Tourist expectations and perception of service providers: a Brazilian perspective

Abstract

This research studies the formation of tourist expectations around a tourist destination and the existence of a knowledge gap between this group and perceptions of tourism service providers. We propose a five-construct theoretical model: tourism expectations, destination image, social media, word-of-mouth communication and past experiences. We thus implemented two questionnaires, with tourists (n = 373) and with tourism service providers (n = 460). Structural equation modelling results identify social media and destination image as influencing visitors’ expectations, and that this image arises out of word-of-mouth communication and tourists’ past experiences. The results also indicate that local actors may be neglecting the influence of word-of-mouth destination recommendations and the relationship between the destination image and the prevailing expectations.