TOURISM ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS: THE EFFECTS OF TYPICAL ENDORSEMENT AND MESSAGE SOURCE ON ATTITUDE TOWARD ADVERTISING, ATTITUDE TOWARD HOLIDAY DESTINATION AND VISIT INTENTION

THE MODERATING ROLE OF TRAVEL EXPERIENCE AND PERSUASION KNOWLEDGE

Wetenschappelijk artikel

Aantal woorden: 9735

Maike van den Hoven Stamnummer: 01605416 Promotor: dr. Laura Herrewijn Copromotor: Marijke De Veirman

Masterproef voorgelegd voor het behalen van de graad master in de richting Communicatiewetenschappen afstudeerrichting Communicatiemanagement

Academiejaar: 2016 – 2017

ABSTRACT – English

This study contributes to the research in tourism advertising effectiveness by examining the influence of endorsement and message source on Attitude toward the advertising (Aad), Attitude toward the holiday destination (Ahd) and Visit intention of the holiday destination (Vi), using the Dual Mediation Hypothesis (DMH) by Mackenzie, Lutz & Belch (1986) as a guideline. It is argued that the use of an endorser and the use of a message source with high credibility will positively affect attitudes and behavior intentions. Furthermore, this study also attempts to identify the moderating roles of travel experience and persuasion knowledge. To achieve the objectives, this study used a 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design in which endorsement type (endorser/no endorser) and message source (NTO/Influencer) were manipulated. In total, four conditions were created and randomly distributed among 213 participants. The results indicate a marginally significant difference between the endorser/no endorser condition on Aad, but did no significant difference on Ahd and Vi. Moreover, no significant difference was found between the NTO and Influencer condition on Aad, Ahd and Vi and neither on the interaction effect of endorsement and message source. However, results reconfirmed the DMH model, by showing significant direct effects of Aad on Ahd, Ahd on Vi and a mediating effect of Aad on Vi via Ahd. No significant effect was found of Aad and Vi. Moreover, the results established a significant moderating effect of travel experience on endorsement on Aad, but not on Ahd and Vi. Finally, persuasion knowledge did not significantly moderate the effects of message source on Aad, Adh and Vi.

ABSTRACT – Nederlands

Deze studie draagt bij aan het onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van toerismereclames door de effecten van endorsement en message source op de Attitude tegenover de advertentie (Aad), de Attitude tegenover de vakantiebestemming (Ahd) en Bezoekintentie van de vakantiebestemming (Vi) te meten. De Dual Mediation Hypothesis (DMH) door Mackenzie, Lutz & Belch (1986) wordt in dit onderzoek als theoretisch model toegepast. In deze studie wordt geponeerd dat het gebruik van een endorser en het gebruik van een message source met hoge geloofwaardigheid de attitudes and gedragsintenties positief beïnvloeden. Bovendien heeft deze studie geprobeerd de modererende rol van reiservaring en persuasieve kennis te identificeren. Om deze doelstellingen te verwezenlijken, heeft deze studie een experimenteel 2 x 2 between subjects design toegepast, waarbij endorsement (endorser/geen endorser) en message source (National Tourism Organization/Influencer) gemanipuleerd werden. In totaal werden vier condities gecreëerd en willekeurig verdeeld onder de 213 deelnemers. De resultaten wijzen op een marginaal significant verschil tussen de endorser/geen endorser conditie op Aad, maar geen significant verschil op Ahd en Vi. Bovendien is er geen significant verschil gevonden tussen de NTO en Influencer conditie op Aad, Ahd en Vi en ook niet op het interactie effect van endorsement en message source. Echter, resultaten bevestigen het DMH model, aangezien er significante directe effecten van Aad op Ahd, Ahd op Vi en een bemiddelend effect van Aad op Vi via Ahd zijn aangetoond. Er is geen significant effect gevonden van Aad op Vi. Bovendien bleek er een significant modererend effect van reiservaring op endorsement op Aad te zijn, maar niet op endorsement op Ahd en Vi. Ten slotte heeft persuasieve kennis als moderator geen significant effect op message source op Aad, Adh en Vi.

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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ...... 5 2 Study set up and hypotheses ...... 8 2.1 Advertising effectiveness ...... 8 2.1.1 Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad) ...... 9 2.1.2 Attitude toward brand / Attitude toward holiday destination (Ab/Ahd) ...... 9 2.1.3 Purchase intention / Visit intention (Pi/Vi) ...... 10 2.2 Endorsement ...... 10 2.3 Message source ...... 12 2.4 The Interaction effects of Endorsement and Message Source ...... 13 2.5 The underlying relationships between the dependent variables ...... 14 2.6 The moderating effects of Travel Experience and Persuasion Knowledge ...... 15 2.6.1 Travel Experience as a moderator of Endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 15 2.6.2 Persuasion Knowledge as a moderator of Message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 16 2.7 Conceptual model ...... 17 3 Methodology ...... 18 3.1 Stimulus Material ...... 18 3.1.1 Dependent Variables ...... 18 3.1.2 Moderators ...... 19 3.1.3 Pre-test ...... 19 3.1.4 Main experiment ...... 20 3.2 Procedure ...... 20 3.3 Participants ...... 21 3.4 Sample Characteristics ...... 21 4 Results ...... 21 4.1 Randomization check ...... 21 4.2 The main effects of Endorsement and Message source ...... 21 4.2.1 The effects of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 21 4.2.2 The effects of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 22 4.3 The interaction effect of Endorsement and Message source ...... 23 4.4 The direct and mediating effects of Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 23 4.5 Travel experience as a moderator of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 23 4.6 Persuasion knowledge as a moderator of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi ...... 24 5 Conclusion and Discussion ...... 26 6 Limitations and future research ...... 30 7 Reference list ...... 31

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8 Appendices ...... 35 8.1 Appendix 1 ...... 35 8.1.1 Survey questions ...... 35 8.2 Appendix 2 ...... 37 8.2.1 Endorser/Influencer condition ...... 37 8.2.2 No Endorser/Influencer condition ...... 38 8.2.3 Endorser/NTO condition ...... 39 8.2.4 No Endorser/NTO condition ...... 40

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1 Introduction

The tourism branch has experienced continued growth over the last decades and became one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. In the first nine months of 2016, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2016) reported that holiday destinations around the world already welcomed 956 million international tourists, which already makes it the 7th consecutive year of above-average growth since the crisis year of 2010. Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce and this goes hand in hand with increasing diversification and competition among holiday destinations. This increasing competition is well visible within the international, national and regional marketing of holiday destinations. An extensive research done by the World Travel & Tourism Council (2012), focusing on the amount of money spent by National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) and Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in 62 countries, showed that the total marketing spending exceeded 12 billion US dollars in one year. NTOs and DMOs are responsible for international and domestic tourism promotion and marketing, within and outside their country. Their marketing efforts are carried out through different channels, such as e-marketing and social media, advertising on television and radio, brochures and mailings, fairs, trade shows and research and data collection. Most marketing budgets focus on promoting the home country’s culture and cities or concentrate on rural areas and nature, depending on the focus and reputation of the country. The survey showed that these 62 countries carried out 562 promotions and marketing operations in foreign countries. A current trend in the promotion and marketing of tourism destinations is the growing popularity of (picture-based) social media networks. Especially Instagram is being used by numerous NTOs (often using the name ´Visit+[the name of the city or country]’), attracting and involving potential customers by sharing pictures of the country’s national heritage, saving a lot of money on their marketing/media budget in the meantime (Hanan & Putit, 2013). To illustrate, Australia’s official Instagram account has an astounding 2.6 million followers on their Instagram account (“Official Instagram account Tourism Australia,” 2017) (Figure 1) and Brussels, for example, has 62.2 thousand followers (“Offical Instagram account VisitBrussels,” 2017) (Figure 2).

