| Author: | Ngwira, Cecilia Ndamiwe |
| Title: | Destination brand experiences of Lake Malawi : scale development and validation |
| Advisors: | Tung, Vincent (SHTM) Mckercher, Bob (SHTM) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Subject: | Tourism -- Marketing Tourism -- Environmental aspects Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xviii, 239, 1, [19] pages : illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Tourism destinations compete for the attention of the same tourist pool using similar tourism products such as beautiful scenery, friendly people, and quality accommodation, among others. Unfortunately, due to the absence of branded destination experiences, distinguishing destination experiences becomes a difficult task for tourists to settle down on a destination in their decision making. Destination brand experiences (DBE) are thus vital to the uniqueness of a destination as they provide stronger stimuli and reduce substitutability in the minds of tourists or the target market by creating superior experiences. Branded destination experiences refer to a way destinations communicate their unique identity that aims at differentiating the destination from that of competitors. Destination brand experiences serve to identify and differentiate a destination from other destinations by evoking certain subjective internal responses of tourists to brand-related stimuli such as experience design, packaging, and the environment and communication messages. Destination branding use marketing activities such as the creation of logos, names, signs and symbols aimed at differentiating a destination while at the same time conveying an expectation of memorable travel experience. For lake destinations, having branded experiences can attract tourists who pursue water and beach-based experiences such as scuba diving, beach parties, yoga, and snorkelling, among others. At the same time, cognizant that tourist behaviours are influenced and dependent on the experiences they have as they interact with brands, lake destinations need to control tourists' adverse effects to the lacustrine environment by promoting positive environmental behaviours. Thus, the implementation of pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) among tourists is paramount to curbing negative environmental effects while at the same time safeguarding the destinations brand experiences. Yet, there are no destination-specific scales to measure destination brand experiences (DBEs) as well as test the relationship between DBEs and pro-environmental behaviours. This gap limits our understanding and application of branding in a tourism destination context. To fill this gap, the present study developed and validated a destination brand experiences scale, with Lake Malawi as a caste study, to measure the role of DBES in promoting destination sustainability through pro-environmental behaviours among tourists. The study was guided by five objectives: a) to conceptualise and validate a destination brand experience scale, b) to evaluate the association between DBE and tourist satisfaction, c) to investigate the relationship between DBE and tourist PEB, d) to examine the mediating power of tourist satisfaction on the association between DBE and tourist PEB, and e) to explore the moderating role of domestic or international tourists' status on their evaluation of DBE, tourist satisfaction and PEB. Following a rigorous scale development process by Churchill (1979), a questionnaire that mirrored the objectives of the study was developed. The questionnaire consisted of items covering the proposed six DBE domains namely sensory, cognitive, affective, behavioural, relational and spiritual, from both literature and in-depth interviews. The sensory DBE is about tourists' use of their multi-senses when interacting with the destination experiences whereas the cognitive DBE represents tourists' use of their productive reasoning power and curiosity as they engage with the destination brand. The emotional DBE dimension entails tourist emotions, feelings and sentiments which are induced as they consume the destination brand experiences. The behavioural DBE is concerned with tourists' physical actions and behaviours upon interacting with the destination brand whereas social DBE deals with tourists' experiences as they interact with other tourists, service providers as well as the local communities in the destination during consumption of products and services. The spiritual/psychic DBE domain relates to tourist desire to escape to quiet places to recollect and unwind as they connect with nature or the destination in general. Furthermore, items on satisfaction and PEB were included in the questionnaire alongside a question on tourist's nationality, under the bio-data section. Data for the study was collected in a field survey over four months in 2019 and a total of 670 usable questionnaires comprising both domestic and international tourists samples to Lake Malawi in the South-East African country of Malawi, were collected. Data were split into two and one half was used for exploratory factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation to scrutinise the principal DBE scale dimensions. Consequently, six dimensions were extracted: relational/social DBE, spiritual/psychic DBE, expressive/emotional DBE, bodily/sensory DBE, action/behavioural DBE and perceptive/cognitive DBE. A confirmatory factor analysis was then performed on the other half, and the six extracted factors were confirmed and had reliable goodness of fit indices. Modelling was conducted to test the stated hypotheses of the study. Results show that relational/social DBE is the most sought after DBE at Lake Malawi, followed by spiritual/psychic DBE. Regarding DBEs and satisfaction relationship, only three DBEs were positively related to satisfaction (relational/social, expressive/emotional and bodily/sensory) whereas on the relationship between DBEs and PEB, only relational/social and bodily/sensory were significant. Overall, satisfaction fully mediated the relationships between expressive/emotional DBE and PEB and between relational/social DBE and PEB. For bodily/sensory DBE and PEB, partial mediation was observed whereas, for the relationships between perceptive/cognitive DBE and PEB, action/behavioural DBE and PEB and spiritual/psychic DBE and PEB, no mediation effect was found. Using domestic or international tourist status in a measurement invariance test, important differences were observed in the association between DBEs and PEB such that relational/social and bodily/sensory DBEs were found to be important factors for pro-environmental behaviours among domestic tourists while for the international tourists, no DBE led to pro-environmental behavioural intentions. Some similarities were observed in the relationships between DBEs and satisfaction such that for the domestic market, relational/social, expressive/emotional, bodily/sensory, and perceptive/cognitive (negative relationship) DBEs were found to be important and led to satisfaction. For the international market, relational/social, bodily/sensory, perceptive/cognitive were important factors that led to satisfaction. Furthermore, using independent samples t-tests, significant differences were observed between domestic and international tourists across four of the six DBE dimensions; relational/social, bodily/sensory, expressive/emotional and perceptive/cognitive DBE. Negative but insignificant t-values were observed under action/behavioural evidenced by international tourists having higher scores than their domestic counterparts. This study contributes to both knowledge and practice. Firstly, the thesis pioneers the generation of a DBE scale with six dimensions that test its predictive power on tourist satisfaction and PEB. Secondly, the thesis introduces a new factor (spiritual/psychic DBE) and demonstrates how it relates to other DBE factors and with other dependent variables such as satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviours. Noting its importance in tourists' DBE at Lake Malawi, the study illustrates the need to investigate more ways of nurturing this brand experience dimension for meaningful and memorable experiences. Thirdly, the study underscores the importance of the relational/social DBE component, a component whose importance has not been established in previous studies. These results show differences between destination and product brand experiences. Practically, the study highlights important elements that would help destinations to develop and market their DBEs to give them a competitive advantage. Given the importance of relational/social DBE to both domestic and international tourists, destination managers need to design activities and experiences that promote friendships among tourists to maximise this experience. Furthermore, for the Malawian destination, Lake Malawi could be strategically marketed as a place where people meet and make lasting friendships. Finally, to promote sustainable tourism destinations, the study submits that destinations should actively engage tourists in transformative learning or on-site knowledge about sustainability for long-term impacts as research suggests that most nature-based tourism experiences fall short in delivering convincing conservation messages. To achieve this, there is a need for Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) to use technology for lasting mental imagery and cognitive experiences. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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