The Impact of Tourists’ Emotional Experiences on their Satisfaction and Willingness to Recommend: A case of Vietnam

This study investigates the emotions of joy and love as significant influences on tourists‟ satisfaction and its effect on intent to recommend while exploring whether or not the emotion

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THI THANH TAM

THE IMPACT OF TOURISTS’ EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES ON THEIR SATISFACTION AND WILLINGNESS TO RECOMMEND: A

CASE OF VIETNAM

MASTER THESIS BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Hanoi, 2019

PHAN THI THANH TAM

THE IMPACT OF TOURISTS’ EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES ON THEIR SATISFACTION AND WILLINGNESS TO RECOMMEND: A

ABSTRACT

Today, globalization as well as the advancement of technology is narrowing the distances of nations Increasingly, there are more and more interactions between nation states and individuals necessitating the need to boost exchange cultures and tourism Vietnam has become an attractive destination of tourists due in part to its charm, natural beauty, as well as its rich history and culture There is a positive relationship among the positive emotion, overall image, satisfaction, and both effect intention to recommend This study investigates the emotions of joy and love as significant influences on tourists‟ satisfaction and its effect on intent to recommend while exploring whether or not the emotion of positive surprise does not support this relationship To explain the impact of emotional experience on tourists‟ satisfaction and willingness to recommend, this study follows revised Destination Emotion Scales (DES) model of (Hosany,2013; Payage,2017; Sharma,2018) The survey was carried out with 224 foreign tourists who have travelled to a few famous places in Vietnam at least one time by both online and offline method The methodology used in our research is a quantitative method SPSS software 20 and AMOS 21 with SEM (structural equation modelling) to carry out analysing on data gathered through a survey The thesis makes a significant contribution to tourism marketing in Vietnam because some of the empirical findings found in the study deal with aspects of tourists‟ satisfaction and their willingness to recommend necessary to improve Vietnamese tourism

Keywords: tourist satisfaction, tourists‟ emotional experiences, overall destination image, willingness to recommend

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Two years of studying Master‟s program in Vietnam Japan University (“VJU”) were a precious and unforgettable time of my life At the moment of the Master course application, I was working as a senior accountant for Taisei – Vinaconex Joint Venture, the main Japanese contractor conducted to build Noi Bai Airport International Terminal 2 in Hanoi Before making a decision to apply for VJU Master course, I had spent a lot of time seeking an MBA course which cooperated between Vietnamese University and the Foreign University Finally, I decided to choose the Master program in VJU because VJU is not only appropriate for my career in my Japanese company but also a dynamic study environment where I would receive the strongest support from lecturers and VJU staffs and classmates

I passed four semesters of hard daily struggling with myself but also enjoyed school life to archive the master degree The first semester was the time of struggling with changing my habits and behavior I had to force myself to be familiar with academic study after ten years of working engagement without learning the academic practice The second semester was the busiest time when the subjects were full schedule booked, daily classes attended, a bundle of tests and examinations were delivered At that moment, I had to arrange my schedule to adapt to both studying and working The third semester started with the four-month internship in Japan During four months from October 3rd, 2018 until February 2nd, 2019, I did an internship at Yokohama National University (YNU), one of the most famous historical universities

in the beautiful city of Yokohama in Japan Throughout the learning activities, company visits as well as other exchange culture activities, I gained much knowledge but more importantly, I also had an exciting chance to experience studying in an international environment where I became acquainted with foreign students from different countries around the world It was a great opportunity for me to enhance my training of communication skills that I practiced through the giving of presentations,

in discussions with my supervisory professors, and working in teams with my classmates from foreign countries Moreover, company visits provided me practical knowledge of many different business fields such as food and beverage, automotive,

cosmetic, logistics, and the airline industry which will be necessary for my career in the future The fourth semester was the hardest time when I was struggling with a thesis to complete my master degree It was the time of reading academic materials, taking notes, conducting a survey, collecting and analyzing data, writing thesis little

by little daily

My master thesis would have never accomplished without the help and support

of the kind people whom I mention below:

First, I would like to thank my parents for their long caring support of love to

me As well, I would like to express my thanks to my bosses and colleagues in Taisei – Vinaconex Joint Venture for their support during my job while I pursued my studies Especially, I am deeply appreciative to my professor supervisor Assoc.Prof Pham Thi Lien for her expert guidance, understanding, and encouragement throughout my study and research While starting my research with knowledge gaps but she instructed me

to step by step with care and patience I also would like to express my gratitude to my professor supervisor Prof Tanabu Motonari who inspired the critical ideas and gave

me valuable instruction for completing my thesis successfully

With regard to my four-month internship in Japan, I must thank Prof Matsui Yoshiki, IPO staffs as well as professors and staffs of Yokohama National University who were always sided by side with me during the time I was there

My gratitude goes to the entire MBA department of Vietnam Japan University for arranging the best facilities and schedules for us

Last but not least, I would like to convey my gratitude to Japan International Cooperation Agency, Vietnam Japan University, Yokohama National University for funding and arranging this wonderful MBA Program, which helped me to develop myself both academically, professionally, and socially

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATITION vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF TABLES vii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1 Research Problem 1

