The influence of pre-trip beliefs, impressions, and feelings on the intention to visit a destination

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, Carlos Peixeira
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/10118
• topic: Destination image; Goal-directed behavior; Visiting intention; Desire; Attitudes

This paper draws a structure of pre-trip destination image based on two dichotomies well acknowledged in the literature: on the one hand, the view that image is formed by perceptions (cognitive) and feelings (affective) (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999); on the other, the idea that it may be based on more concrete attributes or more abstract holistic impressions (Echtner & Ritchie, 1991). It is proposed that beliefs about attributes influence holistic impressions and both affect feelings. Then, in accordance to the Model of Goal-directed Behavior, it is hypothesized that image influences the antecedents of intentions, such as the overall attitude (Park et al., 2017) or the desire (Park & Petrick, 2009). A PLS-SEM was designed with measurements adapted from existent literature. The model was tested in a random telephone sample of 411 potential travelers living in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal. At the beginning of 2019, respondents were asked about their intentions to visit one rural inland destination during that year, and about the independent variables as well. Overall the results conform to the proposed model, the largest effects being the proximal relationships in the sequence attributes – holistic – feelings – attitude – desire – intention. Beliefs about attributes are very influencing, particularly on attitude; anticipated feelings of excitement affect attitude and desire; holistic impressions regarding charm and romance seem to be less important, but still have an effect, particularly on intention. It is suggested to pay attention to those attributes that have more potential to reinforce the holistic and affective components.