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 ...
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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.
AliAkbar Noorian; Reza Ravanmehr; Ali Harounabadi; Fatemeh Nouri
Abstract
Nowadays, in the age of communication, the production and transmission of information are increasing rapidly. There are also many destinations in the tourism sector that are worth traveling, but increasing the number of suitable tourist destinations through the high volume of choices makes it harder ...
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Nowadays, in the age of communication, the production and transmission of information are increasing rapidly. There are also many destinations in the tourism sector that are worth traveling, but increasing the number of suitable tourist destinations through the high volume of choices makes it harder to choose the desired option. Therefore, the prioritization and personalization of the information have become a necessity for providing appropriate and effective recommendation. In this paper, considering the target user's location, a tourist recommendation system is proposed to suggest a perfect place for tourist accommodation using context information, trust criteria and graph clustering to increase the accuracy of recommendations. The experiments and evaluations on TripAdvisor dataset show that the proposed method suggests better results than other state-of-the-art methods.
Abolghasem Ebrahimi; moslem bagheri; amene pakdelian
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to provide a model to identify the relationship between word of mouth and tourists’ trust with customer-based brand equity in the hotel industry of Shiraz. This research is descriptive-survey and non-random sampling was used. The Sample size is 384 Iranian tourists ...
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The purpose of this study is to provide a model to identify the relationship between word of mouth and tourists’ trust with customer-based brand equity in the hotel industry of Shiraz. This research is descriptive-survey and non-random sampling was used. The Sample size is 384 Iranian tourists who traveled to Shiraz and used hotels and accommodation. At first, indicators related to the dimensions of tourists’ trust in the offline domain were extracted, categorized and finalized by systematic review. Then a questionnaire was designed. After distributing the questionnaire, data were analyzed using SPSS and Smart PLS software. By systematic review, three dimensions of destination characteristics, destination staff characteristics and tourist characteristics were considered for trust. The findings indicate that tourist trust mediates the relationship between word-of-mouth advertising and customer-based brand equity.
Mohamad Saleh Torkestani; Fahimeh Mafakheri; Fatemeh Haghighat
Abstract
Nowadays, despite the advantages of the Internet promotion in tourism industry, it is necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge of the concept of electronic loyalty and its affecting factors. This study examines the effect of loyalty and trust in Ecommerce on Shopping online for tourism ...
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Nowadays, despite the advantages of the Internet promotion in tourism industry, it is necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge of the concept of electronic loyalty and its affecting factors. This study examines the effect of loyalty and trust in Ecommerce on Shopping online for tourism products and services. The population of the study were customers of a well-known travel agency, who were using online services of the agency. Simple random sampling method was used in order to distribute the questionnaire. Also, Cochran formula was applied to determine the sample size, and the result was 82. Data analysis was done by using Smart PLS and the statistical method used in this study is Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that functionality and perceived security of the website impact on trust and satisfaction, also cost impacts on satisfaction, but cost has no effect on trust and this hypothesis was rejected. The results confirmed the impact of trust and satisfaction on loyalty.
Seyedeh Zeinab Ebrahimzadeh Ganji; Meisam Shirkhodaie; Abolhasan Hosseini
Abstract
Trust is the beginning point of any relationship and a key element in trade. The relationship between buyer and seller in an online trade is not apart from this .Trusting plays an important role in attracting tourists to Iran through E-tourism. It can be used as an appropriate strategy ...
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Trust is the beginning point of any relationship and a key element in trade. The relationship between buyer and seller in an online trade is not apart from this .Trusting plays an important role in attracting tourists to Iran through E-tourism. It can be used as an appropriate strategy to create competitive advantages. Therefore, the purpose of present study is to investigate the factors affecting E- trust in tourism sector. The research is descriptive and correlational. The population of this study were the users which at least once have used online tourism services and the sample size was 388 .A questionnaire was applied in order to collect the data. In addition, SPSS 16 and Amos18 were used to analyze the research data. The result showed that user characteristics and website characteristics have a positive impact on electronic trust. Thus, by identifying these factors, suggestions can be provided to increase users’ trust toward travel agencies.