1.1 Research Objectives 3

1.2 Research Purposes 3

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 The Scope of the Study 4

1.5 The Research Design 4

1.6 The Structure of the Paper 4

1.7 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

CHAPTER 2 The Concept of Tourist Satisfaction 6

2.1 The Definition of Tourists‟ Emotional Experiences 9

2.2 The Definition of Overall Destination Image 16

2.3 Conceptual Framework 16

2.4 The Relationship Between Emotional Experiences On Overall Image and 2.5 Satisfaction 19

The Relationship Between Satisfaction and Overall Images and Behavioral 2.6 Intentions 20

The Role of Socio Demographic Variables in Moderating the Relationship 2.7 Among Tourists‟ Emotional Experiences, Satisfaction, Overall Image and Willingness to Recommend 21

HYPOTHESES AND MODELS 22

CHAPTER 3 Research Process 22

3.1 Research Model 22

3.2 Research Model 23 3.3

METHODOLOGY 32 CHAPTER 4

Research Method 32 4.1

Research Process 32 4.2

Measurement Scale 33 4.3

Data Analysis Method 36 4.4

Sampling and Data Collection 36 4.5

RESULTS AND FINDINGS 38 CHAPTER 5

Sample Profile 38 5.1

Descriptive Statistics and Internal Consistency Reliability Test 40 5.2

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 42 5.3

Testing Research Model Using Structural Equation Modelling (“SEM”) 44 5.4

Moderator Analysis 50 5.5

Hypotheses Results 51 5.6

DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, ECOMMENDATIONS 53 CHAPTER 6

Discussion 53 6.1

Limitation and Recommendation 54 6.2

Conclusion 56 6.3

REFERENCES 57 APPENDIX 72

LIST OF ABBREVIATITION

CFA: confirmatory factor analysis

EFA: Exploratory factor analysis

SEM: Structural Equation Modeling

MLE: Maximum Likelihood Estimation

CR: Composite Reliability

AVE: Average Variance Extracted

DES: Destination Emotion Scales

FDI: Foreign Direct Investment

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 The Wheel of Emotion 11

Figure 3.1 Research Process 22

Figure 3.2 Research Model 23

Figure 5.1: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) 45

Figure 5.2: Structural Equation Modeling 48

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Destination image definitions 16

Table 4.1: Measurement scales 34

Table 5.1: Sample profile 39

Table 5.2: Descriptive statistics and reliability test 40

Table 5.3: Pattern Matrixa 42

Table 5.4: Total Variance Explained 43

Table 5.5: Fit indices for the test model result (CFA) 46

Table 5.6: Measurement model 47

Table 5.7: Regression weights 49

Table 5.8: Results of Hypotheses 51

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1

Research Problem

1.1.

According to the report “Travel & Tourism Economic impact 2018, South East Asia” issued by The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC, 2018), the contribution of tourism in GDP in 2017 is 329.5 billion USD and accounts for 12%

of the total grand GDP and is estimated to continue to increase up to 598.3 billion USD in 2028 (estimated for 13% of total GDP) (WTTC, 2018) This rate points out the important role of tourism in economic development currently Therefore, South East Asia would be well served to develop tourism as an economic incentive Moreover, the impact of globalization and economic trends towards emergent Southeast Asia economies currently increased tourism demand in this area dramatically, thus bringing big potential in economic development In 2017, Asia and Pacific accounts for 30% of world international tourism receipts (UNWTO, 2017) Following these trends, Vietnam is also becoming an attractive destination for tourists In 2017, Vietnam welcomed 12.9 million international tourists, which offered a gain of 541 billion VND of income and directly contributed 7.9% of GDP (VNAT, 2017)

To boost tourism development, the Vietnamese government has launched many activities such as issuing tourism legal documents, organized events, and festivals, improving public transportation and tourism facilities Also, tourism research has recently developed tourism reports which are published frequently and provide statistics Through the awareness of the important role of marketing in tourism, tourism marketing strategies are also focused on promoting Vietnam as a destination image to the world through advertising actives, exhibitions, and international cooperation Tourist marketing researchers trying to find better solutions for Vietnam marketing tourism are concentrated on 1) evaluating the tourist satisfaction at destinations (Thuy, 2006; Giang, 2013); 2) the impact of destination on loyalty (Huong, 2015); and 3) tourism service quality to behaviour

intention (Hai, 2015) However, there are only a few journal articles that mention tourists‟ emotional experiences within Vietnam tourism marketing market

From a tourist marketing perspective, the role of tourists‟ emotional responses has been acknowledged as a useful factor when applied to tourism marketing strategies Therefore, some countries are using emotional tourism slogans

to attract more tourists because they think that emotions will impact tourist‟s expectation on vacation destination (Nuria, 2017) For example, India “Incredible India”, Thailand “Amazing Thailand”, Indonesia “Wonderful Indonesia”, the Philippines “It is more fun in Philippines”, Brazil “Sensational Brazil” (Nuria, 2017) Nevertheless, studying tourists‟ emotions are problematic because human emotions are complicated and difficult to measure Especially the study of tourists‟ emotional experiences of overall image, satisfaction, and willingness to recommend

is more complicated because there is no official standardization to measure the level

of emotional effect of all these factors and the linkage between them are under study In the research series of Prayag and Hosany and their collaborators, they discovered that positive emotions have an effect on the overall image, satisfaction, and both effect intention to recommend (Hosany, 2010; Hosany and Prayag, 2013) These results and their Destination Emotion Scales (DES) conceptual modes are quite recent and more research using this theoretical model is warranted This study will be utilizing the revised DES model, a model that has as yet only been used a few times (Payage,2017; Sharma,2018) None thus far have studied the variables in

my research, which considers the context of Vietnam as impacted by demographic moderators such as cultural background, prior experience, age, gender, and type of tour Furthermore, this research aims to examine the new conceptual model of emotion and satisfaction developed by Payage.G and his collaborators in 2017 in other different contexts in order to provide empirical evidence test for a boarder appropriate model In addition, outcomes of this project have the potential to raise awareness of the role of tourists‟ emotional experiences in Vietnam tourism marketing management Moreover, the research results may contribute to practical

evidence for further tourism market research

Research Objectives

1.2.

