The Development of a Conceptual Framework on the Brand Personality, Self-Congruity and Tourist Loyalty: the Moderator Role of Tourist Emotional Experience

Yang, S., Isa, S. M., Ramayah, T. and Blanes, R. (2019) The Development of a Conceptual Framework on the Brand Personality, Self-Congruity and Tourist Loyalty: the Moderator Role of Tourist Emotional Experience. In: 9th Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management Conference, Portsmouth, UK, 09-12 Jul 2019, pp. 532-534. ISBN 9780996424448

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Publisher's URL: http://www.ahtmm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-AHTMM-Conference-proceedings.pdf#page=554

Abstract

The loyalty of tourist has been a recurring theme in the field of tourism destination and has been studied for over two decades (Dimanche & Haviz, 1994). If the tourists’ experience at a destination is understood as a product, their level of loyalty can be reflected in their behavioral intention to revisit the same destination (Oppermann, 2000). In tourism literature a coherent body of research recognizes the construct of revisit intention that has been empirically tested in theoretical model. For instance, modelling antecedents of brand personality (Ekinci, & Hosany 2006; KILICcedil, & Sop 2012; Chen, & Phou 2013), self-congruity (Uşakl, & Baloglu 2011; Edina, & Beykan, 2016; Yang, Isa, & Ramayah, 2019) and tourist loyalty (intention to revisit) (Uşakl, & Baloglu 2011; Apostolopoulou, & Papadimitriou, 2015) remained a widespread research agenda in tourism. However, above these studies have omitted to examine these relationships between brand personality, self-congruity and tourist loyalty by enhancing any new single variables into the theoretical framework. Another variable which is likely to be a crucial predictor of tourist behavioral loyalty is tourist emotional experience. Empirical evidence confirmed that tourist emotional experience (joy, love, and positive surprise) was the most significantly associated with tourist loyalty (Prayag, Hosany, & Odeh, 2013). Underlying theories are involved in this study including theory of self-congruity and theory of pyschoevolutionary which are umbrella terms which cover brand personality, self-congruity, tourist emotional experience and tourist loyalty. First, Sirgy (1982) explains that self-congruity theory reinforces the idea that consumer perceptions, or leanings, in favour of certain items are achieved by means of a match between the product idea/image and the consumer’s self-perception. 533 In tourism context, theory of self-congruity suggests tourist is more likely to visit/revisit a destination whose image is consistent with their self-concept (Beerli, Meneses, Gil, 2007). Therefore, the proposed relationship between brand personality and self-congruity and tourist loyalty might provide validity in tourism context. Second, in psychology discipline Plutchik (1980) defined psychoevolutionary theory on the basis of eight basic emotional dimensions such as fear, anger, joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, expectancy (anticipation), and surprise. Furthermore, emotions based on dimensional approaches are conceptualized by applying a few dimensions such as positive and negative (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), or pleasure and arousal (Russell, 1980; Walsh et al., 2011). However, it has been noted that existing emotion scales tend to ignore the complexity of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998) that are commonly related to travel experiences (Nawijn et al., 2013). Therefore, in this conceptual paper we applied destination emotion scale (DES) which was developed by Hosany and Gilbert (2010) in order to provide a valid measurement on the complexity of tourists’ emotional experience which involves three main dimensions, namely joy, love, and positive surprise. It should be understood that positive emotions tend to be more pervasive in tourist recalled experiences. Positive emotional is an important precursor that might encourage tourist loyalty. Drawn from theory of self-congruity and theory of psychoevolutionary, this conceptual paper is to propose an integrated theoretical model on brand personality, self-congruity, tourist emotional experience and tourist loyalty. Extant literature on model of self-congruity found that there is a weak relationship between self-congruity and tourist loyalty (Giraldi, 2013; Rutelione, Hopenienė, & Žalimienė, 2018). This leaves a gap which can call for an exploration of other potential moderators to strengthen and support the relationship between self-congruity and tourist loyalty. To address this problem, the primary purpose of the current conceptual paper is to propose tourist emotional experience as the moderator which is capable of strengthening and supporting the relationship between self-congruity and tourist loyalty. In sum, it is hoped that this proposed theoretical framework can help destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and operators to develop a comprehensive understanding of degree of tourist loyalty towards tourism destinations. Moreover, it is expected that the proposed associations between the theory of self- congruity and theory of psychoevolutionary would enable the assessment of the interrelationship between these variables, which might then lead to the successful integration of a theoretical model.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Yang, Shaohua and Blanes, Dr Ramona
Authors: Yang, S., Isa, S. M., Ramayah, T., and Blanes, R.
Subjects:H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
College/School:College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
ISBN:9780996424448

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record