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Figure 2 Official Instagram account Tourism Australia, 2017

Figure 2 Official Instagram account VisitBrussels, 2017

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Accordingly, the advertising of holiday destinations, both online and offline, plays a significant role in peoples’ holiday destination decision making process and has been considered a central route in persuading consumers to visit a particular holiday destination (Nelson, 2005). As a result, extensive research has been done on how media representations of holiday destinations have affected the way tourists identify and judge a holiday destination (Iwashita, 2006; Morgan, Pritchard, & Pride, 2002; Saarinen, 2004). For example, Saarinen (2004) and Morgan et al. (2002) showed that nature and landmarks of a country have become a great focus of destination marketing and indicated that the increasing circulation of natural areas in tourist brochures and advertisements have played a role in how tourists perceive nature in holiday destinations. Moreover, Iwashita (2006) researched the effects of popular movies that include typical tourist landmarks of a country of interest on the perception of that specific country by tourists. Findings showed that movies can promote, confirm and strengthen particular images, views and identities of destinations in a very powerful way. Although there are various ways of marketing a specific holiday destination, representations of holiday destinations where the main focus is on the natural features of the country is undeniably dominant (Fleming & Roth, 1991; Hunter, 2008; Mowforth & Munt, 1998). Over the last decades, tourism advertisements have become more visual, less textual, more user-centered and less informational. Visuals of places and sites are used to educate and persuade viewers and to market products, locations and services to a wide variety of consumers (Fleming & Roth, 1991). Similarly, the research executed by Mowforth & Munt (1998) showed that advertisements and commercials more often focus on place promotion. Only a selective and specific image of a place is promoted and the native inhabitants are represented incidental or left out of the picture. In addition, Hunter (2008) collected tourist brochures and guidebooks of 21 destinations, analyzing the photographs presented. Findings showed that out of 375 photographs, 207 (55,2%) did not include people. Likewise, concentrating once more on numerous NTOs Instagram accounts, the dominant pictures shared there, are as well, pictures of landscapes, deserted cities, national heritage or native animals (Figure 1,2). However, this way of advertising contradicts the findings of several researchers on more general marketing strategies (Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000; Yoon & Choi, 2005). They have concluded that advertisements in which a product and a person appear have a more positive advertisement effect than advertisements in which only the product appears. Moreover, Bakhskhi, Shamma, & Gilbert (2014) concentrated their research on the effects of ´Face Photos´ on Instagram, showing that pictures with faces are 38% more likely to receive likes and 32% more likely to receive comments. While some research has been done on the effects that tourism advertising has on people, such as the effects of gender representation in tourism advertising (Pritchard, 2001; Sirakaya & Sonmez, 2000) or on the socio cultural impacts of tourism (Dogan, 1989; Walpole & Goodwin, 2001),

7 none of these researches have discussed the importance, usefulness and effectiveness of an endorser portrayed in a tourism advertisement. Just one study analyzed the effects of travel images shared via Facebook on the amount of comments by friends. Results showed that travel pictures that include humans were more likely to receive comments from a friend than pictures that only portrayed a landscape or landmark (White, 2010). Consequently, this study combines the research done on the effectiveness of endorsers in product advertisement and the research done on holiday destination advertising, to examine whether the effectiveness of endorsers in product advertisement also applies for holiday destination advertising, where, thus far, photographs of nature, landmarks and heritage are dominant. Moreover, focusing on the current trend of using Instagram as an advertising tool for NTOs, this study will also evaluate the impact of message source on the advertising effect. NTOs more often feel the pressure of Social Media Influencers, who share their personal experience of a holiday destination, hereby also influencing potential travelers. These influencers are seen as more honest, credible and trustworthy, thereby having a greater persuasion effect on consumers. Consequently, marketers even seek for collaborations with these influencers in order to stay in control of their brand message (Booth, Matic, & Matic, 2011; Gillin, 2008). The influence of message source is often being researched in the context of online review sites, focusing on the effects of message source credibility (manager or brand vs. consumer) on attitudes and behavior intentions (Kim & Kim, 2014; Wu & Wang, 2011), however, no study up until now has focused on the impact of message source (NTO or Influencer) on Instagram, on attitudes and behaviour intentions. Furthermore, this study will also research the interaction effect of Endorsement and Message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi and will look into the moderating effect of Travel Experience on Endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi and the moderating effect of Persuasion Knowledge on Message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi.

2 Study set up and hypotheses

2.1 Advertising effectiveness

The Dual Mediation Hypothesis (Figure 3), first introduced by Mackenzie, Lutz & Belch (1986), best explains the process behind advertisement effectiveness. This model shows five key variables that can measure the effects of an advertisement, namely ad cognition, attitude toward the advertisement, brand cognition, attitude toward brand and purchase intention. Attitude is defined as an individual’s internal evaluation of an object and has been a very important concept in marketing research for many decades as it is considered a relatively stable factor in predicting consumers’ behavior intentions

8 towards a product (Sallam & Wahid, 2012). Especially Attitude toward advertisement (Aad), Attitude toward brand (Ab) and Purchase intention (Pi) are researched numerous times and have proven their usefulness in explaining advertisement effectiveness (Goldsmith et al., 2000; Huang, Chou, & Lin, 2010; Li, Daugherty, & Biocca, 2002). Hence, this research will focus on these three concept to further investigate the effectiveness of tourism advertisements.

2.1.1 Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad)

Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad) is defined as a tendency to respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner, to a particular advertising stimulus, during a particular exposure situation (Sallam & Wahid, 2012). Especially the visuals used in an advertisement are important and will motivate the consumer to take a closer look. An advertisement that provides a good picture will create a higher ad cognition, which will lead to a more favorable Aad. The consumer will experience certain feelings from watching these advertisements, such as “the advertisement seems authentic, credible and real” (Sallam & Wahid, 2012). These favorable or unfavorable feelings towards an advertising stimulus will be transferred to the brand that is being portrayed and is therefore one of the influential indicators of advertising effectiveness. NTOs have understood the importance of using strong visuals to motivate consumers and are currently focusing more on picture based media channels, such as movies or Instagram, to advertise a holiday destination. An attitude toward advertisement can therefore be interpreted in a very broad way, since an advertisement no longer refers to traditional media outlets, such as a print advertisement, but also refers to advertising via blogs, Instagram posts or YouTube videos (Hanan & Putit, 2013).

2.1.2 Attitude toward brand / Attitude toward holiday destination (Ab/Ahd)

Attitude toward brand (Ab) is a predisposition to respond in a favourable or unfavourable manner to a particular brand after the advertising stimulus has been shown to the individual (Sallam & Wahid, 2012). Although the definition of Ab sounds very similar to the definition of Aad, they are considered as two separate variables. Aad plays an important role in affecting the consumer’s Ab; the more favourable the Aad, the better Ab will be. The consumers’ affective response to an advertisement will influence the tendency to accept the brand claim that is being made in the advertisement. In this research, the brand being promoted is a holiday destination, thus the attitude toward the advertisement will have a direct effect on the attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd).

