Open AccessExamining the role of familiarity, information sources, length of stay and satisfaction to the image perception model
Author(s) -
Lluís Batlle i Prats,
Raquel Camprubí,
Lluis Coromina
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of tourism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1314-0817
pISSN - 1994-7658
DOI - 10.54055/ejtr.v13i.228
Subject(s) - tourism , perception , affect (linguistics) , psychology , structural equation modeling , cognition , destination image , social psychology , test (biology) , advertising , destinations , computer science , geography , business , communication , archaeology , neuroscience , paleontology , machine learning , biology
This study examines the effect of familiarity on information sources and the length of stay in a destination, and how these concepts, in turn, affect the image perception model. Data was collected from 603 structured personal interviews carried out in Barcelona (Spain) and structural equation modelling methodology was used to test the hypotheses. Results show that tourists familiar with Barcelona are less likely to consult tourist information. The paper also presents evidence to suggest that the length of stay is the same whether tourists are familiar with the destination or not. Furthermore, we argue that tourist satisfaction is influenced by both cognitive and affective evaluations and that information sources partially influence cognitive evaluations, affective evaluations length of stay and satisfaction. Until now literature has only indicated a tentative relationship between length of stay and destination image, however the outcomes of this study prove that the length of stay in a destination alters its tourism image.