A Study On The Influence Of Nation-destination Image On Destination Trust And Behavior Intention

Under the background of global economic growth, many countries take the development of tourism, especially the development of inbound tourism as an important engine to stimulate their economic growth. Some countries even make it as a national strategy. Therefore, attracting and striving for the global tourists has become the focus of attention of governments. In academic circles, the research on the choice of destination has always been a hot topic. Among them, the important role of Tourism Destination Image on consumers’destination choice and loyalty has been recognized by scholars. The positive influence of destination image on consumer behavior has been confirmed by many studies. However, as the Country of Origin Effect in the Marketing field, outbound tourism, as a kind of invisible product need to be bought across the border, its product image, which is the image of tourism destination, is bound to be influenced by the Nation Image. We can see that some countries have rich tourism resources, such as Turkey and Malaysia, but unexpected events damaged the country’s image, and the positive Tourism Destination Image was obscured, the number of foreign tourists also significantly reduced. Therefore, from the perspective of inbound and outbound tourism, tourism destination image research can not ignore the impact of Nation Image. In the previous research, Nation Image is the focus of the field of Communication and International Relations, or the Marketing and International Business areas as the concept of the Country of Origin, and the Tourism Destination has always been a hot spot of Tourism and Geography study. It can be said that the combination of Nation Image and Tourism Destination Image has only been studied in recent years, the empirical research is very few, and the research on the relationship between the two and the mechanism of action is not mature. Moreover, in the process of outbound tourism, consumers are faced with a greater risk than the purchase of general merchandise, whether it is personal risk, financial risk or utility risk, etc. Therefore, in the case of risk, trust plays a pivotal role in the relationship-between the two transaction sides. For outbound tourism consumers, the trust of destination should be the important factor to make the choice.Based on the above reasons, this study constructed a model of tourism destination image from a perspective of Nation Image, which is a model adding Nation Image and Trust in the traditional Destination Image and Behavior Intention construct, and examined the influence of the Nation Image on the other variables and the mediating effect between the Destination Image and Behavior Intention. In addition, this study also had a new understanding of the Information Familiarity and divided it into Nation Information Familiarity and Tourism Information Familiarity, and respectively, examined the different combinations of the two kinds of Information Familiarity, to test whether the obvious differences exist among the various variables. At the same time, the impacts of demographic characteristics on the variables were also examined, with a view to provide substantial useful information for the Nation Marketing and Tourism Marketing.This study took Chinese potential consumers as a sample, and took the neighbor country South Korea as the case country, from the two aspects of cognitive image and effective image, to investigate the Chinese potential consumers’perception of South Korea’s Nation Image and Destination Image, and also their trust on South Korean destination and tourism, communication, learning, business and other behavior intentions. Through questionnaires 463 valid data was collected, and it was found that the data and the structural equation model fit well, and we can get the following conclusions:(1) It has been verified that the Nation Image is an important antecedent of Tourism Destination Image, but the Nation Image can not directly affect Behavior Intention, in fact it has an indirect effect through the Destination Image and Trust on Behavioral Intention. (2) It has been verified that Destination Trust plays an intermediary role between the Destination Image and Behavior Intention, and the importance of the Destination Trust study should be recognized and concerned by the industry and academia. (3) whether it is a high degree of Nation Information Familiarity or high degree of Tourism Information Familiarity, both can significantly improve the average value of each variable than low degree group, in high (or low) Nation Information group, the group with high Tourism Information Familiarity has a higher average value of the variables, the same, in the same Tourism Information Familiarity groups, group with high Nation Information Familiarity has a better perceived image, trust and behavior intentions. It is also proved that the two kinds of Information Familiarity are not only very important, but also complement each other, which have a cross contribution to each variable. (4) Different demographic characteristics had significant differences on the research variables and their dimensions. (5) Identified the intrinsic dimensions of the study variables, defined the relationship among the dimensions, and proved the important position of the effective image in the image dimension and the dimension model. At the same time, the main path of the Nation Affective Image, Tourism Destination Affective Image, Destination Trust, and Behavior Intention has been proved, which can come to a