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2.1.3 Purchase intention / Visit intention (Pi/Vi)

The importance of researching the effects of advertising on behavioral intentions, particularly focusing on purchase intention (Pi) is well known in marketing research. Purchase intention continues to be an important concept in marketing and is often an indicator of the actual purchase of a product (Goldsmith et al., 2000; Huang, Chou, & Lin, 2010; Li, Daugherty, & Biocca, 2002). These researchers have found a direct positive effect between Aad and Pi, which was initially not indicated in the original DMH model. This direct relation is added in figure 3, highlighted with a red dashed line. Moreover, they also found a positive direct effect of Ab on Pi and an indirect effect between Aad and Pi, with Ab being the mediator ( Goldsmith et al., 2000; Huang et al., 2010; Sallam & Wahid, 2012). Within tourism studies, however, the concept of Pi is often altered into (re)visit intentions of the destination (Chen & Chen, 2010; Chen & Tung, 2014; Phillips & Jang, 2007). Because a tourism product consists of a bundle of tangible and intangible components, such as the travel, the accommodation and the service provided, and not just one single item, it becomes more challenging to measure Pi (Chen & Chen, 2010). This study will therefore focus on the visit intention of a holiday destination (Vi) as part of advertising effectiveness.

Figure 3 Dual Mediation Hypothesis – including a direct relation between Aad and VI

2.2 Endorsement

A well-researched concept in advertising effectiveness is the influence of an endorser portrayed in an advertisement. An endorsement includes any advertising message, which consumers are likely to believe, reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings or experience of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser. There are three basic advertising principles (1) The endorser must be truthful and not misleading (2) The advertiser should have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product and the ad must clearly disclose the generally expected

10 results in de showed situation and (3) When there is a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed. More specifically, a typical consumer endorser is defined as an ordinary person who has no special expert knowledge beyond normal use of the product (Federal Trade Commission, 2009) An often used theory to explain the effectiveness of endorsement is the Balance Theory by Heider (1958), as adapted to a marketing context. This theory proposes that the effectiveness of an endorsement rests on the balance between the consumers’ perceptions of the brand, their perceptions of the endorser and the endorsed product. By selecting the appropriate endorser, a brand can create the meaning they wish the specific product possesses. The actual transfer of meaning is realized by the consumer, who must see the connection between the image of the endorser and the benefits of the product. Hence, the stronger the connection between the consumer, the endorser and the endorsed product, the higher the advertising effect will be. This implies that the use of different types of endorsers, or no endorser, will stimulate different reactions and accordingly, different advertising effects will result. As such, many researchers have studied the effectiveness of various types of endorsement. In particular, the use of a celebrity as endorser is a well-researched advertising technique in product and brand marketing. Brands are profiting from the public’s interest in celebrities and the belief in a personal connection with them (Glover, 2009; Goldsmith et al., 2000; Hsu & McDonald, 2002; Yoon & Choi, 2005). Other scholars have researched the effects of cartoon characters (Stout & Moon, 1990), employees (Hsieh & Chang, 2005), corporations and organizations (Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000) or typical consumer endorsers (Yoon & Choi, 2005). These researchers all found that advertisements that included (the right) endorsement, whether a celebrity, expert, association or typical consumer endorser, all had a more positive advertisement effect than an advertisement without an endorser. However, none of these researchers have focused on the effects of endorsement in promoting a holiday destination. A holiday destination is, like milk, sports products or watches, yet another product or service and serves and satisfies a demand. A product often has a combination of tangible and intangible attributes that can be sold and thus bought by a consumer (WTTC, 2012). In this case, NTOs and DMOs mostly try to sell intangible benefits, such as the idea of relaxation and escaping the buzz of everyday life in a place where no other people are present. This vision is transmitted to their destination marketing, where the majority of the images used have a clear absence of people (Hunter, 2008). Accordingly, the following hypothesis investigates the positive effects of endorsement on a holiday destination advertisement:

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H1: A holiday destination advertisement with endorser will create a more favorable attitude toward the ad (H1a), the holiday destination (H1b) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H1c) than a tourism holiday advertisement without endorser.

2.3 Message source

Consistent with theories of attitude formation and persuasion of endorsement, findings suggest that the message source, thus the sender of the message, also affects the impressions and attitude toward an advertisement or product, perceived by consumers. Any form of communication that consumers perceive to be twisted toward the interest of the source will create scepticism toward this particular source (Wu & Wang, 2011). Thus, trust in the information provided is a direct result of the trust in the source itself. If the source has credibility, consumers will believe the message more quickly and this will play an important role in the persuasion effect of the message. Particularly expertise and trustworthiness are two of the most important factors that determine the influence and credibility of the source and will show whether or not the source has product knowledge, makes valid claims about the product or brand and is believable (Silvera & Austad, 2004). Expertise refers to professional knowledge the sender has about the product and trustworthiness is defined as the degree of confidence and acceptance receivers have towards the message sender (Wu & Wang, 2011). Sparks, Perkins, & Buckley (2013) concentrated on this persuasive theory by examining the message source of online review on websites, comparing user-generated with firm-generated information about a product. They found that consumers tend to place more trust in information posted by people who are (seemingly) unconnected to the organization. Consumers often consider reviews of products, by other consumers, to be more trustworthy and credible than information provided by suppliers of the product or service, most likely because they consider consumer-provided information to be more honest. Moreover, Silvera & Austad (2004) manipulated the message source by telling participants that the source was either paid by the organization (low credibility) or was voluntarily promoting the branded product (high credibility) and showed that highly credibly sources are more effective than less credible sources in generating positive advertisement effects. Currently, there is a big focus on a new type of message source; the Social Media influencer, who shapes the audiences’ attitudes through blogs, tweets, pictures and other use of social media. These influencers are often unknown, ordinary consumers that share their experience with a brand or product on Social Media and have the potential to reach thousands of possible consumers. They are seen as an authentic and trustworthy source among their audience and rely on the success of the

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(electronic) word-of-mouth strategy (Freberg et al, 2011). Also, the audience is more engaged and responsive in comparison to an advertisement that is published by the sponsoring advertiser. Consequently, marketers feel that they are losing control of their brand message and more often seek for collaborations with these influencers (Booth, Matic, & Matic, 2011; Gillin, 2008). These collaborations are clearly visible in the tourism advertising industry. NTOs are now more often using footage which is shot by locals (Tourism Nova Scotia, “If you only knew campaign”, 2016) or by asking influencers to share campaign visuals using their own social media channels, while using a particular hashtag (Visit Britain, “Home of amazing moments campaign”, 2016). Nonetheless, no research has been done on the effects of an Influencer versus an NTO concerning holiday destination advertising. Based on previous research, it can be argued that an Influencer who shares an image of a holiday destination is seen as a more trustworthy person with expertise and is therefore a highly credible message source, whereas an NTO is seen as a less credible message source since their marketing persuasion is often more clear to the consumer and thus less trustworthy. Consequently, we can state the following hypothesis:

H2: A holiday destination advertisement shared by an Influencer will create a more favorable attitude toward the ad (H2a), the holiday destination (H2b) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H2c) than a holiday destination advertisement shared by an NTO.

