Online Information Quality’s Influence On Destination Image

Destination Image is one of the most popular topics in tourism research worldwide.Destination Image has been found to influence people’s traveling decisions,satisfaction of traveling experiences and likelihood of talking positively about destinations,(Baloglu&McCleary,1999).Developing positive destination images has therefore become a top priority for destination marketing organisations.However,marketing organisations face a challenge as technology is rapidly changing the platforms where marketing organisations can reach potential travellers and develop people’s image of a destination.To address this issue,Kim et al.,(2017)used Wang and Strong’s(1996)conceptual framework of information quality and dual processing theory to investigate whether high online information quality on a Weibo website about Korea could positively influence users’ destination image of Korea.However,their mixed results did not support their model,where relevance influenced affective destination image and web design influenced cognitive destination image(the opposite of what their model suggests).The current research aims to address this issue.Using an online questionnaire we investigated whether the travel website mafengwo’s seven dimensions of information quality about Norway(IV1,7 levels:relevance,timeliness,completeness,value-added,interestingness,web design,amount of information)were positively related to users’ dimensions of destination image of Norway,(DV 1,3 levels:affective dimension,cognitive dimension,conative dimension).Moreover,we researched whether individual differences in the form of previous traveling experience to Norway(IV2,2 levels:been to Norway or not)and Cultural Intelligence(IV3,2 levels:cultural intelligence above average,cultural intelligence below average)could mediate information quality’s influence upon users’destination image of Norway.Our questionnaire was comprised of Kim et al.’s,(2017)validated items for measuring users’ perception of online information quality and destination image dimensions,as well as Ang et al.’,(2007)cross-culture validated items for measuring Cultural Intelligence.Using multiple regression we found that overall,all information quality dimensions positively related to all dimensions of destination image.Similar to Kim et al.’s,(2017)research,we found that relevancy was strongly related to affective destination image and that web design was strongly related to cognitive image,further invalidating their model.Moreover,using a 2x2 ANOVA we found a mediating effect in which users with high cultural intelligence were immune to the influences of information quality upon their affective image of Norway.We found no mediating effects of previous traveling experience.We suggest that web design significantly influences cognitive image because web design facilitates information processing and thereby allow users to process more information,(Santhanam&Webster,2017).Similarly,we suggest that relevancy influences affective image as it stimulates motivation in users which is related to the dopamine-pathway in the brain,(Wise,2004).Moreover,the results of the current study show that individual differences can significantly determine the strength with which online information quality influences the destination image formation process.Destination Marketing Organisations and travel websites could therefore benefit from understanding the individual differences that exist among its users and invest in improving certain dimensions of information quality accordingly.