The contribution of website design to the generation of tourist destination image: The moderating effect of involvement

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2014.10.001

Tourism Management

Volume 47, April 2015, Pages 303-317

The contribution of website design to the generation of tourist destination image: The moderating effect of involvement

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.10.001 Get rights and content

Highlights

•: The effect of tourist destination website design on destination image is analyzed.
•: The destination image is more positive when emotional messages are employed.
•: The destination image is more positive when the individual does not feel overloaded.
•: The moderating effect of consumer involvement on message type is demonstrated.
•: The moderating effect of consumer involvement on overload is demonstrated.

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Tourist destination image

Website

Information-overload

Involvement

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Vitae

Rodríguez-Molina, M.A. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Market Research at the University of Granada. His research interests encompass tourism, consumer behaviour, and mobile marketing. He has written several academic articles published in reputed journals in such areas, ie. Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Internet Research, Journal of Advertising Research, and Journal of Small Business Management, among others.

Frías-Jamilena, D.M. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Market Research at the University of Granada. His research interests are in the areas of online consumer behavioral, tourism and cross-cultural research. She has published in Tourism Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Internet Research, Online Information Review, The Services Industries Journal, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Cornell Hospitality Quartely, Journal of Travel Research, and other scholarly journals.

Castañeda-García, J.A. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Market Research at the University of Granada. His research interests encompass e-commerce, mobile commerce, tourism and cross-cultural research. He has written several academic articles published in reputed journals in such areas, ie. Internet Research, Information & Management, Online Information Review, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, among others.