The study aims to investigate the following objectives:

- To find correlations between emotional experiences, overall image, satisfaction, and willingness to recommend in Vietnam;

- To measure the emotion level (joy, love, positive surprise) of tourists visiting Vietnam;

- To examine the effects of joy/p surprise/love on two variables: satisfaction and overall image and how these interrelationships affect willingness to recommend;

Furthermore, the relationship between emotional variables (joy/p surprise/love) and tourists‟ satisfaction are exhibit differences among by the type of tour and those are moderated by culture background, prior experiences, age, and gender Therefore, the research also contributes to the analysis of that relationship for the literature review body of work of tourists‟ emotional experiences

Research Purposes

1.3.

The role of emotions in marketing was acknowledged many years ago (Richard,1999) However, the impact of tourists‟ emotional experiences on satisfaction and willingness to recommend is currently understudied The research conducted here is concerned with 1) discerning which emotions impact tourists‟ willingness to recommend Vietnam as a tourist destination; 2) the research on emotional components to tourist's experience of Vietnam and; 3) the findings of the study towards future implementations of Vietnam‟s tourism marketing strategies

- What contribution does Positive Surprise have on Overall Image and Satisfaction in its effect on the intention to Recommend Vietnam among independent and group tourists?

- What contributions do socio-demographic variables (e.g., culture background, prior experience, age, and gender) have on tourists‟ emotional experiences and overall image and satisfaction?

The Scope of the Study

1.5.

The research will investigate the impact of tourists‟ emotional experiences

on their satisfaction and willingness to recommend Vietnam to their friends and relatives Therefore, this study uses two methods of an online and offline survey with the participation of foreign tourists on group tours and foreign tourists in independent tours Hanoi was chosen to conduct the offline survey research because Hanoi is the symbol of Vietnam attracting all the most foreign tourists entering Vietnam Foreign social network community pages are chosen to collect the data of

For the survey, questionnaires were designed as self-reports in English Both online and offline channels were used for collecting data The survey questionnaires were distributed to foreign tourists visiting favorite spots in Vietnam at least one

and research model, the third chapter of methodology and data collection, the fourth chapter of data analysis and measurement models, and the five chapter of discussion and conclusions

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background and summarizes the prior research of the relationship between tourists‟ satisfaction and its impact factors of emotional experiences, overall image, and behavior intention moderated by culture background, prior experiences, age, and gender;

Chapter 2 explains the hypotheses and research model of the study

Chapter 3 explains the research design and data collection process in detail;

Chapter 4 transcribes, analyzes, and discusses the collected data and results;

Chapter 5 offers conclusions, discusses the research results, and compares it between theory and practice Limitations and implications of this research are also included in this part

LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 2

This chapter provides a theoretical framework mainly focused on the basic concepts of tourists‟ satisfaction, a satisfaction of overall destination image, tourists‟ emotional experience, and willingness to recommend Also, this chapter analyses the relationships among these factors and tourists‟ satisfaction in terms of their moderators which includes the type of tours, and socio-demographics such as cultural background, their prior experiences, age and gender The chapter includes three sections:

The first section discusses the concepts of tourist satisfaction The second section explains the definition of factors affecting tourists‟ satisfaction such as tourists‟ emotional experience, and overall destination image Finally, the last section focuses on the relationship among these factors and tourists‟ satisfaction and

in its effects on willingness to recommend

The Concept of Tourist Satisfaction

2.1.

Tourism is becoming the fastest growing industry and all destinations in over the world would like to share that growth, in turn, creating strong competition in the hospitality and tourism industry To gain on this competition, most the destinations are pursuing marketing strategies of tourists‟ satisfaction for competition

2.1.1 The Definition of Customer Satisfaction

There are many approach ways of research on customer satisfaction Base on each approach, scholars have given different definitions of satisfaction For example, Yi (1991) has reviewed customer satisfaction based on two approach ways

of previous researches are include of outcome and process According to an outcome approach, satisfaction is defined as a final situation or as end-state resulting from the consumption experience (Howard and Sheth, 1969; Westbrook and Reilly, 1983; Churchill and Suprenant; 1982) As a process approach,

satisfaction is contributed by the perceptual, evaluation and psychological process (Hunt, 1977; Engel and Blackwell, 1982; Tse and Wilton, 1988) Moreover, the various object focus and the level of specificity also make the differences in the definition of customer satisfaction with two approach levels vertical (micro and macro) and horizontal (antecedents and consequences) These levels of satisfaction with the followings: 1) a product or service; 2) a purchase decision experience; 3) a performance attribute; 4) from a consumption-use experience; 5) a department or store of the business organization; 6) a pre-purchasing experience (Yi,1991) Additionally, the parallel relationship of customer satisfaction and other related terms such as quality, customer value, service, etc were also mentioned in several studies (Naumann and Giel, 1995; Woodruff and Gardial,1996)

