Does tourist generated content (TGC) boost tourist motivation better? Dual verification via ISM-DEMATEL approach and experimental study

• Published in: Zhejiang da xue xue bao. Journal of Zhejiang University. Sciences edition. Li xue ban Vol. 51; no. 5; pp. 636 - 650
• Main Authors: Zhang, Ruoyu, Zhang, Gaojun, Jiang, Jingyi, Cheng, Long
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: Hangzhou Zhejiang University 01.09.2024; Zhejiang University Press
• Subjects: Comparative studies; ism-dematel(ism-dematel); Marketing; Tourism; tourism destination image(旅游目的地形象); tourism photo(旅游照片); travel intention(旅游意愿)
• ISSN: 1008-9497
• DOI: 10.3785/j.issn.1008-9497.2024.05.014

Among a plethora of destination marketing and traveler comparative studies, an integral theoretical supposition is that public information uploaded by travelers such as narratives and photographs possess greater potential to catalyze travel intention. However, this hypothesis remains unsubstaintiated through empirical research. To this end, this paper takes tourism photos as the starting point, adopts the idea of cross-examination to seek the stability of the research conclusions, constructs an index system of the influence of tourism photos on tourism willingness in three dimensions of "express" factors, "hints" factors and information quality, and introduces the ISM-DEMATEL method to construct an explanatory structure model. The robustness of the ISM-DEMATEL results are verified by experimental studies. Our study found that: Firstly, the hierarchical model of tourism photos affecting travel willingness has four levels, and the authenticity of information occupies the most significant position; Secondly, the level of typical characteristics of tourist generated content (TGC) is generally higher than that of official generated content (OGC), that is, in the process of stimulating people's willingness to travel, TGC are higher importance. Thirdly, the experimental results show that photos can significantly improve people's willingness to travel, which confirms that travel photos are a good destination marketing medium, and the promotion effect of TGC is the strongest among the three types, followed by the common feature of OGC and TGC, and finally the feature of OGC. At the theoretical level, this paper confirms the importance of TGC compared with OGC to tourism marketing, and consolidates the theoretical basis of related research; In practice, this paper argues that more focus should be attached on the quality of information in tourist photos and appropriately draw on the style of TGC to build a more attractive destination image.