The indirect experiences of young adult tourists with hypothetical cultural festivals/events via Twitter and an official homepage amid COVID-19: Focusing on destination image

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Highlights

  • Affective destination images improved to a greater degree in the pandemic situation.

  • Emotions more impulsively induced by indirect cultural festival experiences.

  • Cognitive images concretely formed exactly on the basis of the promotional contents.

  • Young generation's heuristic reaction to merely hypothetical Twitter imaginary features.

Abstract

This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how hypothetical cultural festivals/events affect destination image before and after indirect experiences of them, particularly with detailed affective destination images in pandemic situations. The study examines the perceptions young adult tourists obtain from Twitter and an official homepage, the two backgrounds used for context priming. The sample comprised 248 potential tourists aged 20–39 years, 124 of whom were in the Twitter experiment group and 124 were in the official homepage group. The findings reveal significant differences in destination image before and after exposure to the hypothetical cultural festivals/events and different degrees of improved destination image between the Twitter and official homepage subjects. The importance of cultural festivals/events for destination image and the younger generation's heuristic reactions as context priming effects are discussed.

Introduction

Cultural festivals/events have been found to be one of the most attractive resources for experiencing packaged activities that represent a destination's culture. Interesting, well-scheduled programs delivered within a relatively short period of time seem to have a strong effect on international tourists' perceptions (Çelik & Gacnik, 2015). Such festivals/events have been considered an effective tool by which to create, improve, and reinforce destination image (Piva et al., 2017; Quinn 2006). Therefore, many destinations have attempted to develop cultural festivals/events to highlight their uniqueness and differentiate themselves from other destinations over the past few decades (Getz 2008; Frisby & Getz, 1989). However, most destinations have found it difficult to hold cultural festivals/events amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some businesses have merely waited for the pandemic to end, while others have invested in renovations or promotions to increase the number of potential visitors. The main intention of promotions and marketing amid the pandemic is to increase awareness and enhance positive images, thereby leading to visits once the end of the pandemic makes them possible (Ketter &Avraham, 2021).

Despite the international popularity of such promotional work, few studies have examined whether promotional approaches relying on indirect experiences help foster a positive destination image or intention to visit among individuals who have never visited the destination, despite whatever strong experiential features might be inherent in the festivals/event. The research suggests that tourists consider their experiences at intangible cultural festivals/events to be more important than those at tangible infrastructure-based businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, resorts, and theme parks (Chang et al., 2014, Chang, 2017). Thus, do indirect experiences with cultural festivals/events influence positive destination image and visit preferences? Most pre-COVID-19 studies on this question focused on how destination images changed before and after direct experiences, and tended to consider detailed cognitive images rather than affective images (e.g. Baloglu & McCleary, 1999a; 1999b). The cognitive component of an image comprises the sum of all the knowledge about a destination a traveler has obtained via systematic judgment, while the affective component comprises the traveler's emotions about the destination, experienced through an abstract, heuristic process (Chaiken 1980; Dillard & Pfau, 2002). Indirect experiences with cultural festivals/events may produce more affective images than cognitive images. This study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of how cultural festivals/events affect destination image before and after indirect experiences, focusing on detailed affective images (which may be strongly associated with indirect experiences in the current pandemic situation, wherein leisure travelers are prevented from having direct experiences overseas). The study considers hypothetical cultural festivals/events to explore the effects of indirect experiences on the destination image of potential international tourists. With the rapid growth of the Internet, cultural festivals/events have been strongly promoted via e-marketing tools, but research results differ about which promotions are most effective. Some studies have reported that official homepages are more effective than social networking services (SNS; Marbry & Porter, 2010), while other studies have indicated that SNS are perceived more positively (Fotis, Buhalis, & Rossides, 2012; Molinillo, Liébana, & Anaya, 2017). To address these conflicting results, this study compares improvements in destination image between Twitter, as a representative SNS tool, and official homepages. The study considers pictures of hypothetical cultural festivals/events appearing on Twitter and official homepages to understand young adults' heuristic reactions to the context priming effects of those backgrounds.

In sum, previous studies have failed to examine how indirect cultural festival/event experiences affect destination images, such as the detailed affective components that have become important during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, little research has been conducted on how young adults aged 20–39 years, whose touristic behaviors differ from those of middle-aged and older adults (Gibson & Chang, 2012; Gibson & Yiannakis, 2002), engage in indirect experiences on Twitter (as a representative SNS tool) and official homepages. Therefore, this study examines whether young adults' cognitive and affective destination images of South Korea differ before and after exposure to information on hypothetical cultural festivals/events, and whether young adults’ improved destination images after exposure differ between experiences on Twitter and on official homepages. This study is expected to contribute to an in-depth understanding of affective components that may be more impulsively and heuristically induced by hypothetical cultural festival experiences in a pandemic, as well as the heuristic reaction of young adults to promotional tools.

Section snippets

Cultural festivals/events and destination image

Cultural festivals/events are celebrations that commemorate the values, ideology, and identity of a community and facilitate social and cultural exchange (Bennett, Taylor, & Woodward, 2016; Frisby & Getz, 1989; Getz, 2008). Cultural festivals/events provide an opportunity for international tourists to experience authentic local cultures, allowing them to become active participants in the celebrations (Bennett et al., 2016; McKercher, Mei, & Tse, 2006). Cultural festivals/events have been

Experimental context

The “Korean Wave,” also called “Hallyu,” refers to the growing popularity of contemporary South Korean culture around the world, which began with music (K-pop) and TV programs (K-dramas) in the mid-1990s and has expanded to include Korean food, traditions, clothes, language, and literature (Lee, 2011; Roll, 2018). The Korean Wave has played an important role in encouraging potential international visitors to become interested in Korea and have the intention to visit (Roll, 2018). Since the

Participants

Of the 248 potential tourists, 50% (n = 124) were female; 48.79% (n = 121) belonged to the 30–39 year-old group, while 51.21% were in the 20–29 group. More than one third of the respondents (37.9%, n = 94) said they were moderately familiar with Korean culture, followed by 25.4% (n = 63) who said they had a low to moderate familiarity, 22.6% (n = 56) who said they had a moderate to high familiarity, 12.5% (n = 31) who said they had a low familiarity, and 1.6% (n = 4) who said they had a high

Discussion

This study furthers our understanding of affective images by considering detailed subsectors that previous studies have not discussed and provides crucial insight on how to develop a representative destination brand that embraces the K-Culture Festival at a governmental level to attract young potential international visitors. Moreover, this study's focus on potential visitors' indirect experiences (i.e., exposure to hypothetical images) of cultural festivals/events differs from most previous

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