Influence Of Tourist-to-tourist Interaction On Tourist Experience

In the process of traveling,tourists will inevitably have social interactions with other tourists.The meeting,communication and companionship in this unusual environment can allow tourists to temporarily get rid of the pressure and constraints of daily life,satisfying their social needs that are difficult to achieve in the daily structured society and exerting an important impact on their current travel experience.Therefore,interactions among tourists provide a new direction for tourism companies to improve tourist experience in addition to optimizing travel products.Most prior research on tourism experience has focused on the relationship between tourists and tourist attractions in the travel world(such as achievements related to tourist gaze,sensory marketing,embodied experience,etc.),as well as the interaction between tourists and local residents,tourists and service providers.However,the impact of the tourist-to-tourist interaction(TTI)on tourism experience has not received sufficient attention.The particularity of the tourism context allows the research on TTI to feed back the existing social interaction research.Although sociology,social psychology,organizational behavior,marketing and other disciplines have explored social interaction from different perspectives,these research mainly focuses on individual's daily life and work,with limited attention to the social interaction in other informal public places,i.e.the third place.Tourism environment is a typical type of third place;tourists are engaged to various activities during a temporary period in an unfamiliar place,just for pleasure.This makes the characteristics,content and depth of social interaction during travel different from daily life.Therefore,to identify the unique characteristics and types of TTI,as well as the influence mechanism of TTI on tourism experience are of great significance to advance the social interaction literature.Based on the above realistic and theoretical background,the present study aims to examine the following research questions:(1)What are the characteristics of TTI?(2)What are the specific types of TTI?(3)What is the mechanism by which different types of TTI affect tourism experience?Based on literature review,this study employs a mixed-method approach with qualitative study and quantitative study to examine the characteristics,types and impacts.Specifically,this study identifies four characteristics of TTI that are different from social interaction in daily life;also,a conceptual model is built and tested to reveal the mechanism by which TTI affects tourism experience.Drawing on theories of social psychology,i.e.Self-determination Theory,Social Exchange Theory,and Cognitive Adaptation Theory,this study proposes that TTI exerts impact on tourist engagement through tourists' perception of person-to-person relationship and person-to-place relationship,and then tourist engagement acts on tourists' evaluation of overall experience.There are six chapters in this dissertation:Chapter one is Introduction.In this chapter,the research background and research questions are first introduced;next,the theoretical and practical implications are illustrated;then,the research contents,the research methodology and the technical route are presented;finally,the innovation of this study is exacted.Chapter two is Literature review.In this chapter,the author one more time identifies the research gap and research questions through reviewing studies on social interaction,customer-to-customer interaction,TTI,tourism experience and tourist engagement.Also,the theoretical basis for the present study is established.Chapter three is an exploratory study on TTI.In this chapter,first,based on existing research and logical speculation,the study identifies the four characteristics of TTI that are different from social interaction in daily life,i.e.super-utilitarianism,de-identification,weakening of constraints,and self-prominence.Next,first-hand data was collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed with thematic analysis.Three types of TTI,i.e.verbal TTI on information sharing,verbal TTI on selfdisclosure,and nonverbal TTI.This study proposes that “different types of TTI lead to tourists' perception of person-to-person relationship and person-to-place relationship,which then affect the process(i.e.tourist engagement)and the outcome of tourism experience(i.e.tourists' evaluation of experience)”.Chapter four is the construction of the theoretical model and the proposal of research hypotheses.Based on the results of the qualitative study and relevant theories,this study constructs a conceptual model revealing that three types of TTI affect tourist engagement through perception of closeness and perception of control,and then tourist engagement exerts impact on tourists' evaluation of overall experience.Further,the hypotheses of relationships between variables in the model are proposed one by one.Also,the mediating roles of perception of closeness and perception of control in the relationship between TTI and tourist engagement are considered.Nonverbal TTI moderates the mediating effect of perception of closeness and perception of control in the relationship between verbal TTI and tourist engagement.Chapter five mainly introduces how to select variable measurement indicators to form a questionnaire,as well as the following pilot test and main study.Specifically,the data collected by the pilot test is used for exploratory factor analysis,while the data collected in the main study is used for a series of analyses including sample normality test,common method bias test,confirmatory factor analysis,structural equation model analysis,mediation effect test and moderated mediation effect test.Results show:(1)the three types