Somayeh Esmaeilzadeh; Narges Delafrooz; Ali Gholipur; Nasrolah Molaei
Abstract
Introduction
The tourism industry has significantly improved local economies in the last two decades. Considering the importance of tourism and its competitive market in the world, tourist destinations compete head-to-head in order to attract tourists and increase their share of the industry’s ...
Read More
Introduction
The tourism industry has significantly improved local economies in the last two decades. Considering the importance of tourism and its competitive market in the world, tourist destinations compete head-to-head in order to attract tourists and increase their share of the industry’s income. However, some recent malpractices, such as unfair or fraudulent behavior and failure to provide services as promised, have exacerbated the crisis of trust in tourism as an important issue worthy of further attention. Trust is a prerequisite for improving many marketing variables such as loyalty, travel intent, destination attachment, and repeat visits. To date, a comprehensive scale for constructing tourist trust in a tourist destination has not been provided. Most researchers in tourism studies tend to borrow trust measurement tools from other sectors such as social sciences, branding, and e-commerce. Some prefer to develop a scale for a specific area of tourism, for example, for medical tourism and shopping. Moreover, the design of some current scales seems to be based on a qualitative approach lacking credibility. A systematic literature review also showed that there is no comprehensive scale for constructing tourist trust in a tourist destination. To fill this research gap, the present study deems it necessary to develop a more comprehensive and multidimensional scale for tourist trust that considers different stakeholders.
Materials and Methods
Based on a mixed methods design, the present research used grounded theory to analyze the data and develop a trust measurement scale. The statistical population in the qualitative section consisted of academic experts, policymakers, and planners in the field of tourism in Gilan. The purposive sampling method was used to select a sample of 12 participants. The study also relied on the criteria of validity, transferability, reliability, and verification to assess the reliability of the interview interpretation. Concerning the quantitative aspect, convenience sampling was used to select the statistical population of 389 tourists visiting different cities of Gilan Province. The research employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to ensure the validity of the structures and identify the main dimensions and factors shaping the tourist trust.
Results and Discussion
In the qualitative stage, six main categories were found to be constitutive of trust in the tourism industry. They included the trust in tourist destination management, travel agencies, tourism service providers, tourist destination residents, other tourists, and digital content. Concerning the quantitative aspect, 389 incoming tourists to Gilan Province were analyzed. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the six research structures are adequately accurate in measuring the relevant structures.
Conclusion
Considering the findings of previous studies, the present research proves to be innovative. The proposed scale for measuring tourist trust is relatively comprehensive, covering the different perspectives of destination stakeholders (management, travel agencies, service providers, residents, other tourists, and digital content) at both institutional and interpersonal levels. The scale is valuable given the fact that tourism research on trust solely focuses on a single or several groups of organizational stakeholders (e.g., the government) which are studied by tourism institutions or travel agencies among tourists, residents, and travel guides. The proposed measurement indices for each dimension also cover more components compared to similar research attempts. In addition, the proposed scale is presented with an overview, and unlike previous studies, it is not restricted to a specific type of tourism, such as e-tourism, medical tourism, or shopping tourism. It is thus a more reliable scale for measuring various dimensions of trust.
Armin Goli; Ali Gholipour Solimani; Narges Delafrooz
Abstract
AbstractThe present study aimed to identify the dimensions of social media storytelling power and investigate the role of social media storytelling power and evaluate its dimensions in tourism destinations. This study has a hybrid approach. The statistical population in the qualitative section consists ...
