When Do Tourists Defend Tourism Service Providers’ Reputations? Insights from Attribution Theory

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tourism resort events allow mass tourists to intervene to establish resort reputations among other destinations. From the locus of attribution theory perspective, this paper is the first to explore tourists defending behavior toward resorts’ reputations through destination social responsibility and information adequacy lenses. Through questioning 240 tourists in the Red Sea resorts, the study found that defending is a post-attribution behavior. The study found that tourists who internally (vs. externally) attribute the event outcomes tend (vs. ignore) to defend the Red Sea resorts’ reputation. Nevertheless, resorts’ reputation could maintain defending behavior in case of external attribution with the presence of their perception of resorts’ social responsibility and information adequacy. Such defending behavior approach enables crucial managerial implications for the Red Sea resort managers.