In the series of Oliver‟s researches, the scholar approached to the definitions

of customer satisfaction in the terms of pleasurable fulfillment “…Satisfaction is the

consumer’s fulfillment response It is a judgment that a product or service feature,

or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under-or over fulfillment”

(Oliver,1997)

Although there are many definitions of customer satisfaction with signification differences, most of the definitions come from three aspects of response They are included: “1) a response (emotional or cognitive); 2) the response pertains to a particular focus (expectations, product, consumption experience, etc.); and 3) the response occurs at a particular time (after consumption, after choice, based on accumulated experience, etc)” (Giese and Joseph,2000)

Recently, customer satisfaction is considered as the key of marketing and attracted to more scholars doing research customer satisfaction in marketing field

“Marketing must be understood in the sense of satisfying customer needs” (Kotler,2017, pp 33) Thus, if the marketer understands customer needs, they develop products, have the strategies relevant to prices, distributes, and promotes effectively, these products will sell easily Kotler defined the concept of customer

satisfaction in marketing research approach: “Customer satisfaction is a person’s

feelings of pleasure or disappointment that result from comparing a product or service’s perceived performance (or outcome) to expectations” (Kotler,2016

pp.153)

2.1.2 The Definition of Tourist Satisfaction

Early 70s decade, tourist satisfaction was emerged research from the aspect

of the perspectives of quality management and repurchase intention, preliminarily accomplishing some theoretical models (Richard ,1964; Cardozo, 1965) Based on the previous research, Pizam et al (1978) pioneered in applying the concept of customer satisfaction in the tourism study, which developed into a hot issue in the tourism study He suggested that tourist satisfaction was also derived from the customer satisfaction thus, tourism products might be treated as good and products

of other industry: "tourist satisfaction is the result of the interaction between a tourist's experience at the destination area and the expectations he had about that destination” It is the comparison between the tourists‟ actual experiences compared

to their expectations, if the results of 1) gratification feelings, the tourists are satisfied 2) displeasure feelings, the tourists are dissatisfied in contrast David et al (2002) summarized the conceptual considerations of tourist satisfaction on quality and value From the literature review, he listed down the number of the components

of satisfaction as the followings:

- Emotions (pleasure, fear, or surprise…);

- And equity (a sense of fairness)

There are several different opinions arguing to the lightweight of expectation

on satisfaction (Arnould et al.,1993) or the current dominant of performance

compared with other elements (Bowen, 2001) “The cognitive antecedents include expectations, performance, disconfirmation, attribution, and equity/inequity Further, the model shows affect as augmenting these variables in the prediction of satisfaction and, in addition, shows affect as mediating an indirect attribution influence ” (Oliver, 1993, pp 419-420)

Studied on expectancy disconfirmation, Miller (1977) defined four types of expectation as followings: 1) ideal; 2) lowest tolerable level; 3) deserved; and 4) expected Paralleling with comparison standards: 1) can be; 2) must be; 3) should be; 4) will be

There are a lot of scholars are doing research on tourist satisfaction Hence, there is number of conceptual definitions with different research approaches There are several concepts of customer satisfaction has defied exact specification even in those disciplines having Perhaps the most frequently raised question regarding the definition of satisfaction has been whether it is a cognitive process or an emotional state For example, Howard and Sheth (1969) defined satisfaction as "the buyer's cognitive state of being adequately or inadequately rewarded for the sacrifice he has undergone." In the same vein, satisfaction was defined as "an evaluation (cognitive] that the chosen alternative is consistent with prior beliefs with respect to that alternative" (Engel and Blackwell, 1982) (Oh, H.Parks, S C, 1997)

Tourist satisfaction toward a destination is a result of many aspect, such as the perception of product elements experienced as well as their expectation before and during the trip

The Definition of Tourists’ Emotional Experiences

2.2.

Emotions are affective states characterized by episodes of intense feelings associated with a specific referent and instigate specific response behaviors (Cohen and Areni (1991) According to the previous literature, there are two major theoretical approaches to study emotions They are dimensional (valence based) and categorical (emotion specificity) To explain for the relationship of human emotions, Plutchick (1980) illustrated emotions by Wheel of Emotions The wheel

includes two dimensions are polarity and intensity Polarity indicates which emotion is either positive or negative Next, intensity shows which degree of positive and negative emotion There are sixteen emotions including eight basic emotions and eight advanced emotions, with two basic emotions in each The mixture of two emotions into the circular pattern creates new emotions For examples, the mixture of joy and acceptance creates loves; the combination of joy and surprise creates delight This study selected joy, love is the main items of emotional experiences for the following reasons:

Joy plays an important role in tourists‟ emotional experiences (Hosany and Gilbert,2010) Joy is often associated with positive outcomes in tourism such as loyal with using a service or satisfy in choosing a destination In addition, the joy dimension includes emotions of cheerfulness, pleasure, and playfulness Those emotional experiences are high expectation seeking of tourists while they are on their holidays Thus, joy is a key factor in studying emotional experiences in order

to satisfy the tourists

Past studies of love dimension consist of tenderness, caring, and affection which effect on the consumers‟ emotions The feeling of love was found in some studies tourism researches related to branding strategies and destination marketing Previous studies discovered that there is a connection between brand loyalty and positive word of mouth Therefore, love plays an importation role of emotion influencing to recommendation behaviors

