The Impact of Photography on Tourism: Photography Construction Perspective
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2017 The Impact of Photography on Tourism: Photography Construction Perspective Justin Kaewnopparat University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Tourism Commons Recommended Citation Kaewnopparat, Justin, "The Impact of Photography on Tourism: Photography Construction Perspective. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4631 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Justin Kaewnopparat entitled "The Impact of Photography on Tourism: Photography Construction Perspective." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management. Ann E. Fairhurst, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Youn-Kyung Kim, Sejin Ha, Stefanie K. Benjamin, Stephanie M. Noble Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Impact of Photography on Tourism: Photography Construction Perspective A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Justin Kaewnopparat August 2017 Copyright © 2017 by Justin Kaewnopparat All rights reserved. ii ABSTRACT Photographs are crucial elements that marketers integrate into all their marketing communication tools. As we can see from many brochures, websites, and billboards, many travel destinations portray the beauty of their locations through photographs aiming to attract more travelers to visit their destinations. In the same vein, tourists also use photographs as references for their decisions about where to spend their vacations. Due to this significant impact of photographs on tourism, marketers invest greatly in this visual stimulation tool. However, the impact of elements appearing in each photograph such as objects and color tones are overlooked. This experimental study investigates the effects of cool and warm color tones in a photograph taken from the same beach scene in a tourism context. The results of the study reveal that although cool color tones are expected to generate only relaxation, in a beach photograph, cool color tones are able to trigger excitement as well as warm color tones do. It might be assumed that warm color tone photographs taken during sunset time are able to promote relaxation. In fact, cool color tones photographs trigger significantly more relaxation. The effects of cool and warm color tones in a beach photograph on perceived escapability were tested. The research model also reflects how excitement, relaxation, and perceived escapability lead to attitude toward the destination, the role of aesthetic evaluation and visual style of processing as moderators, and the relationship among affective responses, cognitive responses, attitude, and intention to visit a travel destination. This research also contributes to academic knowledge in the tourism context and thus fills a gap in previous literature. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL INFORMATION ........................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 6 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................... 6 Photography in tourism ........................................................................................................... 8 Beach Tourism ....................................................................................................................... 10 Beach Photographs ................................................................................................................ 11 Hue and scene composition .................................................................................................. 14 Affective and cognitive organism in tourism ......................................................................... 17 Color and affective organism................................................................................................. 20 Color and cognitive organism ................................................................................................ 22 Aesthetic evaluation in photography .................................................................................... 25 Visual Style of Processing ...................................................................................................... 27 Internal Organisms ................................................................................................................ 29 Affective and Cognitive Organisms and General Attitudes ................................................... 31 Attitude and Behavioral Intention ......................................................................................... 35 Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................... 36 iv CHAPTER 3 METHODS .................................................................................................................. 37 Instrument ............................................................................................................................. 37 Sample and data collection ................................................................................................... 45 Initial Data analyses ............................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSES AND RESULTS ................................................................................ 53 Data screening ....................................................................................................................... 53 Sample Characteristic ............................................................................................................ 59 Hypotheses testing ................................................................................................................ 62 Moderation effects ................................................................................................................ 67 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) ....................................................................................... 81 Validity and reliability tests ................................................................................................... 84 Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) ..................................................................................... 85 Hypotheses summary ............................................................................................................ 91 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 93 Excitement ............................................................................................................................. 93 Relaxation .............................................................................................................................. 95 Perceived escapability ........................................................................................................... 96 Moderators ............................................................................................................................ 97 Aesthetic Evaluation .............................................................................................................. 97 v Visual Style of Processing ...................................................................................................... 98 General Attitude toward Travel Destination ......................................................................... 99 Intention to Visit the Destination ........................................................................................ 100 Contribution......................................................................................................................... 100 Theoretical Implication ........................................................................................................ 104 Practical Implication in the Professional Photography Process .......................................... 106 Limitation and Future Research .......................................................................................... 109 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 111 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................... 133 Appendix A: Measurement items ..........................................................................................