Untangling the Potential of Sustainable Online Information Sources in Shaping Visitors’ Intentions

Salamatu Bellah Conteh, Moiz Malik, Mohsin Shahzad () and Sana Shahid
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Salamatu Bellah Conteh: Department of Foreign Languages & Societal Culture, Faculty of Business & Finance, Transit College Sierra Leone, Freetown 00232, Sierra Leone
Moiz Malik: School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Mohsin Shahzad: LNU-MSU College of International Business, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116024, China
Sana Shahid: School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: Tourism has gained enormous attention, and every country is determined to attract more visitors. Concerned stakeholders are trying to promote their country’s image and that of their tourist destinations. Travelers attain information from different sustainable sources, and these different sustainable sources might be critical in shaping the perceived image of a country. Not enough research has been conducted with respect to investigating the association between these perceived images and sustainable information sources regarding any country. Hence, this study tries to fill this research gap by integrating country and destination image, outbound travel motivation, and information sources to obtain relevant information. Considering the above-mentioned context, data were gathered from a survey completed by respondents who had visited a developing country, i.e., Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the validity of the data of 205 potential visitors. Our findings show that a country’s image has a significant favorable influence on destination image. Destination and country image favorably impact travelers’ intentions to visit a certain destination, though this is also partially mediated by outbound travel motivation. Furthermore, the critical role of sustainable information sources in shaping country and destination image is highlighted in this paper. The proposed model offers novel insights into the literature and can be used to assist in the design of appropriate marketing strategies for the tourism sector by incorporating perceived image, outbound travel motivation, and information sources. This research offers pertinent recommendations to enhance tourism. Though we feel our research makes a pertinent contribution to the literature, in the future, other researchers may test the proposed model by integrating the data from other Chinese cities to gain more insights.

Keywords: destination image; country image; sustainable information sources; outbound travel motivation; intention to visit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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