In the literature of emotion studies, there are many scholars approach emotion research by two dimensions of positive and negative (Diener & Emmons,1984; Watson, Clark, and Tellegen, 1988), or pleasantness-unpleasantness and arousal (Russell, 1979, 1980; Russell & Mehrabian, 1977) They supposed that

it is no difference between positive and negative emotions Conversely, the scholars following the categorical approach supposed that emotions are a set of idiosyncratic affective states such as joy, anger, sadness, surprise (Izard,1977, Plutchik, 1980)

Figure 2.1 The Wheel of Emotion

According to Izard (1977), the definition of emotion must contain three components are: 1) the experience or conscious feeling of emotion; 2) the processes that occur in the brain and nervous system; 3) and the observable expressive patterns of emotion, particularly those on the face (Izard, 1977 pp 21)

In the tourism industry, emotions act as a significant component of tourist experiences Tourist emotional experiences with the same valence but have different influences on outcome variables such as judgment (Lerner and Keltner,2001); the destination decision making (Fyall et al,2011; Gnoth, 1997; Goossens, 2000), satisfaction (Dube and Menon,2000; Sharma and Nayak, 2018), behavior intention (Yu and Dean, 2001); Walsh et al,2011; Han and Jeong, 2013; Kumar and Nayak, 2015);

To measure the emotions in the tourism industry, the scholars used several methods:

- Three independent bipolar dimensions of Russell and Mehrabian (1974) consist of Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance (“PAD”) in order to measure

the human response to the environment This measurement method is often used to assess the impact of emotional experiences on shopping behaviors

10 fundamental emotions scales: Interest, joy, anger, disgust, contempt, sadness, fear, shame, guilt, and surprise Since this method was created, there are a number of scholars used this method for their research This method is used popular in studying consumption purchase emotions (Oliver and Westbrook, 1993)

- Positive Affect and Negative Scales (“PANAS”) of Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988)

- Consumption Emotion Set scales (“CES”) of Richins (1997)

To explain the occurs of emotions, some scholars supposed that emotion is a joint function of a physiologically arousing situation and the person's evaluation or appraisal of the situation (Schachter, 1971; Lazarus & Averill, 1972); emotions are activated by changes in the density of neural stimulation (Tomkins, 1962) To distingue the difference between emotions and mood, Richard (1999) explained that mood is last longer and lower in intensity rather than emotion Moreover, emotions are different with moods because of its intentional Emotions often have an object

or referent In contrast, moods are nonintentional or diffused Additionally, moods are not as directly coupled with action tendencies and explicit actions as are many emotions (Richard 1999)

The role of positive emotion was recognized early the 1970s and 1980s through the cognition of social psychology The emotions are “a subset of the broader class of affective phenomenon” (Barbara, 2001, pp 1) If the mission of positive psychology is to understand and foster the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish, the mission of positive emotions are the markers of flouring, or optimal well-being It is said that life journey is the journey

of experience emotions in each moment of life Positive emotions consist of joy, interest, contentment, love, and like (Barbara, 2001)

2.2.1 Joy

According to Izard (1977), “Joy is characterized by a sense of confidence and significance, a feeling of being loved or being loveable” Characteristics of joy are not only internal acceptance but also external acceptance in creating good relationships with other people Joy leads to trust in each other

Tomkin (1962) proposed the theory of emotion activation defined “Joy is one

of the emotions that is activated by a fairly sharp reduction in the gradient of neural stimulation” According to his principle, the ongoing experience is characterized by emotion or feeling, to experience joy There has to be a decrease in the density of neural firing In Tomkin‟s perception, joy also results from a marked decrease in the positive effect of interest-excitement, and therefore there is no necessary economic

or cost relationship between positive and negative affective experiences

2.2.2 Love

The feeling of love in interpersonal relationships

During the past decade, the feeling of love has been considered as the psychology status among the interpersonal relationship In the early history research, love was viewed such as the same intensity and faith required of religion (Hatfield and Rapson, 1987), manifestations observation (e.g., marriages, fertility rates) through view of sociology, and sexuality through the a view of psychoanalysis

Aron and Aron (1986, 1996) describe love as a psychological state, the feeling of two persons united Love, therefore, is “the constellation of behaviors, cognitions, and emotions associated with the desire to enter or maintain a close relationship with a specific another person” (Aron et al., 1991, p 26)

Rubin had a different opinion about the concept of love when he considered love as a superior form of friendship He defines love as an independent psychological construct, “an attitude held by a person toward a particular other person, involving predispositions to think, feel, and behave in certain ways toward

that another person” (Rubin, 1970, p 265) According to this view, there are three dimensions of love construct including of affiliation and need for dependence, predisposition to help, and exclusivity and absorption (inclusion of the other)

Sternberg (1986, 1997) proposes a triangular theory of love with three components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment which combined into eight love styles They included: Non-love, Liking, Infatuate love, empty love, romantic love, companionate love, fatuous love, consummate love

