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Perception of Risk

Perception of risk is of paramount importance in tourists? decision-making process as it can alter rational decision-making pertaining to destination choice (S?nmez & Graefe, 1998a). Perceived risk is defined as consumer perception of the probability that an action may expose them to danger that can influence travel decisions if the perceived danger is deemed to be beyond anacceptable level (Mansfeld, 2006; Reichel et al., 2007). A certain level of probability can be attached to risk to determine probable loss (Stone & Gr?nhaug,1993). The perception of travel risks such as physical risk, psychological risk, financial risk, and health risk may arise from perceived potential loss as a result of natural disaster (Mansfeld, 2006), epidemics (Rittichainuwat & Chakraborty, 2009), terrorism (S?nmez & Graefe, 1998b), and political instability (Carter, 1998). Such perceptions may differ from reality (Roehl & Fesenmaier, 1992) as media plays a key role in forming consumers? risk perceptions through information dissemination of affected destinations.

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The question of how tourist destination image is generated is an issue of significant interest in the tourism management field. The present work analyzes the effect of the design of a tourist destination website, and the effect of the tourist's processing of information, on the destination image that the tourist creates. In order to achieve this objective, an experimental design was carried out, in which a destination website was specially created in order to manipulate message type and information overload. The results demonstrate that destination image is more positive when emotional messages are employed on the website and when the individual does not experience overload. The work also demonstrates the moderating role of involvement, in the effect of the factors manipulated in the study (message type and information-overload) on tourist destination image. The conclusions reached in this study hold some interesting implications for practitioners working in tourist destination management.

Destination image

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This study evaluated the relationship between travel constraints and destination image of young travelers to Brunei. This study found a significant relationship between destination image and travel constraints during the early decision-making process. This study concluded travel constraints impact on the formation of destination image during the early decision-making process. Study results contribute to the body of knowledge in two areas. First, four dimensions of travel constraints and three dimensions of perceived destination image were identified. In addition to the 3-dimension hierarchal constraints (structural, intrapersonal, and interpersonal), a new constraint dimension (unfamiliar cultural constraints) was revealed. Second, this study confirmed the relationship between travel constraints and destination image. Relatively few studies address the role of travel constraints to the formation of destination image. This is the first study providing

empirical evidence demonstrating Brunei?s destination image and travel constraints impact young travelers during the early decision-making process.

Travel Constraints

Past research has shown participation in leisure activity, including travel, might be inhibited by constraints (Jackson, 1988, 1991). Leisure constraints and the benefits of leisure are the two

basic factors that influence the travel decision-making process. The major constraints affecting travel are social, political, physical, financial, time, health, family stage, lack of interest, fear and safety, lack of transportation, companionship, overcrowding, distance, and limited information about potential destinations (Carneiro & Crompton, 2010; Jackson, 1988). As such, leisure constraints have been shown to prohibit participation in tourism activities (Um & Crompton, 1999).

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Image is an important component of tourism destination marketing because it influences tourists' behavior by stimulating multiple creative activities and experiences. Previous studies have shown that destination image formation affects travelers' thinking and feeling. Therefore, exploring the role of destination images is vital for the promotion of tourist destinations as holiday resources. We were interested in exploring the tourist's opinion in selecting touristic images used for promotional aims. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the affective and motivational factors with regard to a case-tourist destination, comparing two sets of images. The results showed that tourists considered the images in the first set to be stereotypical, while those in the second set evoked more affective and motivational attributes, increasing their desire to visit the represented places. The results of logistic regression analyses underlined that tourists are more influenced by the images in the second set. Finally, marketing implications are discussed.

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With the arrival of new media and communication technologies in recent years, user-generated content (UGC) on the internet has increasingly been considered a credible form of word-of-mouth. Social media websites, such as Facebook, Flickr, and Panoramio, allow tourists to share their travel experiences with others by uploading travel photos online, an activity that has gained popularity among internet users. Unlike images created and projected by destination marketing organizations (DMOs), pictorial UGC reflects users? perceptions of a destination. This study compared images of Peru collected from a DMO?s site and from Flickr, a photo-sharing website and identified statistical differences in several dimensions of these images. The study visualized these differences by constructing maps representing ¡°aggregated¡± projected and perceived images of Peru, as well as maps of geographical distribution of the images.