Alireza Hadadian; Amirhossein Bagherieh-Mashhadi; Fatemeh Honarvar-Bavejdan
Volume 9, Issue 27 , October 2014, , Pages 23-46
Abstract
Today, online purchasing of airline ticket experience substantial growth in Iran in which understanding customer behavior about this technology is necessary for airlines to improve marketing and sales strategies that enable them to retain and attract customers. So, the present study aimed to gain more ...
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Today, online purchasing of airline ticket experience substantial growth in Iran in which understanding customer behavior about this technology is necessary for airlines to improve marketing and sales strategies that enable them to retain and attract customers. So, the present study aimed to gain more insight into the most important factors affecting air travelers’ acceptance to use online reservation system of airline ticket. Hence, this paper is application and descriptive–correlation in terms of purpose and methodology. The statistical population includes departure passengers of Mashhad int’l airport in domestic flights of September and sample size calculated for 215 passengers. In addition the data gathered by questionnaire about conceptual model that including trust, price, perceived risk, usefulness and website quality; were analyzed using structural equation analysis and Lisrel8.8 Software. The findings indicate that the three factors namely website quality, usefulness and trust directly and perceived risk indirectly affect the willingness of online shopping. Moreover, significant effect of price on the willingness of air travelers to shop online has not been confirmed.
nader mazlumi; seyed hasan jalali
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, , Pages 25-48
Abstract
Tourism policy making, as an essential pillar in sustainable tourism development, is a fundamental priority for researchers to explore. In this vein, the current research probes into Iran's tourism policies, namely Tourism Development Vision and comprehensive national and regional plans, and highlights ...
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Tourism policy making, as an essential pillar in sustainable tourism development, is a fundamental priority for researchers to explore. In this vein, the current research probes into Iran's tourism policies, namely Tourism Development Vision and comprehensive national and regional plans, and highlights the need for identifying factors affecting the success or failure of these plans. The main questions dealt with in this study are about what and how social networks’ websites influence the success of tourism policies in the country. A total of 357 foreign tourists visiting Isfahan were chosen randomly. Subsequently, correlation test was performed on the data collected through structured questionnaires. Findings indicate that social networks’ websites influence trust and risk in tourism; and interaction of these two factors with travel intention ultimately affects the success or failure of Iran's tourism policymaking.
ali atafar; javad khazai pul; mehdi pur mostafa khoshk rudi
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, , Pages 133-156
Abstract
Development of information technology has influenced various domains of business and human life. Tourism industry as one of the world's most profitable industries has seen new experiences and gone through evolutions in recent years, taking giant steps to adapt to modern technologies. The purpose of this ...
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Development of information technology has influenced various domains of business and human life. Tourism industry as one of the world's most profitable industries has seen new experiences and gone through evolutions in recent years, taking giant steps to adapt to modern technologies. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that affect adoption of online hotel booking. An extension of the technology acceptance model constitutes the conceptual framework of the research. Statistical population involves all Noshahr county’s hotel customers, out of which a sample of 226 individuals where randomly selected. The validity of the model has been proved by the structural equation modeling. Also, path analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the study variables. Results of the structural equation modeling indicate that attitude and perceived usefulness are the main factors affecting the intention towards online hotel booking. Also, the added variables of trust, credibility, and consistency influence the intention by way of attitude towards online hotel booking.
angella ameli; farzad fakhimi
Abstract
This research tries to investigate the relationships among factors of satisfaction, image, trust, effective relations, and loyalty. The statistical population of this research consists of members of the Iran Air’s Sky Gift Club (In three levels of Gold, Silver and Blue). As for the sampling technique, ...
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This research tries to investigate the relationships among factors of satisfaction, image, trust, effective relations, and loyalty. The statistical population of this research consists of members of the Iran Air’s Sky Gift Club (In three levels of Gold, Silver and Blue). As for the sampling technique, random sampling is used; and questionnaire is employed as data gathering tool. For the reliability testing we get use of split-half technique. Additionally, tests of Chi-square, Friedman and Spearman's correlation coefficient are conducted for examining the research questions and obtaining the results. Findings demonstrate that factors of satisfaction, image, trust, and effective relations, have influence on passengers’ loyalty in every one of the three levels, although differing in priority of impacts. According to the findings, for Golden Passengers the most effective factor on the loyalty is trust, while the least effective belongs to image. In the Silver level, effective relations have the most and image has the least influence on loyalty. In the Blue level, satisfaction and effective relations are of the most and the least influences respectively.