The feeling of love in consumer behavior

The marketing research has discovered the feeling of love that it may exist in

a customer‟s perspective when they possess an object or brand the loved (Albert,2008) Based on the triangular love theory of (Sternberg, 1986), Shimp and Madden (1988) propose a conceptual model of “consumer–object relationships” included liking, yearning, and decision/commitment in a consumption context A person may feel love for an object when the level of integration and desire for that object reaches a critical threshold (Ahuvia (1993) The study of Whang et al (2004)

is the first to capture consumer's love toward a product when she conducted the research to measure the love to her bike and motorcycles with three variables: eros (passionate love), mania (possessive love), and agape (altruistic love)

Caroll and Ahuvia (2006, p 5) define love for a brand as “the degree of passionate emotional attachment that a person has for a particular trade name.” Consumers' love, hence, includes the following characteristics: (1) passion for a brand, (2) brand attachment, (3) positive evaluation of the brand, (4) positive emotions in response to the brand, and (5) declarations of love toward the brand These studies help better understand the construct of love in a consumer behavior context but yet have some theoretical, methodological, and managerial limitations

Love was examined in the differing context of tourism such as love for the tourism industry (Wu, 2013), love for a destination (Godrey, 1984), and love for an airline organization (Thomas, 2015) However, the research on “love” are arguing Even, psychologist Erich Fromm (2008) argued that “love” is interpersonal which

we must actively develop as part of our personality instead of emotion In contrast, Shaver et al (2005) stressed that love fits the emotion criteria Thus, love must be one of basic emotion, along with (for example) anger, sadness and fear

2.2.3 Positive Surprise

Izard (1977) supposed that surprise is not the same sense as joy or sadness Even it does not consist of all the characteristics of the other emotions, but it has some useful functions The surprise is activated by a sharp increase in neural stimulation caused by any sudden and unexpected event In the moment of surprise, your mind seems to be blank and hard to react There are two types of surprise: positive surprise goes with other emotion such as happiness, joy, and pleasure; negative surprise often goes with emotions such as anger, fear, and distress The surprise is not like other emotions because it does not motivate behavior for a long time Thus, studying on surprise to help prepare for the individual to deal effectively with the new or sudden event and with the consequences of this event Moreover, studying on surprise to find out the important function of surprise is to clear the nervous system of ongoing activity that would interfere with adjustment to

a sudden change in our environment

In the marketing field, Lindgreen (2003) argued that surprise has effects on marketing variables such as customer satisfaction, retention, and trust (Vanhamme and Lindgreen, 2001a, 2001b) Surprise was used mainly to measure emotion consumption such as automobile field (Oliver and Westbrook, 1993) Plutchik (1980) with his empirical work on emotions found the combination of surprise and joy result to delight the customer Followers Westbrook and Oliver (1991) also report some indirect evidence for the relationship of positive surprise and satisfaction when analyzed emotions customers experience with products/services consumption, the result showed that “pleasantly surprised customers” Further analysis of satisfaction scores showed that these pleasantly surprised customers were more satisfied than the customer from any other group An exploratory study

by Oliver et.al (1997) may also be considered as a support for the theoretical

approach of positive surprise impacts on satisfaction The authors found the relationship among arousal have on positive surprise and effects to satisfaction However, study “arousal” actually supported for the further result was the “surprise-

> positive surprise-> satisfaction” because arousal was measured with two items which are two of the three items of the DES scales (Izard, 1997) for a surprise

The Definition of Overall Destination Image

2.3.

Since Hunt (1975) mentioned the role of image in developing tourism in the decade of 1970s, destination image becomes the center of tourism research The following scholar Crompton (1979) defined destination image is an individual‟s mental or attitudinal construct included a number of beliefs, ideas, and impressions which tourists have on a particular destination After that, there are a number of destination image definitions were in summarized in the Table 1 below:

Table 2.1: Destination image definitions

Source: Hallman et al, 2003

Conceptual Framework

2.4.

First, the conceptual framework of this study based on DES dimensions developed by Hosany and Gilbert (2010) The authors conducted the research aimed

to provide the theoretical ground and conceptual model to measure tourists‟ emotional experiences Based on the past theoretical backgrounds, the authors contributed to developing a Destination Emotion Scales (DES) conceptual model with 15-items, three-dimensional confirmatory factor (Joy, Love, and Positive Surprise) After that, the researchers analyze the relationship between emotional experiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend According to the research results, the authors supposed that tourists‟ emotional experiences have significant effects on behavioral intentions through satisfaction

Second, the study applied DES dimension because of the usefulness in measuring the tourists‟ emotional experiences toward destinations In addition, the scale‟s validity of DES was tested with the appropriated results (Hosany and Prayag,2015)

Finally, the relationship of tourists‟ emotional experiences among satisfaction and behavioral intentions are under investigation due to the gaps of the impact of various factors surrounding this relationship such as overall image, negative affections, and different contexts According to the study of Hosany and Prayag (2013), this research is the expending DES model development, the authors added the negative emotion factor (“Unpleasantness”) to balance the measurement dimension scales of emotion Furthermore, the authors wanted to examine the relationship between tourists‟ emotional experiences and satisfaction in order to understand behavior intention The research was conducted in Petra, the south of Amman (the capital of Jordan), a world heritage site Their research subjects are randomly international tourists above 18 years old The targeted scales are 350 survey respondents, however, they only collected 297 respondents The authors applied the face-to-face method for this survey The collected data were analyzed by Partial Least Square (PLS) (Lohmoller,1989) to test the hypothesized model To measure model, they tested reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity Based

on the result of the research, the author concluded that: 1) positive emotions have a favorable effect on satisfaction while negative emotion is an unfavorable effect on satisfaction; 2) positive emotional response generate positive behavior intentions

