Two-Stage Model of Destination Image: Exploring the Consequences
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Two-stage Model of Destination Image: Exploring the Consequences A Thesis Submitted to the University of Salford in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Mamlakat Khudaykulova September 2020 Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Professor Sunil Sahadev and Doctor Nandakumar Mankavil Kovil Veettil for their encouragement, guidance, and support. All the praises to Allah for blessing me with the family that I grew up in and the family that I was trusted to frame. My family, I owe you special thanks for your endless support throughout my PhD journey. My beautiful, loving daughters, Malika and Maryam – you have been and are the reason to keep myself strong and persistently motivated to strive forward, my sincere thanks is to you. i Abstract In the globalized world tourism industry is acknowledges as an opportunity to enhance a country’s overall development. As research suggests, a destination’s main tool to become attractive is the destination image – the main pull factor in tourists’ decision-making process. Hence, there has been extensive research on destination image to examine its formation and relationships with other tourist decision-related constructs. Although acknowledged as a dynamic process for its feature of developing over time in several stages, there has been no attempt to examine pre- and post-visit destination images in integration. Therefore, based on the call by several scholars and theoretical support of its importance, the study set its purpose to examine the direct and indirect impact of pre-visit destination image on post-visit image and destination image evaluation outcome variables. For this purpose, a structural equation modelling of the relationships among pre- and post- visit images, perceived value, overall satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intentions was established. The data was collected from international tourists in Uzbekistan at two different points in time to test the hypotheses outlined in the model. In total, 178 paired questionnaires were collected. It was analysed on SmartPLS3. The findings confirmed the statistically significant direct impact of pre-visit image on post-visit image, and indirect impact of the pre-visit image through the post-visit image on the variables closely linked to the evaluation of the destination like satisfaction, value, and word of mouth intentions, hereby referred as destination image evaluation outcomes. ii Table of contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... i Abstract….... ............................................................................................................................. ii Table of contents .................................................................................................................... iii List of tables............................................................................................................................ vii List of figures ........................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Justification of the research topic ................................................................................ 1 1.2 Gaps in the literature ................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Contribution of the study............................................................................................. 4 1.3.1 The need to examine the impact of pre-visit destination image on post-visit evaluation outcomes ........................................................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Uzbekistan – data collection site.......................................................................... 6 1.4 The methodology of the study ..................................................................................... 7 1.5 Rationale behind the choice of the sample population ................................................ 8 1.6 Aim and objectives ...................................................................................................... 9 1.7 Specification of the terms .......................................................................................... 10 1.7.1 A country as a tourist destination....................................................................... 10 1.7.2 ‘Visit’ in the scope of the study ......................................................................... 10 1.8 Outline of the study ................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2 Literature review ............................................................................................ 15 2.1 The roots of destination image .................................................................................. 15 2.2 Destination image definitions.................................................................................... 17 2.3 Destination image – a dynamic process .................................................................... 24 2.3.1 Stage theory ....................................................................................................... 25 2.3.2 Consistency seeking theories ............................................................................. 29 2.4 Systematic literature review ...................................................................................... 31 2.5 The variables and their relationships ....................................................................... 138 2.5.1 Destination image and its components ............................................................ 138 2.5.1.1 Cognitive image ........................................................................................ 141 2.5.1.2 Affective image ........................................................................................ 142 iii 2.5.1.3 Overall image ........................................................................................... 144 2.5.2 Relationships among cognitive and affective image ....................................... 146 2.5.3 Hierarchical relationships of the cognitive, affective and overall image ......... 148 2.5.4 Perceived value ................................................................................................ 150 2.5.4.1 Destination image as an antecedent of perceived value ........................... 152 2.5.5 Tourist satisfaction ........................................................................................... 153 2.5.5.1 Destination image as an antecedent of satisfaction .................................. 156 2.5.5.2 Perceived value as an antecedent of satisfaction ...................................... 157 2.5.6 Word-of-mouth intentions ............................................................................... 158 2.5.6.1 The concept of tourist loyalty in destination image studies ..................... 158 2.5.6.2 The need to study word-of-mouth intentions as an independent construct 158 2.5.6.3 Importance of word-of-mouth .................................................................. 160 2.5.6.4 Destination image as an antecedent of word-of-mouth intentions ........... 163 2.5.6.5 Perceived value as an antecedent of word-of-mouth intentions ............... 166 2.5.6.6 Satisfaction as an antecedent of word-of-mouth intentions ...................... 167 2.6 Empirical studies on the dynamic destination image .............................................. 169 2.6.1 Indirect impacts among the variables .............................................................. 180 2.6.1.1 Indirect effects examined in the destination image studies ...................... 180 2.6.1.2 Indirect impact of pre-visit destination image on destination image evaluation outcomes.................................................................................................... 184 2.7 Conceptual model of the study ................................................................................ 185 CHAPTER 3 The methodology of the study ..................................................................... 188 3.1 Research purpose and research assumptions ........................................................... 192 3.2 Research philosophy ............................................................................................... 193 3.3 Research approach................................................................................................... 193 3.4 Research methods and research strategy ................................................................. 194 3.5 Time horizons and data collection techniques ........................................................ 195 3.6 Data collection......................................................................................................... 197 3.7 Sample population ................................................................................................... 198 iv 3.8 Sample size .............................................................................................................. 199 3.9 Data analysis technique ........................................................................................... 199 3.10 Social desirability bias ...........................................................................................