2.4 The Interaction effects of Endorsement and Message Source

Although it is evident that both endorsement and the message source have by themselves a significant influence on the effectiveness of advertisements, no studies have thus far examined the interaction between these two independent variables on Aad, Ahd and Vi. Kim and Kim (2014) suggested that combining persuasive factors is likely to affect an individual’s attitude or behavioural intention related to a particular issue more strongly and have found an interaction effect between message source and message framing. Results showed that individuals who were exposed to a positive frame and a highly credible source expressed more positive responses in comparison to the other conditions. Moreover, Chu and Kamal (2013) revealed an interactive effect between the perceived trustworthiness of bloggers and argument quality. They found that when the trustworthiness of the blogger is high, the quality of the argument has a greater impact on brand attitudes than when a perceived blogger trustworthiness is low. When combining the theories of endorsement effect and message source and taking into consideration the previously found interaction effects in related studies, an interaction effect between the message source and endorsement is expected, leading to the following hypotheses:

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H3: Endorsement and Message Source have an interaction effect on advertisement effectiveness. H3a: A holiday destination advertisement that includes an endorser, shared by an influencer, will generate the highest attitude toward the ad (H3a.1), the holiday destination (H3a.2) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H3a.3). H3b: A holiday destination advertisement that includes an endorser, shared by a National Tourism Organization will generate high attitude toward the ad (H3b.1), the holiday destination (H3b.2) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H3b.3). H3c: A holiday destination advertisement without an endorser, shared by an influencer, will generate low attitude toward the ad (H3c.1), the holiday destination (H3c.2) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H3c.3). H3d: A holiday destination advertisement without an endorser, shared by a National Tourism Organization, will generate the lowest attitude toward the ad (H3d.1), the holiday destination (H3d.2) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H3d.3).

2.5 The underlying relationships between the dependent variables

This research will also focus on the underlying relationships between the three dependent variables that explain advertising effectiveness, namely Aad, Ahd and Vi. As previously stated, research has illustrated that there are direct relationships between Aad and Ab/Ahd, Aad and Pi/Vi and Ab/Ahd and Pi/Vi and that there is also an indirect effect between Aad and Pi/Vi through Ab/Ahd (Sallam & Wahid, 2012; Mackenzie et al., 1986), which will also be tested in this research with the following hypotheses:

H4: There is a positive effect of Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad) on Attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd). H5: There is a positive effect of Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad) on Visit Intention of the holiday destination (VI). H6: There is a positive effect of Attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd) on Visit Intention of the holiday destination (VI). H7: Attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd) mediates the relationship between Attitude toward Advertisement (Aad) and Visit Intention of the holiday destination (VI); a positive Aad will lead to a positive Ahd, which will positively affect VI.

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2.6 The moderating effects of Travel Experience and Persuasion Knowledge

2.6.1 Travel Experience as a moderator of Endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Ever since the introduction of the Personal Involvement Inventory by Zaichkowsky (1986), involvement has become one of the more widely used concepts in marketing research since involved consumers are vital to the success or failure of many marketing strategies (Flynn & Goldsmith, 1993; Huang et al., 2010; Lehman-Wilzig, & Lampert, 2009; Te’eni-Harari). Zaichkowsky (1986) divided involvement into an affective and cognitive compartment. Affective involvement refers to a person’s feelings, emotions and moods that are evoked by an object. Cognitive involvement stresses the degree of personal relevance of the message content, based on informational or functional performance. Both types of involvement can occur separate or combined, depending on the interaction of the person with the stimulus. Consumer involvement focuses on both the affective and cognitive compartment and is referred to as the feelings of interest, enthusiasm, and excitement that consumers have for a specific product categories (Flynn & Goldsmith, 1993). Every consumer is particularly involved with product categories that he or she finds highly relevant and attractive. The elaboration likelihood model by Petty and Cacioppo (1986) further suggests that when evaluating an advertisement, Aad is formed through either the central processing route or the peripheral processing route. In case of a high consumer involvement, attitudes are formed via the central route, focusing primarily on the product that is being displayed in the advertisement. In a case of low consumer involvement, attitudes are more often determined by peripheral information, such as the endorser featured in the advertisement. In this study, it is assumed that experienced travelers will be more involved consumers, since the specific product category is a holiday destination, which is considered more relevant and attractive to them than for inexperienced travelers. Experienced travelers will therefore evaluate the advertisement through the central route, focusing more on the holiday destination itself and not on the endorser being displayed. Inexperienced travelers will be less involved consumers, since they might have the personal importance, relevance and need when being exposed to a holiday destination advertisement. They will process the advertisement via a peripheral route, focusing on the endorser in the advertisement instead of the holiday destination. We therefore suggest that travel experience will moderate the effects of endorsement on Attitude toward advertisement, Attitude toward the holiday destination and Visit intention of the holiday destination and will give the following hypothesis:

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H8: Travel experience moderates the effect of endorsement on attitude toward the ad (H8a), the holiday destination (H8b) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H8c): High travel experience will negatively affect the influence of endorsement on Aad, Ahd andi, low traveler experience will positively affect the influence of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi.

2.6.2 Persuasion Knowledge as a moderator of Message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi

In recent years, tourism advertising has seen a great shift from the offline to the online sphere, mainly due to reduced marketing budgets. Furthermore, potential travelers are more often searching for travel information online so NTOs had to shift as well, in order to continue reaching their audience. Especially the integration of commercial content into editorial content through blogs and social networking sites, are popular among NTOs, because the content is more subtle, but it is still a very effective advertising method (“Tourism Review,” 2011). As such, NTOs are using picture based websites, such as Instagram, to promote a specific holiday destination, either through their own Instagram account or by collaborating with influencers, which makes the message source and the persuasive attempt even harder to intercept (Booth, Matic, & Matic, 2011). These relatively new forms of advertising, through Instagram, blogs and other subtle channels are challenging the way we understand and process advertisements and make the underlying persuasion attempt less clear to the viewer. Due to, among other things, the constant evolving nature of the internet and the lack of explicit editorial policies, it is more difficult for consumers to evaluate the information provided, identify the source and evaluate its credibility, compared to traditional media (Tutaj and Reijmersdal, 2012). In order to cope with these persuasive attempts, consumers will, over time, develop personal knowledge about the tactics that are being used, which will help them identify how, when and why marketers try to influence them, hereby ‘activating’ their persuasion knowledge. The main assumption is that the more knowledge a consumer has about the persuasion attempt, the less vulnerable he or she will be to the persuasive message and the better he or she is able to resist it (Friestad and Wright, 1994). Several studies have therefore focused on the moderating role of persuasion knowledge, for example on the effects of online advertising on perceived advertising values (Tutaj and Reijmersdal, 2012) or on the effects of positive online reviews on the attitudes of consumers (Shere & Lee, 2009). To illustrate, Tutaj and Reijmersdal (2012) researched the effects of persuasion knowledge of consumers concerning subtle or prominent advertising content on attitudes and behavioural intentions and found that the better the consumer recognizes the persuasion attempt, thus the higher the persuasion knowledge, the more irritated and sceptical the consumer will be regarding the

16 advertisement. When there is limited or no persuasion knowledge activated, the subtle content is seen as more pleasant and consumers will be less sceptical, resulting in a more positive advertising effect. Sher and Lee (2009) showed that consumers with high scepticism, which indicates high persuasion knowledge, are less influenced by the source or argument quality of online reviews, which will result in not believing stated claims that are being made. When transmitting this theory to the current study, we could argue that persuasion knowledge can moderate the effects of the message source on the advertising effect. In this case, the persuasive attempt of an NTO will be more apparent than that of an influencer, since a consumer can more easily identify the NTO as being persuasive, leading to scepticism and thus negatively affecting attitudes and behavior. In order to test this assumption, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H9: Persuasion Knowledge moderates the effect of message source on attitude toward the ad (H9a), the holiday destination (H9b) and visit intention of the holiday destination (H9c): High persuasion knowledge will negatively affect the influence of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi; low persuasion knowledge will positively affect the influence of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi.

