Abstract
In an era of mobile internet, word-of-mouth marketing has become a powerful tool for optimizing tourist destination marketing. Extensive research studies on the mechanism of word-of-mouth have been carried out. However, there is little research on the mechanism of word-of-mouth concerning tourist destinations in crisis. This article focuses on the influence mechanism of word-of-mouth in the relationship between perceived images and behavioral intentions. A structural equation model was established, with “perceived image” as the independent variable, “word-of-mouth” and “psychological distance” as mediating variables, and “behavioral intention” as the dependent variable. Our study is based on a survey in Southern Xinjiang. The final results show that word-of-mouth plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived image and behavioral intentions. The moderating effect of word-of-mouth plays two roles in the mechanism of the perceived image on the behavioral intention: the promotion mechanism and the repression mechanism. Tourists’ sense of psychological distance significantly mediates the relationship between perceived image and behavioral intention. The findings enrich word-of-mouth and the marketing theories for the destinations in crisis, which provide enlightening insights for the sustainable development of the destinations in crisis.
Highlights
Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing has an important impact on consumer behavior (Bughin et al, 2010; Huete-Alcocer, 2017; Litvin et al, 2018; Wilson et al, 2017; Yoon et al, 2017)
WOM played an important role in the promotion mechanism and repression mechanism
The results showed that the standardized factor loading of each measurement variable was greater than 0.7, the composite reliability (CR) value was greater than .6, and the average variance extracted (AVE) was greater than 0.5 (Table 3), which conform to the standards proposed by Hair et al (1998)
Summary
Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing has an important impact on consumer behavior (Bughin et al, 2010; Huete-Alcocer, 2017; Litvin et al, 2018; Wilson et al, 2017; Yoon et al, 2017). SAGE Open established, taking tourists’ perceived image as the independent variable, WOM and psychological distance as the mediated variables, and behavioral intention as the dependent variable. The article tests the mediating effects of WOM between perceived images and behavioral intentions. The article tests the moderating effects of WOM on the relationship between perceived images and psychological distances, and the relationship between psychological distances and behavioral intentions. Several conclusions are drawn: WOM played a mediating role in the relationship between perceived images and behavioral intentions. Tourists’ sense of psychological distance significantly mediated the relationship between perceived images and behavioral intentions. The findings in this article provide enlightening insights for the sustainable development of marketing activities in Southern Xinjiang. Section “Literature Review” presents a literature review on perceived image, WOM, psychological distance, and behavioral intention. The results were discussed in section “Discussion.” The conclusions, implications, and limitations and further research are drawn in section “Conclusion and Implications.”
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