Experience Value Cocreation on Destination Online Platforms

Abstract

Technology is critical for facilitating experience value co-creation in tourism. Online platforms in particular enable consumers to develop realistic expectations and to cocreate their experience. Limited empirical research has been done to investigate the experience value co-creation process, especially in tourism. This study fills this gap by proposing a cognition-emotion-behavior model. Scenario experiment approach is used to investigate the experience value co-creation process on destination online platforms in the pre-travel stage. Structural equation modeling analysis shows that online platform use has significant effects on destination emotional experience. This, has significant effects on the five dimensions of destination engagement intention. The mediating effect of destination emotional experience on the relationship between platform-use-experience and destination engagement intention is supported. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the experience value co-creation process and theoretical and managerial implications are proposed.

The Role of Photograph Aesthetics on Online Review Sites: Effects of Management- versus Traveler-Generated Photos on Tourists’ Decision Making

“…8 The aforementioned studies have largely investigated how tourists come to appreciate the beauty of the actual destination. A growing body of research provides insights into the effects of mediated aesthetics in a tourism context, where tourists have to rely on representations of destinations through media to make decisions in pre-consumption stages, such as websites (Zhang et al 2018) and, importantly, photographs (Kirillova and Chan 2018). Scholars who investigate mediated aesthetics have suggested to conceptually distinguish between two components: classic aesthetics or aesthetic formality, including aspects like symmetry, clarity in design, cleanliness in design, or order; and expressive aesthetics, including color vibrancy, creativity, originality, or sophistication (Lavie and Tractinsky 2004;Schenkman and Jönsson 2000).…”

Technology Enabled Information Services Use in Tourism: An Ethnographic Study of Chinese Backpackers

“…Technology enabled information services (TEIS) are becoming increasingly important in tourism (Tanti & Buhalis, 2016;Zhang, Gordon, Buhalis, & Ding, 2017). T Tuunanen, Myers, and Cassab (2010) define TEIS as systems that enable consumer value co-creation through the development and implementation of information technology (IT) enabled processes that integrate system value propositions with customer value drivers.…”

“…Although much research attention has been given to the use of IT by tourism service providers, more research is needed regarding the integration of IT in tourism from the consumer perspective (Neuhofer, Buhalis, & Ladkin, 2014). Hence, we want to understand how users create value when using various TEIS, and how these perceptions co-create their experiences (Neuhofer, 2016;Zhang et al, 2017).…”

“…The use of smartphones has altered the time and place constraints on human interaction in the travel domain (Janet E. Dickinson et al, 2014). Yet there remains little research on how tourists engage with IT such as smartphones during longer duration trips (Tan, 2017), or the use of destination online platforms (Molinillo, Liébana-Cabanillas, Anaya-Sánchez, & Buhalis, 2018;Zhang et al, 2017), or how TEIS can play a role in tourist decision making processes (Lou, Tian, & Koh, 2017). Neuhofer (2016) emphasises the significant role of IT in the value creation for tourists, and calls for further research in understanding the utility and value created through TEIS tourist experiences.…”

“…Neuhofer (2016) emphasises the significant role of IT in the value creation for tourists, and calls for further research in understanding the utility and value created through TEIS tourist experiences. This study is motivated by the potential for technology use in tourism, and the increasing desire to understand IT use in tourism from a consumer perspective (Molinillo et al, 2018;Neuhofer et al, 2014), along with the more active role that tourists are playing in value creation through TEIS (Zhang et al, 2017).…”