Vincent Wing Sun Tung

A framework of memory management and tourism experiences

ABSTRACT This research first develops a conceptual model to link relevant concepts in psychology and tourism research to each stage of the long-term memory (LTM) system. It combines insights from mindfulness, positive affect, and quality of conscious experience to understand how tourists encode information; research in short-term memory and working memory as well as social identity to address the consolidation of information; and concepts of remembering, false memory, and storytelling to highlight information retrieval. Next, focus groups were conducted to examine how practitioners are helping tourists encode, consolidate, and retrieve their memories in the context of this model (Study 1). Finally, in-depth interviews were conducted to complement the practitioner’s perspective by reflecting the tourist’s voice that is relevant in each stage of the LTM system (Study 2). Overall, this research connects findings from the practitioner’s viewpoint with the tourist’s voice to present a framework of memory management and tourism experiences.

The impact of tourism mini-movies on destination image: The influence of travel motivation and advertising disclosure

ABSTRACT Despite the growing use of mini-movies by tourism marketers, the effectiveness of this approach on inducing positive destination image remains relatively unexplored. This study examines the effectiveness of mini-movies in facilitating positive destination image while considering the influence of travel motivation and advertising disclosure via a 2 (travel motivation prime: presence versus absence) × 2 (advertising: disclosure versus non-disclosure) between-subjects experimental design. The methodology details the process of eliciting an individuals memorable tourism experience to prime future travel motivations. The study discusses implications for destinations that are looking to leverage the impact of mini-movies in their branding strategies. Abbreviations: DMO: destination marketing organization; SD: standard deviation; ANOVA: analysis of variance

The stereotyping of tourism management students in a business school setting

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that students in business schools hold stereotypes concerning their peers who are undertaking different specializations. Yet, to the authors’ knowledge, no research to date has investigated the stereotyping of tourism management students by other business students. The present study seeks to fill this research gap. The insights are important because negative perceptions exacerbate the challenge of attracting high-quality prospects for tourism degree programs and of producing graduates who enjoy favorable recognition by their peers and by industry. Tourism management students are future leaders who are critical to the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism sector. In-depth interviews revealed three stereotyping themes: personality attribution, legitimacy, and professionalism. The study concludes by discussing potential stereotype-reducing strategies.

Changing proxies for evaluating research performance: what matters to university programme heads?

ABSTRACT The tourism and hospitality research and publishing landscape have faced radical changes over the last decade. As a result, there have been calls for more holistic approaches for evaluating an academic’s research performance. Yet, updated research on the perceptions of what constitutes ‘good’ research performance remain under-studied. To address this gap, the objective of this study is to examine how current university programme heads in tourism and hospitality evaluate and define ‘good’ research performance. In doing so, this study offers insights to academics on how the goal posts are indeed shifting for performance evaluation, and provides information for programme heads to assess the relative salience of their own research targets.

The Influence of Stereotypes and Host–Tourist Interactions on Post-travel Destination Image and Evaluations of Residents

ABSTRACT In recent years, media coverage reporting or reflecting stereotypes from Chinese tourists towards other national groups has drawn widespread attention. Yet limited research has been conducted to explore the connections between the concepts of Chinese tourists’ stereotypes, host–tourist interactions (HTIs) and destination image. To address this gap, the objective of this study is to investigate the influence of Chinese tourists’ pre-travel stereotypes of local residents and their on-site HTIs on post-travel evaluations of locals and destination image. In-depth interviews with Chinese tourists to overseas destinations were conducted, and a sequential model is presented to illustrate how tourists could make comparisons between their pre-travel stereotypes and experienced HTIs to generate post-trip evaluations.

Travel Motivations of Domestic Film Tourists to the Hengdian World Studios: Serendipity, Traverse, and Mimicry

ABSTRACT While past studies have sought to understand the travel motivations of international film tourists, more attention can be paid to examine the motivations from domestic visitors. This distinction is critical as domestic tourists have different travel experiences, familiarity, and cultural proximity with their country than international tourists, which can affect their travel motivations. To address this research gap, this study examines domestic tourists’ motivations for visiting the Hengdian World Studios in China via a netnographic approach. Three dimensions were identified, reflecting interpretations from tourists’ voices: their desire for serendipitous experiences, to traverse and dream, and to compare the mimicry of Hengdian to real heritage sites in China. This study contributes to the literature from a psychological perspective by analyzing post-trip reflections to infer pre-trip motivations. This study also provides implications for tourism marketers in other emerging countries where some of the world’s largest film destinations are being developed.