2.7 Conceptual model

The conceptual model is constructed based on the proposed hypotheses (Figure 4). It examines the effect of endorsement and message source on Attitude toward the advertisement (Aad), Attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd) and Visit intention of the holiday destination (Vi) and also the relationships between these three dependent variables. Furthermore, travel experience and persuasion knowledge function as moderators of endorsement and message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi.

Figure 4 Overview of the hypotheses

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3 Methodology

This study employed a factorial 2 × 2 between-subject experimental design, in which endorsement type (endorser/no endorser) and message source (NTO/Influencer) were manipulated (Table 1). The dependent variables are attitude toward advertisement and holiday destination and visit intention of the holiday destination, that together measure the advertising effectiveness. Furthermore, the moderating effects of travel experience and persuasion knowledge were measured.

Table 1 - Experimental Design: 2x2 Factorial Design

Condition Endorsement type Message Source 1 Endorser Social Media Influencer 2 Endorser National Tourism Organization 3 No Endorser Social Media Influencer 4 No Endorser National Tourism Organization

3.1 Stimulus Material

To measure the dependent variables and moderators, different scales were used, all measured on a 7- point Likert scale. Participants were asked if they: 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) with, in total 16 statements (Appendix 1). To measure the construct validity of the question items, a principle component analysis (PCA) by means of varimax rotation was conducted. Four factors, all equivalent with the previously studied constructs, were validated. All four factors had eigenvalues above 1 and together explained 73.37% of the variance. Furthermore, all scales were reliable, with Cronbach’s alphas higher than 0.85. Furthermore, the survey contained two open-ended questions concerning their travel experience and two demographical questions, namely age and gender.

3.1.1 Dependent Variables

Attitude toward Advertising (Aad): Subjects were asked to describe their overall feelings towards the advertisement, using 5 questions created by Mackenzie, Lutz, & Belch, (1986) as a reference. Statements such as; “I think the advertisement is appealing” or “I like the advertisement” were used (N = 5, eigenvalue of 3.35, α = 0.88). Attitude toward holiday destination (Ahd): Ahd was measured using five questions by Mackenzie, Lutz, & Belch (1986). Questions such as; “I think the holiday destination in the advertisement is unpleasant” or “I think the holiday destination is good” were asked (N = 5, eigenvalue of 3.44, α = 0.89).

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Visit intentions (Vi): Subjects were asked to indicate the probability that they would visit the holiday destination visible in the Instagram post. Two different statements were used, “If I get the chance to travel, I intend to visit the holiday destination” and “When I go on a trip, the probability that I visit this holiday destination is high”, using the research by Chen, Shang, & Li, (2014) as an example (N = 2, eigenvalue of 1.68, α = 0.81)

3.1.2 Moderators

Persuasion Knowledge: In order to measure persuasion knowledge, four items were measured, using the questions of Tutaj & Reijmersdal (2012) as an example. Questions, focusing on selling intent and persuasion intent, such as “The aim of this Instagram post is to sell this holiday destination” and “The aim of Instagram post is to influence your opinion” were asked (N = 4, eigenvalue of 2.90, α = 0.87). Travel experience: Two open ended questions were asked to evaluate the subjects’ travel experience, following the example of Weaver, Weber & McCleary (2007). The number of countries visited during the respondent’s life (not including the country he or she lives in) and the number of international pleasure trips made during the past 3 years were asked. These questions measured the total travel experience (travel experience-total) and the recent travel experience (travel experience-recent), together indicating a persons’ overall travel experience (high vs low travel experience).

3.1.3 Pre-test

Prior to the main experiment, a pre-test was conducted to determine an appropriate holiday destination picture. In total, 75 people received five pictures of different landscapes; a beach, a river with mountain, a mountain lake, a street view and a forest. The participants were asked to rank the different images from 1 to 5 in order of preference. Since the main manipulation of this test is the endorser in the advertisement and not the type of landscape itself, the landscape should not take the attention of the endorser and should therefore be as neutral as possible. A more preferred landscape could possible bias this study. The picture of the river with a mountain in the background was considered most neutral. Furthermore, the participants were asked to rank five different countries from different continents (Peru, Australia, Thailand, South Africa and Italy), again from 1 to 5. Peru was considered to be the most neutral destination.

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3.1.4 Main experiment

The picture of the river with a mountain in the background was later manipulated for the main experiment by editing an unknown typical consumer endorser into it, resulting into one picture with endorser and the identical picture without endorser. As Peru was considered the most neutral destination, a fictitious NTO Instagram account named ‘Visit_Peru’ was created. Moreover, a fictitious social media influencer Instagram account was created, under the name of Sam_tor. Both these accounts contained some extra information about the purpose/identity of the account. The accounts were developed to prevent possible confounding effects of existing well-known accounts. In addition, to make the Instagram post look more authentic, 6,580 likes, 3 hash tags (#loveit #mountain #youshouldgo) and a location (Huayhuash, in Peru) were added to all four stimuli. The amount of likes and hash tags were based on existing posts by both the official Instagram account of Peru and that of accounts of travel Influencers. Before answering the survey questions about the Instagram post, all participants had to read a small scenario. They all had to image they were looking for possible holiday destinations on the internet and that they came across an Instagram account (one of the four was shown), that shared a picture of a destination in Peru. The four different conditions are visible in Appendix 2.

3.2 Procedure

Based on the research by Kim and Kim (2013), a sample size of 220 participants was considered to be sufficient. The participants were gathered via convenience sampling, namely the survey was spread via personal Facebook pages and several Facebook groups were approached to cooperate (Expats in Antwerp, Erasmus group Tarragona). The participants were randomly allocated to one of the four conditions, using the online survey software Qualtrics. In order to limit the likelihood of demand effects, the participants were not told that the experiment had been specifically designed to measure the effectiveness of endorsement and message sources on the advertisement effect. Rather they were told that the research was testing the viability of a new tourism advertisement. The participants were thanked after participating.

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3.3 Participants

In total, 283 participants took part in this study. After filtering for missing data and outliers, a total of 213 responses were usable for data analyses. Condition 1 received 52 respondents, condition 2 received 51 respondents, condition 3 received 48 respondents and condition 4 received 62 respondents.

