when the government implemented social distancing measures. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The researchers developed a model to understand the emerging phenomenon of contactless marketing better and to fill the gap in the available literature. The findings revealed five perceptions of contactless marketing efforts among fashion brands: entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and visual engagement. The benefits of contactless marketing efforts in terms of customer satisfaction and revisit intention have been established. Furthermore, perceived contactless marketing efforts had a greater effect on satisfaction and revisit intention for the identified enjoyment-seeking group than for the identified information-seeking group. These findings can assist researchers in gaining theoretical insights as well as practitioners in managing coherent marketing activities in the digital age. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
Companies that develop social responsibility actions gain legitimacy, which increases consumer trust and revisit intention. However, the effects of both socially responsible actions and legitimacy on customer behavior are not always direct, as they vary depending on the context. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a new context in which emotions play a determining role in consumer behavior. The number of people diagnosed with anxiety continues to grow worldwide, and this is known as a mental health epidemic. The aim of this research is to explore the moderating effect of anxiety on the relationships between social responsibility, legitimacy, and revisit intention. Using a sample of 1,200 supermarket buyers and applying a structural equation system, it is shown that social responsibility and legitimacy influence revisit intention, and the level of anxiety moderates these relationships. This study suggests building trust by adapting business policies to consumerś emotional backgrounds.
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COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses and sectors across the world. The worst affected sector was hospitality, as the people could not travel because of government restrictions. Since travel and tourism constitute a significant portion of GDP across nations, it will be a matter of concern for businesses to know if tourists would be keen to revisit their choice destinations, especially the ones affected by COVID-19. The study used the ‘theory of reasoned action’ and ‘perceived risk theory’ to examine 282 Indian tourists’ revisit intention for destination identity, memorable experiences and subjective norms. SPSS Amos 25 and SPSS PROCESS macro were used to verify the proposed conceptual model and test hypotheses. The results display a positive relationship among destination identity, memorable experience, subjective norms and revisit intention. The association was found to be mediated by the attitude towards revisit intention and moderated by perceived risk, both of which were also found to be significant. Earlier studies have neither been conclusive nor the models very comprehensive;hence, this study makes a substantial contribution in this regard.
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Examination of tourist behaviour during and after the crisis is of great importance for understanding and coping with the harmful effects of the crisis. The study aims to discover the impact of perceived risks, health status, and travel experience on proximal travel intentions during the Covid-19 outbreak. Perceived risks that coronavirus brought reshaped the collective awareness and altered typical travel habits. The research involved 1109 respondents from four Balkan countries who participated in an online survey at the first peak of the pandemic (April 2020). According to the results, perceived risk negatively influenced travel intentions. The study presumed the positive influence of previous travel experience on travel intentions and indicated its negative impact on risk perception. Results showed that subjective health condition positively affected travel intention and had no significant effect on risk perception. The profound uncertainty that the tourism sector experienced is primarily reflected in an immense impact on the travel possibilities and changes in tourist preferences. This study offers an insight into peoples' travel intentions influenced by a global health crisis, reflecting specific risk negation when it comes to the timing of after-crisis travel plans.
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Purpose Drawing on Schumpeter's theory of innovation and stereotype content model, this study aims to arrive at an integrated model that relates destination innovation type, destination innovativeness and revisit intention to uncover more about the drivers and outcomes of destination innovativeness from a consumer-centric perspective. Design/methodology/approach Three studies, including content analysis of news media, an onsite survey and an online survey in Chinese special featured towns, were conducted. Findings This study develops a consumer-centric destination innovation measure. The results reveal that input innovation and product innovation positively influence revisit intention through the serial mediation of destination innovativeness and perceived competence. Research limitations/implications As the data was collected from tourists in China, any generalization of the results to other regions should be made with caution;accordingly, replication is needed to test the proposed model in different cultural contexts. Second, during the onsite data collection period, special featured town destinations were still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected the perceptions of tourists. Third, the second round of data was collected using an online survey, which may have introduced bias due to a potential lack of representativeness. Fourth, some potential missing variables could also influence the links among innovation, destination innovativeness and revisit intention. Originality/value This study presents the first empirical test of the impact of innovation type and innovativeness on tourists' response to tourism destinations. The results of this study could guide destinations to deliver more effective consumer-centric innovations to generate competitiveness.
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The tourism sector was badly affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, creating thereby a need to advance knowledge on developing strategies for bringing tourists to back their favourite destinations. Although studies in tourism literature in the last two years addressed several issues relating to the pandemic, ironically not many have explored the role of tourists' attitude towards a destination. Specifically, there have hardly been any discussions on the tourists' psychological ownership vis-a-vis destination affinity (DA). It's an irony because they play crucial roles in leading tourists to revisit their favourite destinations. Using the 'Psychological Resilience Theory', this study focuses on the Covid-19 crisis and examines the relationship between attitude towards the destination, psychological ownership towards the destination, DA, and desire to revisit the destination post-Covid-19 crisis. Data (N = 274) was collected online from Indian tourists and hypothesis testing was done using PROCESS SPSS macro. The findings of the study indicated the mediating impact of DA and moderating role of psychological resilience. This study offers several important implications for tourism literature and the sector at large.