Tourist gaze and beyond: state of the art

González

2021

Purpose This paper aims to study the influence of gender on the theoretical and empirical relationships between tourists’ risk perceptions and both destination image and behavioural intentions. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was carried out with potential tourists at home in Germany and the UK considering travelling to Spain, Egypt, Morocco, Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling with multi-group analysis. Findings Results show that gender moderates the theoretical relationships between risk perception and both destination image and behavioural intentions. Risk perception is higher for women than for men and depends on the type of risks and the characteristics of the destination. Women are more likely than men to reduce their visit to a destination whenever there is an increase in their risk perceptions. However, the influence of risk perception on destination image is higher for men than for women. Thus, results prove there are significant gender differences in the theoretical relationships between risk perceptions and destination image and visiting intentions. Originality/value This paper provides new evidence on the gender differences in risk perceptions in tourism and their impact on destination image and visiting intentions, showing that whenever there are higher risks at a tourist destination women do change more than men their behavioural intentions. The results are useful for designing risk management and promotion policies at destinations that avoid the masculinisation bias, thereby considering the impact of gender differences on travel behaviour and consumption decisions.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender as moderator of the influence of tourists’ risk perception on destination image and visit intentions

González

2021

“…Further, safety and harassment are relevant concerns for female solo travelers, and they cope through empowerment and self-transformation (Karagöz et al , 2020; Su and Wu, 2020; Wilson and Little, 2008; Yang et al , 2018). Although these studies are very insightful, the gaze of solo travel may differ for women compared to men (Douglas and Barrett, 2020), potentially influencing their intentions to continue solo traveling (Samarathunga and Cheng, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antecedents of tourists’ solo travel intentions

Bianchi

2021

Purpose This study aims to empirically investigate the antecedents of tourists’ intentions to continue solo traveling. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), an extended model on solo travel intentions is developed that incorporates variables related to past solo travel experiences, namely, tourist satisfaction, pleasure and self-development. An online survey was applied to 187 solo tourists from different countries. Hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling. Findings All the variables, except for subjective norms, are significant predictors of tourists’ intentions to continue solo traveling. Results confirm a good explanatory power of the extended TPB model. Research limitations/implications Caution must be exercised with the results as tourists’ actual solo travel behavior may differ from their intentions. Future research may investigate tourists’ actual behavior by using longitudinal methods and include additional demographic variables as antecedents. Originality/value This study empirically investigated the antecedents of tourists’ intentions to continue solo traveling – an under-researched topic. Previous research is mostly exploratory and largely focuses on female solo travelers.

“…An absence of a clear, unique definition has, nonetheless, proliferated interpretations of this notion (Samarathunga and Cheng, 2020). Various scholars have nonetheless gone onto interpret the tourist gaze concept differently according to their own research agenda.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chineseness and behavioural complexity: rethinking Chinese tourist gaze studies

Tucker

Bao

2021

Purpose This study aims to reconsider Chinese tourist gaze studies, examining the extent to which extant studies and theoretical models relating to the Chinese tourist gaze have overcome the Eurocentric limits of John Urry’s concept of the tourist gaze and elaborated the complexity of Chinese tourists’ gazes and visual practices. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis is carried out, examining research articles, books, book chapters and PhD and MSc theses collected from multiple English and Chinese databases. Findings The research results manifest that, overall, the previous studies, mobilise cultural essentialism, with an overestimation of the “Chineseness” of Chinese tourists’ behavioural patterns, which are widely believed to be framed by, but also constituting of, unique Chinese culture. Overdependence on Chinese cultural values and traditional philosophies as sources for rationale has resulted in a handful of theoretical frameworks, which appear to be of insufficient magnitude both in terms of their contribution to the original tourist gaze model and in their manifesting of the complexity of Chinese tourists’ visual behaviour. Indeed the divide that once deliberately set apart West and East, or more precisely Western and Chinese tourist gazes, seems to become accentuated in most attempts to study and write about Chinese tourist gaze(s). The previous studies thus largely serve to mirror the Eurocentrism of Urry’s gaze, rather than challenging it. Research limitations/implications This study has a few limitations, especially, as this study only reviews and analyses the studies of the Chinese tourist gaze. It means that the conclusion might not well be generalised to either the investigation of the tourist gaze in another culture or the Chinese tourist studies, at large, which might exhibit a different pattern deserving more academic attention in future. Moreover, the authors recommend the future researchers, who are eager to probe Chinese tourists’ behavioural pattern, to seek for new pathways and alternative paradigms, which would be useful in overcoming the limits of cultural representations and in reducing the problematic Sino-Western divide. Originality/value Despite not aiming to reconceptualise the Chinese tourist gaze, this review paper contributes to the field of tourist gaze studies by engaging critically with the bias and theoretical insufficiencies that have emerged, while this concept is appropriated and re-formulated to explain Chinese tourists’ gazes and visual practices. On this basis, the authors suggest a critical redirection of the extant Chinese tourist gaze studies, which would be rather significant to those researchers in future with an interest to research what the Chinese tourists prefer to see in travel and how they engage with the gazee.