conclusion that playing the emotional card can be benificial to Destination Trust building, and provided strong evidence for the important position of the affective dimension in the destination dimensions.Based on the above conclusions, this research also drew some important practical implications. For the building and communication of nation image, the awareness of tourism information can significantly enhance the awareness of Nation Image. Vigorously develop the cultural industry, and transfer national sentiment through cultural exchanges. Strengthen soft power construction with the core elements of nation image and culture, improve the international influence. We should through multi-disciplinary cooperation and multi-sectoral coordination, from multi-angle to shape and spread Nation Image. To the building and communication of the Destination Image, the path coefficient of the nation affective image on tourism affective image is the largest, so we can create a strong positive emotion to shape the image of the destinations. South Korea’s experience shows that, the cultural exchange with foreign countries is beneficial not only to the Nation Image, but also to the building and communication of the Tourism Destination Image. And we should also be actively concerned about the macro factors of Nation Image aspects, closely monitor changes in international relations, observe the times and judge the occasion, constantly adjust the destination marketing plan. Building the Tourism Destination Image is not only the internal affairs of Tourism Department, a number of departments should act with united strength, and improve Destination Image indirectly through the communication of the state information. The word-of-mouth by relatives and friends is the main channel for information dissemination of the destination image, therefore, having better tourism experience and higher satisfaction by the tourists is a key content of destination image management. Film and television is the main channel for people to obtain information, but also an important window for the destination image communication. When comes to destination trust building, according to this research, effective tourism image plays the most important role on destination trust building, so the communicating of tourism emotion is an important part of the image communication and trust building in the future. The tourism environment can also bring about great influence to the destination trust. So nations need to build security, convenience and friendly environment, to enhance the destination trust of foreign consumers. Although the contribution of tourism attraction to the destination is relatively small, it is also an indispensable part of the process of building trust. In terms of information familiarity, the power of tourism information communication should be noticed, it can not only spread beauty, but also produce moving, and transfer the country’s information directly into the heart. People’s familiarity with the travel information is higher than the nation information, and therefore we should communicate tourism information through private, commercial and non-commercial organizations to get public trust more easily.The innovations of this research are embodied in the following aspects:(1) Nation Image and Destination Trust are introduced into the framework of Tourism Destination Image and Behavioral Intention, and the relationship model of each variable and its dimensions is constructed. The relationship between the tourism destination image and behavior is a relatively mature subject of tourism research, in this study, nation image and destination trust are introduced in the relationship. It is proved that the nation image is the antecedent of destination image, and destination trust plays an important intermediary role between the relationshiop of destination image and behavioral intention, and further verifies the path relationship between the variables and their dimensions. The construction and test of this model have deepened the theory of the relationship between destination image and behavior intention, and also provided useful theoretical guidance.(2) Extends the research scope of trust in the tourism field, proposes potential consumers’tourism destination trust concept, further taps the destination trust connotation, measurement scale, causes, and consequences, complements the existing deficiency in the field of tourism destination trust research, enriches the related results of the research on intangible products trust.(3) For the first time divides the Information Familiarity into two angles:the Nation Information Familiarity and the Tourism Information Familiarity, and developes the measurement scales and finds that the two kinds of information familiarity can not only have a significant impact on all variables and thier dimensions, but also complement each other. This research enriched the perspectives of improving the degree of information familiarity.(4) Using the attitude of two elements theory, from the cognitive and affective perspectives, this research studied the role model of Tourism Destination Image in the context of macro Nation Image. The research found the main path of "nation affective image, destination affective image, destination trust, and behavior intention", proved the important position of affective image in the image structure, and provided the theoretical basis and practical guidance for the building and promoting of Nation Image and Tourism Destination Image, the construction of Destination Trust, and promoting the choice of consumer behavior intention.