Read More
AbstractThe present study aimed to identify the dimensions of social media storytelling power and investigate the role of social media storytelling power and evaluate its dimensions in tourism destinations. This study has a hybrid approach. The statistical population in the qualitative section consists of all the stories of tourist destinations in Ramsar and Qeshm on social media, of which 62 and 108 stories were selected for these two destinations by judgmental sampling, respectively. In addition, the research strategy is narrative analysis. The method of data collection was online written stories. The dimensions of identified social media storytelling power were provided in a network of themes and conceptual models of these two destinations. Then, the research strategy was performed as a survey in the quantitative section. The statistical population included all tourists who had read the tourism stories of these two destinations on social media. The sampling method is available non-probability sampling, and the sample size was estimated to be 450 for each destination according to Morgan's Table. The data collection method was an e-questionnaire that was sent to tourists. The results of structural equation modeling by Smart PLS software showed that the dimensions of literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism, ethics for Ramsar destination. And the dimensions of attractiveness and attention, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative knowledge, Economic, moral, trust and credibility, and tourism for Qeshm destination affect the development of these destinations. IntroductionToday, the tourism industry is considered one of the driving forces in the global economy and has developed significantly in the world. Accordingly, tourism destinations seek to attract more and more tourists. However, increasing changes in the tourism sector due to current technological advances, changing needs of tourists, and their interest in sharing their travel experiences in the form of storytelling on online social media force tourism destinations to draw a new framework based on a systemic approach in tourism destination management and marketing strategy. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the dimensions of the power of storytelling on social media and then evaluate these dimensions in the development of tourism destinations in the tourist cities of Ramsar and Qeshm Island.MethodologyThe present research has been conducted with a hybrid approach (qualitative-quantitative). The qualitative research strategy is narrative analysis. The statistical population in the qualitative section includes all the stories of Ramsar and Qeshm tourist destinations in online social media (sites and blogs), in which 62 and 108 stories were selected for these two destinations by judgmental sampling method, respectively. Then, in the quantitative section, the research strategy was performed as a survey. The statistical population consisted of all tourists who had read the tourism stories of these two destinations on social media. The sampling method as a non-probability available sampling was used, and according to Morgan's Table, the sample size was 450 people for each destination. The data collection method was an e-questionnaire. The data analysis method was structural equation modeling and path analysis technique by Smart PLS software.Discussion and conclusionThe present study investigated social media storytelling power and its dimensions in developing tourism destinations in Ramsar and Qeshm Island with a hybrid approach. In the qualitative part, the dimensions of storytelling power - tourism in Ramsar city in online social media include literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism and ethics; In addition, the dimensions of tourism storytelling power in Qeshm Island in online social media were the dimensions of attractiveness, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust and credibility.Furthermore, the dimensions of tourism storytelling power on Qeshm Island on online social media were attractiveness, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust, and credibility dimensions. In the quantitative section, the results indicated that the dimensions included literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism, morality, and the dimensions of tourism storytelling power in Qeshm Island in online social media consisted of attractiveness and attention, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust and credibility knowledges, which have been effective on the development of Ramsar and Qeshm tourism destinations.ConclusionComparing these results in terms of similarity of some dimensions in these two destinations, it should be stated that the path coefficient of the literary knowledge aspect in the story of Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are equal to 0.406 and 0.122, respectively, indicating the greater impact of this aspect of the story on the development of Ramsar tourist destination. Considering attractiveness and dynamism, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.235, and attractiveness and attention dimension in Qeshm story is 0.237, suggesting that the effectiveness of this dimension of the story on Qeshm tourism destination development has been more than that of Ramsar. Cognitively, the story of Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are equal to 0.372 and 0.322, respectively, representing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourism destination. Emotionally, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.432, and that of the Qeshm destination is 0.174, showing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourism destination. Regarding trust and credibility, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.315, and that of Qeshm is 0.308, which shows the higher impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourist destination. Considering the tourism dimension, it is worth noting that although the number of tourism dimensions in the script of Qeshm destination tourism stories was more than that if Ramsar, comparing the similar aspects of tourism in these two destinations indicates that the path coefficient in Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are 0.497 and 0.360, respectively, indicating the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of Ramsar tourist destination. Regarding the ethical dimension, the path coefficient in Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are 0.295 and 0.308, respectively, showing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of Qeshm tourism destination.