Helping a Lost Tourist: The Effects of Metastereotypes on Resident Prosocial Behaviors:

While previous research has explored stereotypes, few studies have investigated the effects of metastereotypes on residents’ prosocial behaviors; that is, how would residents react to tourists’ negative (or positive) stereotypes of them? Study 1 demonstrates that residents were more willing to help a lost tourist in the face of negative metastereotypes. Study 2 further shows that metastereotype valence (i.e., positive or negative) could influence residents’ prosocial behaviors. Finally, Study 3 shows that triggering a common social identity between residents and tourists may not mitigate the effects of metastereotypes that arise from outgroup distinctiveness. Taken together, this research suggests that metastereotypes could potentially influence prosocial behaviors through impression management motives. This research contributes to the literature on host-tourist relationships and provides practical relevance for destination management organizations and public policy planners involved in managing intergroup relations by connecting knowledge from metastereotypes with stereotype-reduction strategies.

Does the Listener Matter? The Effects of Capitalization on Storytellers’ Evaluations of Travel Memories

Despite existing studies on memorable tourism experiences that often involve interpersonal sharing, the broader question of how a listener could influence tourists’ memories, including their evaluations of posttravel experiences and destination image, remains relatively unexplored. Interpersonal sharing with a listener could elicit a process called capitalization in which an individual (re)constructs details of an experience to make it more memorable. To address this gap, this research examines the effects of capitalization on travel memories (study 1), and the influence of listener responsiveness on tourists’ destination image (study 2). This research reinforces the notion that separating the act of remembering from the act of sharing is difficult and contributes to research on the malleability of travel memories by highlighting the influence of the listener’s feedback in shaping tourists’ memorable experiences. This research also provides relevant implications for tourism practitioners involved in service experiences and tourist relationship building.

How does family influence the travel constraints of solo travelers? Construct specification and scale development

ABSTRACT Attracting the solo travel market is increasingly important for destination marketing organizations. Despite the wealth of literature on travel motivations of solo travelers, a related domain of research that deserves more attention are the travel constraints that could hinder solo traveling. More specifically, although solo travelers may wish to embark on a journey alone, they must nevertheless address a number of constraints that oftentimes stem from their family’s concerns for them as family represents a critical influencer that could impact their travel decision. Yet, research measuring the influence of family remains under-studied. In order to address this gap, this study connects knowledge on travel constraints with literature on family dynamics to develop a valid and reliable measurement scale for assessing family pressures on solo travelers. Destination marketers can apply this scale to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies at easing the concerns of solo travelers as a result of family pressures.

Tourist Experience on Memorable Hospitality Services

ABSTRACT Social media, online review and photo posting have created an impact on hotel guest experience. This study explores how tourists capture their experience on memorable hospitality services via each stage of the long-term memory system (i.e. encoding, consolidation and retrieval). User-generated content was analyzed from three five-star hotels in Guangdong Province, China, and linked with each stage of the memory system to highlight the concepts of mindfulness, working memory, self-identity, remembering and storytelling on the memories of guests. Among the three stages of the long-term memory system, stage 1-encoding received the highest weight, followed by stage 3-retrieval and stage 2- consolidation. This result corroborates that practitioners can focus on the opportunities of the memory consolidation (stage 2) and retrieval (stage 3) of tourists. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes by demonstrating how a long-term memory framework derived from psychology research could be used to provide a broad investigation of the memories of guests in hospitality research. Moreover, this study exhibited how the combination of text-based guest reviews and shared photographs of positive and negative memories can be used in memory-related hospitality studies. Hence, this study elucidated how a long-term memory framework could be a relevant reference for hospitality practitioners and researchers.