(revisit or recommend) Before conducting the research, they predicted that satisfaction would be the mediator for the relationship between emotions and behavioral intentions However, the research results showed that satisfaction was necessary but not enough condition to influence the behavior intention The interesting results inspired to this study to test the influence of satisfaction on behavioral intention in another context to find out the result

Recently, the study on DES dimensions to explore other aspects of emotions

on the correlations between emotional experiences, overall image, satisfaction, and willingness to recommend was continue conducted by the same authors In 2017, Hosany and his colleagues implemented to add more the factor “Overall images” to verify the relationship among them The research subjects were domestic Italian tourists visiting Sardinia, Italy Data collected from airport and port areas in Olbia after the tourists ended their holiday 350 respondents were approached to take part

in the survey and 275 valid questionnaires were obtained The methods to measure hypothesis and data analysis were used are similar to the previous research (Prayag,2013), the results were pointed out that the emotions of joy and love have

an indirect effect on satisfaction via overall image and positive surprise have no support to the overall image In conclusion, the emotional experiences played the role as the antecedents of perceived overall image and satisfaction evaluation; the overall image has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to recommend

The newest study of Sharma and Nayak (2018) based on the result of Hosany and Prayag (2017), the study tried to test the revised DES model (“overall images”)

in the wellness (yoga) field They carried out the research in Rishikesh where is foothill of Hiyamaya of India and famous for yoga tourism They collected 352 data

of 352 domestic tourists among 963 approached tourists They used SME (Structural Modeling Equation), Pearson‟s correlation technique to analysis As the results, the positive emotions are important antecedents of the overall image, satisfaction, and behavior attention; there is a strong connection between overall

image and satisfaction; both overall image and satisfaction contributed to intention behaviors (Recommend or revisit)

The Relationship Between Emotional Experiences On Overall Image 2.5.

There is a number of researches on the role of emotion in the relationship between satisfaction or overall image in different tourism context and destination Prior studies of Hosany (2015) examined the suitability of DES in different destinations such as a country (Thailand) and a heritage site (Petra) aimed to prove that DES is a useful tool to measure tourists „emotional experiences on destination image The results of using DES to measure those relationships are normally the same in different contexts For examples, the relationship of all emotional experiences (joy, love, positive surprise) on tourist satisfaction in the context of India yoga destination (Rishikesh) are supportive (Sharma and Nayak,2018) Moreover, the emotional items (joy, love, and positive surprise) and satisfaction are supportive in the case of a UNESCO world heritage site (Petra) (Hosany and Prayag,2013) In the context of Thailand, positive emotion and satisfaction are significant determinants of place attachment (Hosany et al, 2017) However, the recent study of Prayage et al (2017) on the island of Sardinia, Mediterranean Sea discovered that emotional experiences have different support to the relationship with overall image and satisfaction For example, the relationship of overall image and joy, love are supportive while overall image and positive surprise are not supportive Beside, joy and love have no significate effect on satisfaction Although, the relationship between positive surprise and satisfaction is a positive support Base on the contextual information of previous studies, there is a gap in

studying the relationship among emotional experiences on the overall image, satisfaction Therefore, the study continues to discover the relationships in the Vietnam context in order to provide further empirical evidence of the relationship

The Relationship Between Satisfaction and Overall Images and 2.6.

Behavioral Intentions

Emotions were used as a segmentation variable For example, customers were divided into four segments: satisfied, happy, sad, and angry consumers (Hirschman and Stern,1999) Emotion impacts satisfaction Satisfied consumers are likely to be brand loyal Because of their low arousal levels, such consumers do not have the desire to be innovative or variety seeking and are unlikely to voice complaints Happy consumers actively seek out new consumption information, experiences, and products, so long as these are deemed to provide pleasure

Research of Ching et al (2007), the author indicated the impact of destination image on behavioral intentions in both directly and indirectly Also, his study pointed out the linkage path destination image->trip quality->perceived value-

>satisfaction->behavioral intentions

Previous research showed out that destination image has an influence on tourist behaviors (Bigne, Sanchez, and Sanchez, 2001; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; Lee, Lee, and Lee, 2005) Tourist consumption process is divided into three stages: before a visit, during a visit, and post a visit (Ryan, 2002; Williams and Buswell, 2003) During tourist consumption process, destination image plays three important roles in behaviors: 1) to influence the destination choice decision-making process; 2) to evaluate (satisfy) the service quality during onsite and experience; 3) to intend the future behavioral intentions (intention to revisit and willingness to recommend)

It is recognized that satisfaction affects destination selection decisions, consumption of goods and service at a destination, and behavior intention Related research indicates that satisfaction is a function of expectations and overall performance After comparing the expectations with perceived performance of the destination, destination satisfaction can be considered (Korzay, Alvarez, 2005: 179)

In this context, satisfaction resulting from a destination can be better understood by evaluation and perception of tourists regarding a tourism destination (Kozak et al., 2004: 45) Pizam et al (1978) argue that in calculating satisfaction from tourism destinations, defining satisfaction levels for every attribute of destinations is required

The integrative model was developed in the restaurant industry to understand the relationship among variables customer satisfaction, service quality and their influence on post-purchase behavior (Jackie,2004)

The study of Fang (2006) describes overall satisfaction as a function of destination attribute importance, performance, and tourist motivation The major question raised in this research is that to what extent the visitors‟ evaluation of destination attributes (the importance and performance factors) and tourist motivation relate to their overall satisfaction

The Role of Socio Demographic Variables in Moderating the 2.7.

