A Comparative Study of the Impact of Negative Word of Mouth on Travel Intentions of Chinese and Korean Consumers in Tourism Destinations

Weijia Li and Ziyang Liu
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Weijia Li: Department of Global Business, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, Korea
Ziyang Liu: Department of Global Business, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: This article is based on reducing the negative effect of negative word-of-mouth on consumers’ travel intentions. We constructed a model of consumers’ travel intentions to explore the influence of negative word-of-mouth about tourist destinations on consumers’ travel intentions, examine the moderating effect of destination familiarity and the mediating utility of negative emotions, and conduct a comparative analysis between China and South Korea. Based on SPSS and AMOS analysis, we found the following: (1) Negative word-of-mouth has no direct positive effect on travel intention, and negative emotion plays a completely mediating role between negative word-of-mouth and travel intention, whereas high-intensity negative emotion is positively related to travel intention. (2) Travel destination familiarity has a moderating effect on negative word-of-mouth and negative emotions. Consumers with higher familiarity make external attributions and generate high-intensity negative emotions when they receive negative word-of-mouth; consumers with lower familiarity make internal attributions and generate low-intensity negative emotions. To improve consumers’ travel intentions, companies can enhance the relationship between tourist destination brands and tourists, adopt different management strategies for negative word-of-mouth according to the level of familiarity of destinations, and formulate tourism strategies.

Keywords: negative word of mouth; negative emotion; destination brand familiarity; travel intention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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