A Comparative Study of the Impact of Negative Word of Mouth on Travel Intentions of Chinese and Korean Consumers in Tourism Destinations

Weijia Li,Ziyang Liu

doi:10.3390/su14042062

Abstract

This article is based on reducing the negative effect of negative word-of-mouth on consumers’ travel intentions. We constructed a model of consumers’ travel intentions to explore the influence of negative word-of-mouth about tourist destinations on consumers’ travel intentions, examine the moderating effect of destination familiarity and the mediating utility of negative emotions, and conduct a comparative analysis between China and South Korea. Based on SPSS and AMOS analysis, we found the following: (1) Negative word-of-mouth has no direct positive effect on travel intention, and negative emotion plays a completely mediating role between negative word-of-mouth and travel intention, whereas high-intensity negative emotion is positively related to travel intention. (2) Travel destination familiarity has a moderating effect on negative word-of-mouth and negative emotions. Consumers with higher familiarity make external attributions and generate high-intensity negative emotions when they receive negative word-of-mouth; consumers with lower familiarity make internal attributions and generate low-intensity negative emotions. To improve consumers’ travel intentions, companies can enhance the relationship between tourist destination brands and tourists, adopt different management strategies for negative word-of-mouth according to the level of familiarity of destinations, and formulate tourism strategies.

Highlights

Academic Editors: Anna Mazzi andIn light of the rapid development of tourism, the upgrading of consumers’ consumption demands, and the increasing competitiveness of the tourism market, understanding the factors affecting consumers’ intentions to travel is critical to improving the competitiveness of enterprises [1]
This paper focuses on three variables—negative word of mouth, negative emotions, and destination familiarity—and explores their influence on the travel intentions of Chinese and Korean tourists
The following conclusions were obtained by analyzing data from both countries: (1) Negative Internet word of mouth has no direct positive influence on travel intention

Summary

Introduction

Academic Editors: Anna Mazzi andIn light of the rapid development of tourism, the upgrading of consumers’ consumption demands, and the increasing competitiveness of the tourism market, understanding the factors affecting consumers’ intentions to travel is critical to improving the competitiveness of enterprises [1]. More and more people share, collect, and exchange travel information via the Internet, which makes the public aware of tourist destinations, and exposes the negative sides of some tourist spots [2]. Negative word-of-mouth far outweighs positive word-of-mouth, and the spread of the Internet amplifies the negative word-of-mouth and may cause tourists to change their travel plans, which is a big blow to local tourism. That negative word-of-mouth does not always lead to negative evaluations and sometimes may even inspire positive evaluations of brands. Escalas and Bettman (2003) [4] and Wilson et al (2017) [5] argue that when consumers have high self-brand associations, they deal defensively with negative word-of-mouth, increasing their intentions to purchase. Some scholars have explained it in terms of consumers’ positive attitudes towards brands (Ahluwalia, 2000) [6], product purchase experience (Sweeney et al, 2014) [7], and brand strength (Ho-Dac et al, 2013) [8,9]

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