3.4 Sample Characteristics

The analysis of the characteristics of the subjects revealed that out of 213 participants, 141 (66%) were females and 72 (34%) were males. In terms of age, 62.9% of the participants were between 21-30 years old, followed by 31-40 y/o (15%), 51 or older y/o (12.2%), below 20 (5.2%) and 41-50 y/o (4.7%) (M = 31,21, Min . 19, Max. 70).

4 Results

4.1 Randomization check

A Chi-square test was performed and showed that there were no significant differences between the experimental conditions with regard to gender, χ2 (3, N = 213) = .59, p =.899. In addition, a one-way ANOVA showed that there were no differences between conditions with regard to age, F(3, 209) = 0.815, p = .487. Therefore, gender and age were not included as covariates in further analyses.

4.2 The main effects of Endorsement and Message source

4.2.1 The effects of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

In order to measure the degree to which a picture with endorser generated a more favorable advertising effect than a picture without endorser, three separate independent sample t-tests were conducted, focusing on the three components explaining advertising effectiveness, namely Aad, Ahd and Vi. Results of the independent samples t-test concerning Aad (t(211) = 1.87, p = .062) showed a marginally significant effect (p < .1), which indicates that a picture with endorser generated a slightly higher attitude towards the advertisement than a picture with no endorser portrayed. Results concerning Ahd (t(206) = 1.44, p = .152) and Vi (t(211) = .209, p = .834) also showed small differences between the two conditions, corresponding with the proposed hypothesis (Table 2). Thus, the

21 endorser group generated slightly higher means for all three dependent variables compared to the no endorser group. These differences were, however, not significant in the context of this study. As the advertising effect is measured using these three variables and not just Aad, the first hypothesis is thus predominantly rejected.

Table 2 - Overview of Means - The effects of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Endorsement Dependent Variable Mean Standard Error Endorser Aad 4.61 .12 Ahd 4.73 .10 Vi 3.62 .15 No endorser Aad 4.29 .12 Ahd 4.50 .12 Vi 3.58 .14

4.2.2 The effects of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi

The degree to which the message source (influencer or NTO) had an effect on the three variables was also measured using three separate independent sample t-tests. Results indicated that Aad (t(211) = 1.42, p = .157), Ahd (t(211) = 1.55, p = .122) and Vi (t(211) = 0.704, p = .482) did not significantly differ in the Influencer or NTO condition. However, when comparing the means of the two conditions, the influencer condition did receive a slightly higher average for all three variables than the NTO condition (Table 3). Thus, there a small differences between the means visible, but they are not considered significant in this study.

Table 3 - Overview of Means - The effects of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Message source Variable Mean Standard Error Influencer Aad 4.57 .12 Ahd 4.74 .12 Vi 3.67 .15 NTO Aad 4.33 .12 Ahd 4.49 .12 Vi 3.53 .13

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4.3 The interaction effect of Endorsement and Message source

To measure the interaction effect of endorsement and message source on advertisement effectiveness (H3, H3a-d) focusing again on Aad, Ahd and Vi, a two-way ANOVA was conducted. Results showed no significant interaction effect of endorsement and message source for Aad F(1, 209) = .00, p = .980, Ahd F(1, 209) = 1.52, p = .218 and Vi F(1, 209) = 2.25, p = .135, however, the means did show small differences in the four conditions (Table 4). The combination of an endorser/influencer received the highest mean, followed by endorser/NTO, no endorser/influencer, no endorser/NTO, which corresponds with the proposed hypotheses. However, the differences are not significant in this study, thus H3 and sub-questions H3a-d are rejected

Table 4 - Overview of Means - The interaction effect of Endorsement and Message source

Endorsement Message source Mean Standard Error Endorser Influencer 4.72 0.17 NTO 4.50 0.17 No Endorser Influencer 4.41 0.18 NTO 4.20 0.16

4.4 The direct and mediating effects of Aad, Ahd and Vi

In order to test hypotheses 4-7, simple mediation analyses were performed, using the Macro Process by Preacher and Hayes (2004). This analyses measured both the direct effects of Aad on Ahd and Vi, the direct effect of Ahd on Vi and the mediating effect of Ahd on the relationship between Aad and Vi. In this macro, model 4 was selected with Aad as independent variable, Vi as dependent variable and Ahd as mediator. Analyses shows that a positive Aad results in a better Ahd (a = 0.70, SE = 0.04, p = < .001), thus accepting Hypothesis 4. However, Hypothesis 5 was rejected, since Aad did not have a significant direct effect on Vi (c’ = .15, SE = 0.104, p = .14, 95% - CI = [-.05, .36]). Also, Ahd is positively related to Vi (b = 0.49, SE = 0.1044, p = <.001), so Hypothesis 6 was accepted. Finally, Aad indirectly affects Vi (a*b = .34, SE = .07, 95% CI [.2004, .4871]), therefore hypothesis 7 was accepted.

4.5 Travel experience as a moderator of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

In order to make a distinction between high travel experience and low travel experience, the median for Travel experience-total and Travel experience-recent was measured and was later used as a benchmark to divide the variables into two groups. Travel experience-total received a median of 13

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(min. 0, max. 68). Respondents that visit 0-13 countries were placed in the low travel experience group, respondents with 14+ visited countries were placed in the high travel experience group. Travel experience-recent received a median of 5 (min. 0, max. 27), dividing the group into 0-5 countries visited for low experience travelers and 6+ countries visited for travelers with high experience. Once the groups were distributed, a two-way ANOVA was conducted to measure the moderating effect of travel experience on endorsement on attitudes and visit intention. The analysis for travel experience-total as a moderator showed a significant effect of endorsement on Aad F(3, 205) = 3.68, p = .01. A significant moderating effect of endorsement on Aad F(3,206) = 3.57, p =.02 was also found in the travel experience-recent group. Results exposed, however, that respondents with low travel experience-total and recent, who received either a picture with or without endorser, both had a more positive Aad, compared to respondents with high travel experience-total or recent. These differences in means were also found for Ahd and Vi, indicating that the advertisement, in general, triggered better attitudes and intention among inexperienced travelers than experienced travelers (Table 5 - 6). However, the differences in means, concerning Ahd and Vi, were not significant for both conditions with Travel experience-total: F(3, 205) = 1.23, p = .30 for Ahd and F(3, 205) = .78, p = .51 for Vi. Travel experience-recent received F(3,206) = 1.65, p = .18 for Ahd and F(3,206) = 0.73, p = .54 for Vi.

4.6 Persuasion knowledge as a moderator of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi

To test the moderating effect of Persuasion knowledge (high or low) of message source on advertisement effectiveness, focusing again on Aad, Ahd and Vi, a distinction between respondents with high vs low persuasion knowledge was made. The median was used as a benchmark to divide the variables into two groups and was calculated at 4.5 (min. 1 max. 7). Therefore respondents that answered 1 - 4.5 were added to the low persuasion knowledge group, respondents that filled out 4.75 - 7 in the questionnaire were selected for the high persuasion knowledge group. A two-way ANOVA was then conducted to measure the moderating effect of persuasion knowledge on message source on attitudes and visit intentions. It was argued that respondents with high persuasion knowledge would negatively affect the influence of message source on attitudes and visit intention, respondents with low persuasion knowledge would positively affect the influence of message source on attitudes and visit intention. Results showed no significant moderating effect of persuasion knowledge on message source on Aad F(3, 209) = 1.55, p = .20, Ahd F(3, 209) = .80 , p = .50 and Vi F(3, 209) = 1.57, p =.20. However, when comparing respondents with high/low persuasion knowledge, who received an NTO as a message source during the experiment, the means do show

24 small differences in Aad and Vi (Table 7). Results show a lower Aad and Vi among respondents with high persuasion knowledge than respondents with low persuasion knowledge. This could indicate that the respondents with high persuasion knowledge better intercept the persuasive attempt of the NTO compared to respondents with low persuasion knowledge. The differences however are not significant in the context of this study.

