The Battle Of The Socials: Which Socially Symbolic Factors Best Predict Intent To Travel?
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Carol Kline PhD, Associate Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: Tourists are flooded with travel options making competition fierce within their consideration sets. While most research emphasizes the functional attributes of destinations, as narcissism becomes more normalized, it is of increasing interest to examine the influence socially symbolic factors have on tourist decision making.Therefore, this study sought to examine the efficacy of four different socially symbolic predictors of travel—social norms, social self-concept (actual and ideal), and social return—for predicting a person's likelihood to travel to Cuba across three time horizons (1 year, 5 years, and 10 years). Results from a panel of 785 U.S. travelers found social norms to be the best predictor of travel across all three time horizons with social return also being significant across all time horizons. Implications to destination marketing are discussed such as some socially symbolic variables being easier to operationalize in marketing campaigns compared to others (e.g. social return vs. social norms).
The Battle Of The Socials: Which Socially Symbolic Factors Best Predict Intent To Travel?
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Created on 12/5/2018
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Moran, C., et al. (2018). "The battle of the socials: Which socially symbolic factors best predict intent to travel?" Tourism Management 68: 324-327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.03.023. Publisher version of record available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517718300736?via%3Dihub
- Language: English
- Date: 2018
- Keywords
- Destination choice, Tourist decision making,
Socially symbolic predictors of travel, Cuba,
Social return