This research studies the formation of tourist expectations around a tourist destination and the existence of a knowledge gap between this group and perceptions of tourism service providers. We propose a five-construct theoretical model: tourism expectations, destination image, social media, word-of-mouth communication and past experiences. We thus implemented two questionnaires, with tourists (n = 373) and with tourism service providers (n = 460). Structural equation modelling results identify social media and destination image as influencing visitors’ expectations, and that this image arises out of word-of-mouth communication and tourists’ past experiences. The results also indicate that local actors may be neglecting the influence of word-of-mouth destination recommendations and the relationship between the destination image and the prevailing expectations.

中文翻译：

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游客对服务提供商的期望和看法：巴西的观点

这项研究研究了旅游目的地周围游客期望的形成，以及该群体与旅游服务提供者的看法之间是否存在知识鸿沟。我们提出了五种结构的理论模型：旅游期望，目的地形象，社交媒体，口碑传播和过去的经验。因此，我们实施了两份问卷，分别针对游客（n  = 373）和旅游服务提供商（n = 460）。结构方程建模结果确定了社交媒体和目的地形象会影响游客的期望，并且这种形象源于口碑传播和游客过去的经历。结果还表明，本地参与者可能忽略了口碑传播目的地推荐的影响以及目的地形象与普遍期望之间的关系。