Table 5 - Overview of Means: Travel experience – Total as a moderator of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Variable Endorsement Travel experience Mean Standard Error Aad Endorser High 4.37 .18 Low 4.83 .16 No Endorser High 4.08 .17 Low 4.56 .17 Ahd Endorser High 4.59 .17 Low 4.84 .16 No Endorser High 4.42 .16 Low 4.67 .16 Vi Endorser High 3.39 .22 Low 3.82 .20 No Endorser High 3.53 .20 Low 3.66 .21

Table 6 - Overview of Means: Travel experience – Recent as a moderator of endorsement on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Variable Endorsement Travel experience Mean Standard Error Aad Endorser High 4.42 .18 Low 4.83 .17 No Endorser High 4.05 .17 Low 4.52 .16 Ahd Endorser High 4.53 .17 Low 4.92 .16 No Endorser High 4.46 .17 Low 4.54 .16 Vi Endorser High 3.42 .21 Low 3.79 .20 No Endorser High 3.68 .21 Low 3.40 .20

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Table 7 - Persuasion knowledge as a moderator of message source on Aad, Ahd and Vi

Variable Message source Persuasion Knowledge Mean Standard Error Aad Influencer High 4.70 .22 Low 4.53 .15 NTO High 4.17 .16 Low 4.53 .18 Ahd Influencer High 4.76 .21 Low 4.74 .14 NTO High 4.50 .15 Low 4.48 .17 Vi Influencer High 3.59 .26 Low 3.71 .18 NTO High 3.29 .18 Low 3.85 .21

5 Conclusion and Discussion

The objective of the study was to contribute to the research on tourism advertisement effectiveness by analyzing the influence endorsement and message source have on Aad, Ahd and Vi. Countless studies have demonstrated the positive impact of endorsement on advertisement effectiveness and have argued that advertisements that include an endorser (for example a celebrity endorser, typical consumer endorser or cartoon) positively affect Aad, Ab and Pi (Daneshvary & Schwer, 2000; Hsieh & Chang, 2005; Yoon & Choi, 2005). However, no studies up until now had researched these effects in relation to tourism advertising. Therefore, this study focused on the impact an endorser has on attitude Aad, Ahd and Vi. Moreover, prior research has also established the effects of message source on advertisement effectiveness, primarily focusing on the influence message source (high vs low message source credibility) has on attitudes and behavior intentions. A high credible source would generate better attitudes and behavior intentions than a low credible source (Sparks, Perkins, & Buckley, 2013; Silvera & Austad, 2004). Many studies have focused on the effects of message source credibility on online review sites, yet, no research had investigated the influence of a National Tourism Organization vs. a Social Media Influencer on attitudes and behavior intention. In order to measure the effects of endorsement and message source, a between-subjects experiment was conducted, which manipulated a holiday destination advertisement and the message source (either with or without typical consumer endorser and shared by an NTO or Influencer), using Instagram as the designated format. This study could not fully reconfirm previous findings, which argue

26 that the use of an endorser in an advertisement would positively affect Aad, Ahd and Vi, compared to an advertisement without endorser. In this study, the use of an endorser did have a marginally significant effect on Aad, but failed to provide evidence for the other two components that explain advertisement effectiveness, namely Ahd and Vi of the holiday destination. Thus, in this study, an advertisement with endorser did not fully generate a better advertising effect than an advertisement without endorser. However, the marginally significant effect for Aad in this study does indicate that, although the differences between the use of an endorser or no endorser in a holiday advertisement is small, it does generate some better effects. Together with the extensive research of endorsement in other product categories, marketers could still apply these findings in their future advertising by including endorsers more often. Especially Instagram is a good channel to research this effect more intensively, since this platform is relatively cheap in use and will give results instantly, in the shape of likes and comments. Also, the influence of the message source (NTO or Influencer) on attitude toward advertisement, the holiday destination and the visit intention of the holiday destination was measured. Using previous studies as an example (Silvera & Austad, 2004; Sparks, Perkins, & Buckley, 2013; Wu & Wang, 2011), it was argued that the use of an influencer as a message source would generate more favorable attitudes and behavior intentions than an NTO. Influencers were considered more honest, trustworthy and credible, due to their distance to the product. An NTO on the other hand was considered less trustworthy and could expect more scepticism from the consumer, because the information provided is twisted toward the interest of the source. Nevertheless, results did not show any significant difference between the two message sources, concluding that an NTO and an Influencer trigger the same attitudes and behaviors. The non- significant results could actually be, from a marketing point of view, a beneficial outcome for NTOs. Currently, NTOs feel the pressure from these influencers and are afraid they lose control over their brand message. However, this research suggests that NTOs might not have to worry too much, as their advertisement is considered as effective in generating a positive Aad, Ahd and Vi as the advertisement of an influencer. Additionally, the interaction effect of endorsement and message source was measured, hereby combining the research done on the effects of endorsement and message source on attitudes and behavior intentions. It was argued that an advertisement with endorser shared by an influencer would receive the highest attitudes and visit intention, followed by an advertisement with endorser shared by an NTO, an advertisement without endorser shared by an influencer and an advertisement without endorser shared by and NTO. Results, however, did not show any significant differences between the four groups.

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Several explanations can be found for the absence of significance in these two main effects and interaction effect. This research took the first exploratory steps in investigating the effects of endorsement in tourism advertising. Previous studies have focused more on the effects of endorsement on product advertising, such as sports products or watches, which are tangible products, making it very clear and graspable what the endorser/source tries to promote and sell (Silvera & Austad, 2004; Yoon, 2005). A holiday destination, on the other hand, is considered an intangible product and often consists of different aspects, such as the travel, the accommodation and the service provided, which is almost impossible to encompass in one advertisement, let alone for an endorser to promote it. The visual used in this study might not have been powerful enough in promoting these aspects, which therefore already in itself weakens Aad, Ahd and Vi. Furthermore, previous studies in advertisement effectiveness have mostly focused on the effects of endorsement in traditional media outlets, especially focusing on print advertising (Silvera & Austad, 2004; Yoon, 2005). This study, however, investigated the advertisement effectiveness of an Instagram post, which is a relatively new advertisement tool for marketing a product and has not often been researched. Hence, the non-significant outcomes could be a result of the unfamiliarity of Instagram as an advertisement tool. Tutaj and Reijmersdal (2012) argued that consumers have difficulty with evaluating information on these editorial channels, due to the subtleness of the content, compared to the more obvious commercial content of a print advertisement. Consequently, the stimuli in this research could have been too subtle, leading to insignificant results. The underlying direct and indirect relationships between the three dependent variables were also measured in this study. Results showed significant effects for all three hypotheses testing these relationships. These findings confirm the original Dual Mediation Hypothesis by Mackenzie, Lutz & Belch (1986), which explained the process behind advertisement effectiveness. In the DMH model, Mackenzie, Lutz & Belch (1986) argued that a positive Aad would lead to a positive Ab, a positive Ab would trigger higher Pi and Ab would mediate the relationship between Aad and Pi. This model has been a very important tool in marketing research, and has yet again, proven its stability in predicting consumers’ attitudes and behavior intentions. In addition, using the Personal Involvement Inventory by Zaichkowsky (1986) and the elaboration likelihood model by Petty and Cacioppo (1986) as a guideline, the moderating effect of travel experience on endorsement and Aad, Ahd and Vi was researched. Experienced travelers, who are in this study considered highly involved consumers, would negatively affect the influence of endorsement. Inexperienced travelers, thus consumers with low involvement, would positively affect the influence of endorsement. It was presumed that, when exposed to a tourism advertisement, experienced travelers would evaluate the advertisement through the central route, focusing more on the holiday destination itself, whereas inexperienced travelers would follow the peripheral route,

