Investigating Tourists’ Fun-Eliciting Process toward Tourism Destination Sites: An Application of Cognitive Appraisal Theory

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that destinations must distinguish themselves from competitors and develop experiential offerings that deliver memorable value to consumers. More and more consumers want experiential service during their travel. Despite the gradual increase in research on experiential consumption in tourism, no consensus has yet emerged on what factors of experiential value lead to positive behavioral outcomes in consumer cognitive appraisals. This study used the cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to investigate the determinants of consumer emotional responses, as well as how evoked emotions affect behavior in tourism. Study findings contribute to the existing body of literature on the ability of CAT to illustrate how the experiential value of “fun” influences on-the-spot behavior. This study also helps tourism destination marketers by providing a clear picture of how to elicit positive emotions among tourists for a tourism destination that leads to positive behavioral outcomes.

Visiting Intangible Cultural Heritage Tourism Sites: From Value Cognition to Attitude and Intention

“…Heritage undoubtedly offers extensive value, and the development of heritage tourism holds great promise. However, preservation (i.e., non-use) values and use values [65], internal and external values [24,66], utilitarian and hedonic values [67] and experiential values [66] are insufficient in truly capturing the value of cultural heritage. It is more practical to consider residents' value cognition when seeking to develop corresponding tourism products that will meet tourists' expectations.…”

Make It Memorable: Tourism Experience, Fun, Recommendation and Revisit Intentions of Chinese Outbound Tourists

“…According to Choi and Choi [22], tourists' "fun" emotions have a significant influence on their on-the-spot behaviors. If tourists have positive feelings during their travel, their desire to recommend the destination to others will be stronger [93].…”

“…Meaningfulness was measured using three items developed by Kim et al [40] and Kim et al [17], and three items for social interaction were adapted from Wei et al [41]. Emotional spark was measured using three items developed by Tasci and Ko [47], and three items for the measurement of flow were modified from Choi and Choi [22]. Recommendation intention was measured using four items developed by Chang et al [57], and revisit intention was measured using three items adapted from Wu et al [100] Perceived risk was measured using five items developed by Fuchs and Reichel [101].…”

“…It has been indicated that consumer satisfaction is an important antecedent of loyalty [18][19][20][21]. However, with the increase of the importance of consumer experience, researchers and practitioners have turned their attention to consumer experience and emotion as a new strategy for creating consumer loyalty [22,23]. Existing research has indicated that emotions are an important outcome of tourists' consumption experience, and that tourists' positive emotions are related to their satisfaction and loyalty [24,25].…”

“…Additionally, although some studies have proven that positive emotions and satisfaction are necessary precursors of loyalty behavior [14,18,22,29,30]), Prayag et al [31] pointed out that there are interference factors between positive emotions and loyalty behavior. However, there is scarce research that has investigated the boundary conditions between tourists' positive emotions and their loyalty behaviors, particularly, in the context of China's outbound tourism market.…”