How potential tourists’ perception of interaction with local people impact their overall experience and destination image in emerging destination?

Journal Article

2021

This study examines the influence of potential tourists’ perceptions of their functional, hedonic, and expressive interactions with local people on their overall experience and their view of the destination. Also, this study examines how the potential tourists’ mental image of their destination increases their intention to visit it and encourages them to talk about the location with others. A video of tourism in Saudi Arabia was showed to participants and data were obtained from 460 respondents who had never visited Saudi Arabia at the time of the study. Saudi Arabia was selected because it is considered an emerging tourism destination. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses The findings indicate that all dimensions of interaction are important in increasing the potential tourists’ positive perceived overall experience. Also, the study finds that potential tourists’ positive perception of their overall experience positively contributes to a positive image of the destination. Lastly, this study provides theoretical, practical, and recommendations for future studies.