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This article provides much needed understanding of destination images held by non-visitors. Recognizing the characteristics of non-visitor images and their formation is important in order to understand images more widely. This qualitative study assesses images of London. The views of three hundred people in the Czech Republic who have never visited London were obtained via an innovative open-ended research instrument. The study showed that non-visitors imagine destinations through comparisons with their own experiences of places. Findings indicate that images can be very persistent and that the first images formed of a destination endure over time. Although the research is based on people with no direct experience of London, the research highlights that arrange of secondary ?experiences? influence image formation.

City Image

For many urban researchers the city is best understood as an ?imagined environment? even for those who experience that environment on a daily basis (e.g. Donald, 1999; Raban, 1974). As Pike(1996, p. 246) states, the city is itself ??by any definition, a social image??. The very idea of ?the city? has been created through practices, representations and the meanings that are generated by human cultures. According to Donald (1999, p. 8) ??the city is an abstraction which claims to identity what, if anything, is common to all cities??. Therefore, it is impossible to examine city images without recognizing the importance of urban representations, particularly iconographic representations distributed via film, television and painting. Distinct from perspectives relating to the cognitive personal and psychological perception of the urban landscape, cultural analyses of place image emphasize the importance of mythic places, imaginary places, and places constructed through the production of discourse.

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The purpose of this paper is to study the interrelationships among electronic word of mouth (eWOM), destination image, tourist attitude, and travel intention in the tourism industry. In addition, the paper examines the effect of sociodemographic characteristics on the research variables. A 10 min pen and paper questionnaire was distributed to international tourists in Isfahan through a nonprobability, convenience-sampling approach. Reliability and validity of the measurement scale were established through average variance extracted (AVE), Cronbach?s alpha analyses, and intercorrelation analyses. A structural equation model (SEM) test with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to test the relationship among the research variables using 264 participants. In addition, the possible influence of sociodemographic characteristics on the research variables was analyzed using an ANOVA. The empirical results from the structural model suggest that: (1) eWOM positively influences the destination image, tourist attitude and travel intention; (2) destination image and tourist attitude have a significant relationship with intention to travel; (3) destination image positively affects tourist attitude, and (4) the socio-demographic characteristics influence using eWOM, destination image, tourist attitude, and travel intention. Implications and future research issues were discussed.

Electronic word of mouth

Electronic WOM (eWOM) communication refers to any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former custo- mers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet (Litvin et al., 2008). eWOM is considered as an important information source influencing tourists? travel intention and choice of destination (Grewal, Cline & Davies, 2003; Soderlund & Rosengren, 2007; Ying & Chung, 2007; Yun & Good, 2007; Jalilvand & Samiei, 2012b, 2012c). Findings of recent studies show different effects of online reviews on the product/service sales. For instance, Chevalier and Mayzlin (2006) and Ye, Law, Gu, and Chen (2011) also indicated that online reviews have a significant impact on online sales. Since online traveler reviews are an important source of information to both travelers and tourism firms, researchers have attempted to analyze and understand online traveler reviews by sophisticated technolo- gies (Govers & Go, 2005; Ye, Law & Gu, 2009, Ye, Zhang & Law, 2009). Previous studies have shown that online travel reviews may influence the decisions of travelers (Vermeulen & Seegers, 2009). ////

Tourism has become increasingly dependent on image (Tasci & Gartner, 2007). Holidays are intangible products, which are concurrently produced and consumed and therefore cannot be

evaluated beforehand (Lewis & Chambers, 2000; Mundt, 2000).Thus, image plays a major role in travel decisions and choice of destinations (Chen & Tsai, 2007; Nadeau, Heslop, O'Reilly, & Luk, 2008; Tasci & Gartner, 2007). Accordingly, the study of destination image has been a focus of tourism research for nearly four decades. While there is a relative abundance of research analyzing the image induced by the tourism industry's promotional materials (e.g., Gartner, 1989; S€onmez & Sirakaya, 2002) only a few of these studies have focused on the Internet (Lepp, Gibson, & Lane, 2011).