28 thereby focusing more on the endorser being portrayed. Therefore, an endorser used in an advertisement of a holiday destination would not be as effective for every type of consumer, thus moderating its effect on attitudes and visit intention. Results exposed that respondents with low travel experience (both total and recent experience) had a significantly more positive Aad, compared to respondents with high travel experience (both total and recent). However, these significant differences were found for both conditions (with or without endorser), indicating that the advertisement, in general, generated a better Aad among inexperienced travelers, regardless of the use of endorsement. Still, the advertisement with endorser did receive the highest Aad, thereby confirming the previously mentioned literature. Marketers should therefore put equal effort in the visual and the endorser, thereby appealing to both categories. Since experienced travelers are attracted more to the good visual and the inexperienced travelers pay more attention to the endorser. No moderating effect of travel experience on endorsement on Ahd and Vi was found, which corresponds with the insignificant results of the main effect of endorsement on Ahd and Vi in this study. Accordingly, the same reasons as previously suggested could explain the insignificance of the moderating effect. Lastly, in this study, no significant evidence was found that support the moderating effect of Persuasion Knowledge on message source on attitudes and visit intention. Tutaj and Reijmersdal (2012) argued that consumers with higher persuasion knowledge will better recognize the persuasion attempt, which leads to more irritation and scepticism toward the advertisement, resulting in a lower Aad, Ahd and Vi. When there is limited or no persuasion knowledge activated, the advertisement is judged as more pleasant and consumers will be less sceptical, resulting in a more positive advertising effect. It was argued that an NTO would negatively affect attitudes and behaviors, whereas an influencer would positively affect attitudes and behaviors, since the persuasive attempt of an NTO would be more apparent than that of an influencer, generating more scepticism and irritation. Results showed that there were no significant differences between the two persuasion knowledge groups on Aad, Ahd and Vi, via message source. Already, there was no significance found in the main effect between message source and attitudes and visit intention, thus persuasion knowledge was unable to further moderate this effect. In order to investigate the moderating effect of persuasion knowledge, the main effect should first be further investigated.

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6 Limitations and future research

Although this study tried to be as reliable and valid as possible in researching the effects of endorsement and message source on advertisement effectiveness, it does include some limitations that offer opportunities for future research. First, the method of data collection increased the chances of sampling error. The sample was drawn via personal (Facebook) channels, which may not fully provide a correct representation of the consumers outside of the sample context. Although the sample was controlled for gender and age, the other (demographic) characteristics might have been too homogenous. Future research should therefore use a better sampling technique which will generate a more representative sample. Secondly, this study did not implement manipulation checks, as the manipulated stimuli (endorser/no endorser in the picture and message source) were considered very strong (Appendix 2). However, future research could reconsider this choice and could implement these checks in upcoming studies, to rule out reasons that the manipulations may have failed to influence the dependent variables. Furthermore, focusing on the stimuli material, future research could use a better advertising picture that will grasp a clearer aspect of a holiday destination, for example a visual of an iconic landmark of the specific holiday destination. Although the visual used in this research was pre-tested on its neutrality, in order not to take the attention of the manipulation (the endorser), the landscape that was used might not have been tangible enough as a product, making it more difficult to test the attitudes and visit intention. Finally, future research could divide this study into several new studies to retest the hypotheses. Combining all these fields into one study, namely endorsement in tourism advertisement, use of Instagram as advertising tool and the effects of message source on Instagram, might have been too progressive and might therefore not give the expected results. One research could, for example, focus on the effects of endorsement in tourism advertisement using print advertisements instead of Instagram and another study could focus on the effectiveness of Instagram as an advertising tool, using a product that is more tangible, such as sport products, a watch or perfume. Also, the impact of the different types of message sources on Instagram could be researched separately, making a clearer distinction between an actual brand, for example a shoe brand and an influencer promoting these shoes. In addition, it could be interesting to focus on questioning a specific segment, for example active Instagram users, to investigate the effects of message source on Instagram on attitudes and behavior intentions. This segment will better understand Instagram as a channel and the way it is used by brands and influencers, leading to more reliable results and conclusions concerning message source effectiveness.

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8 Appendices

8.1 Appendix 1

8.1.1 Survey questions

Dear participant, My name is Maike van den Hoven and I am studying Communication Science at the University of Ghent. I am currently researching the effectiveness of tourism advertisements for my master thesis and the following questions will all be related to this topic. As a participant, you will remain anonymous and the information will only be used for this research. Participating in this study will only cost 5 minutes of your time. The survey will start by clicking on the arrow in the right lower corner. Keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers and please stay true to your opinion. Thank you so much and have fun! Maike

Imagine you are looking for possible holiday destinations on the internet and you come across this Instagram account that shared a picture of a destination in Peru. Please take time to observe this Instagram profile and post/picture and continue answering the questions after your observation.

ONE OF THE FOUR CONDITIONS

Please indicate whether or not you agree with the following statements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Neither Somewhat Agree Strongly disagree disagree agree nor agree Agree disagree

I think the Instagram post is good I like the Instagram post I think the Instagram post is appealing I think the Instagram post is unfavorable I think the Instagram post is unpleasant

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If I get the chance to travel, I intend to visit the holiday destination When I go on a trip, the probability that I visit this holiday destination is high

The aim of this Instagram post is to sell the holiday destination The aim of this Instagram post is to stimulate the sales of the holiday destination The aim of this Instagram post is to influence your opinion The aim of this Instagram post is to make people like certain the holiday destination

I think the holiday destination in the Instagram post is good I like the holiday destination in the Instagram post I think the holiday destination in the Instagram post is appealing I think the holiday destination in the Instagram post is unfavorable I think the holiday destination in the Instagram post is unpleasant

Please indicate your sex - Female - Male

Please fill out your age ______How many countries have you visited (excluding the country you currently live in)? ______How many international pleasure trips have you taken during the past 3 years? ______

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8.2 Appendix 2 8.2.1 Endorser/Influencer condition

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8.2.2 No Endorser/Influencer condition

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8.2.3 Endorser/NTO condition

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8.2.4 No Endorser/NTO condition

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