A meta-analysis of tourists’ destination visits and theory of planned behavior: the moderating roles of destination scale and cultural difference

Abstract

ABSTRACT The literature has explored what motivates tourists to visit a place, but there has not been much work done to compile and synthesize the results of empirical investigations. This study meta-analytically reviews extant research in tourists’ destination visits and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) exploring the moderating roles of destination scale (large versus small) and cultural difference (Eastern versus Western). Using 99 individual samples (N = 46,307) with a series of meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), this study demonstrated that the predictive power of TPB for tourists’ destination visits varies given the differences in destination scale and culture. There is a discussion of the findings’ significance for researchers and practitioners in the tourism field.