of TTI,i.e.verbal TTI on information sharing,verbal TTI on self-disclosure,and nonverbal TTI,all positively affect perception of closeness;(2)regarding perception of control,verbal TTI on information sharing and nonverbal TTI play significant roles in predicting it,while verbal TTI on self-disclosure has no significant effect;(3)both perception of closeness and perception of control have a significant positive effect on tourist engagement;(4)tourist engagement has a significant positive effect on tourists' evaluation of experience.In addition,(5)perception of closeness and perception of control play mediating roles between verbal TTI on information sharing and tourist engagement;perception of closeness mediates the relationship between verbal TTI on self-disclosure and tourist engagement;perception of closeness and perception of control play mediating roles between nonverbal TTI and tourist engagement;(6)nonverbal TTI moderates the mediating effect of perception of closeness in the relationship between verbal TTI on information sharing and tourist engagement;however,nonverbal TTI does not moderate the mediation effect of perception of control in the relationship between verbal TTI on information sharing and tourist engagement;either,nonverbal TTI does not moderate the mediation effect of perception of closeness in the relationship between verbal TTI on self-disclosure and tourist engagement.Chapter six is Conclusions.In this chapter,the author concludes the main findings and provides explanations and discussions based on extant literature.Also,the theoretical contributions of this study are illustrated.Then the practical implications are provided for tourism companies,in order to help them improve tourist experience by managing TTI.Finally,the limitations of this study are illustrated and future research directions are identifiedThe innovation of this study mainly includes four aspects as follows:(1)This study expands the research perspective of influencing factors of tourism experience.At present,in the field of tourism research,scholars mostly focus on the impact of the interaction between tourists and tourist attractions,tourists and local residents,tourists and service providers on tourism experience,while limited attention has been paid to how TTI affects tourism experience.In this study,TTI is regarded as an influencing factor of tourism experience,and it is a powerful expansion of the research on the influencing factors of tourism experience to deeply explore whether and how it affects tourism experience.(2)This study proposes a new taxonomy framework for TTI.There are different forms and dimensions of TTI,but its connotation has not been clearly defined by academia.In addition,most relevant studies measure TTI as a whole construct,and the measurement standard is vague and lacks pertinence;some other research,based on interview data,classifies TTI using critical event method,but the theoretical depth is not enough to form an analytical framework that can be adopted by future studies.Therefore,there has been no breakthrough in the research of TTI,hindering the formation of a theoretical research system in this field.In the qualitative research,based on the interaction mode and interaction content,this study divides TTI into verbal and nonverbal one.Further,verbal TTI is divided into two types,i.e.verbal TTI on information sharing and verbal TTI on self-disclosure.The multi-dimensional analysis framework not only makes the concept of TTI clearer,but also lays the foundation for subsequent quantitative research.(3)This study reveals the mechanism of how TTI influences tourism experience by introducing social psychology variables such as perception of closeness and perception of control.Based on the qualitative research and interpretation of Self-determination Theory,this study introduces two social psychology variables,i.e.perception of closeness and perception of control,to describe tourists' perception of their relationship with the outside world caused by TTI.Moreover,the concept of tourist engagement is utilized to represent the process of tourism experience.Drawing on S-O-R framework,Social Exchange Theory,and Cognitive Adaptation Theory,this study insists the logical thinking and conceptual model of “TTI-perception of closeness and perception of control-tourist engagement – tourists' evaluation of overall experience”,to reveal the mechanism of how TTI affects tourism experience,thereby enriching the achievements on TTI and tourism experience.(4)This study explores the interaction effect of verbal and nonverbal TTI.Currently,there is no tourism research on the classification of TTI from the verbal and nonverbal perspective.This study empirically examines the effects of verbal and nonverbal TTIs on perception of closeness and perception of control,and further identifies the different effect size of these different types of TTI through the comparison of path coefficients.In addition,the mediation effects of perception of closeness and perception of control,and the moderation effect of nonverbal TTI are tested.These efforts deepen our understanding of the interaction effect of verbal and nonverbal TTI.Although the present study has certain theoretical contributions and managerial value,it still has deficiencies in research methods and research content.In future research,the survey can be conducted at tourism sights to reduce the bias of tourists' memories;moreover,future research could integrate both positive and negative TTI into the same analytical framework,to promote the integrity and comprehensiveness of the TTI research;future research is encouraged to identify more moderating variables such as tie strength of relationship and types of tourism;finally,the cultural background and geographical distribution of respondents can be diversified.