Relationship Among Tourists’ Emotional Experiences, Satisfaction, Overall Image and Willingness to Recommend

There are serval studies examining the relationship among tourist‟s emotional experiences, overall image and willingness to recommend in some market segment such as heritage site, wellness tourism, (Hosany and Prayag,2013; 2017) However, none of them examined the role of social demographic variables in this relationship Although, the role of demographic variables was mentioned significantly in the literature review of tourism These variables include cultural background, prior experience, age, gender Regarding culture background, Sharpley (2017) addressed tourism have both expression and experience of culture Bowen supposed that the different cultural backgrounds might be expected to emphasize different components when he explained components of the satisfaction in the tourism context (Bowen,2002) Prior experience plays an important role in destination perception There are several studies pointed out that past experience influences on tourist behaviors (Kerstetter and Cho,2004; Tho, Kim, and Morrison, 2001)

HYPOTHESES AND MODELS CHAPTER 3

Research Process

3.1.

Based on a literature review, the author came up with a suitable research model and hypotheses Next, the survey questionnaires were designed Pilot tests were following to check the reliability of the scale before launching the official research for collecting the main data In the analysis stage, reliability tests, EFA, CFA, SEM, and ANOVA were utilized At the final stage, the results were discussed and recommendations were made

Research Model

3.2.

The research model illustrates the relationship among variables First, it reflects the influence of emotional experiences on overall image and satisfaction, along with the willingness to recommend Second, it shows the impact of

Pilot test

Reliability test

Adjustment

Collecting data

Reliability Test (CA)

EFA, CFA, SEM

Analysis Of Variance

Discussion

& Conclusion

Figure 3.1 Research Process

moderators on demographics such as age, gender, prior experiences, cultural background, and type of tour on those relationships

Figure 3.2 Research Model

Research Model

3.3.

From this research model, a number of hypotheses were generated The first hypotheses group concerns the relationship between emotional experiences such as joy, love, positive surprise on the overall image The second hypotheses group outlines the influence of joy, love, positive surprise on satisfaction Next, the third hypotheses group reflects the impact of overall images and satisfaction on

willingness to recommend Finally, the forth hypotheses group consists of demographic variables such as cultural background, age range, gender, prior experience, type of tour

Group 1: Joy, Love, Positive Surprise On Overall Image

There are several theoretical studies on the relationship between emotions and overall images such as positive emotions toward the natural environment (Farber and Hall, 2007), holistic destination image and emotional attributes (Walmsley and Young, 1998), and nostalgic emotions toward to restaurant image (Chen, Yeh, and Huan,2014) Recently, the scholars emphasize on emotional empirical research, for example, the empirical study in unique historical environment and culture destination (Prayag et al,2017); in the wellness area of yoga in India (Sharma and Nayak,2018) However, investigating the relationship between positive overall image is new and scare, thus demanding for further examination Based on this literature, hypotheses are established as follows:

H1: The emotion of Joy has a positive influence on the overall image

H2: The emotion of Love has a positive influence on the overall image

H3: The emotion of Positive Surprise has a positive influence on the overall image

Group 2: Joy, Love, Positive Surprise On Satisfaction

In tourism marketing research, tourist satisfaction is the most popular research topic of scholars Recently, the relationship between emotion and satisfaction is an emerging topic attracted to scholars such as satisfaction is influenced favorably by the emotion of joy (Faullant, Matzler, and Mooradian 2011), or emotion of not only happiness but also excitement and pleasure (Grappi and Montanari 2011) In the series of studying in positive emotions and satisfaction, Hosany and Praya et al often examine this relationship in different contexts such as heritage destination with domestic tourists (Hosany, and Odeh, 2013; Prayag et al, 2016); Thailand context with international tourists (Hosany et al, 2017) However,

to understand more about this relationship is new and required to further testing According to the background, the study hypotheses were constructed:

H4: The emotion of Joy has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction with a destination

H5: The emotion of Love has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction with

a destination

H6: The emotion of Positive surprise has a positive influence on satisfaction with a destination

Group 3: Overall Images, Satisfaction On Willingness to Recommend

Studying on tourist satisfaction often engage with studying on destination image because destination image plays the center of components influence on satisfaction As Pike (2000) figured out that there are around 142 studies on various aspect of the influence of destination image on consumer behavior, image formation, and image scale development However, the most popular destination image studies on the influence of destination image on tourists‟ satisfaction and behaviors (Chon, 1990) Destination image impacts to tourists‟ decision process, since then future behavior intentions (Bigné, Sanchez, & Sanchez, 2001) According to the research of Assaker (2011), both novelty -seeking and low satisfaction impact on tourists‟ behavior return intention In contrast, a positive destination image enhances the intention to return in the future Although destination image significantly influenced on tourists‟ satisfaction as well as revisit intentions, destination image had a low effect on high novelty seekers (Assaker, 2013)

Wang and Hsu (2010) proposed a conceptual model with 6 hypotheses to examine the relationship among destination image, satisfaction, and tourists‟ behavior intentions The findings were overall image impacted directly on tourist satisfaction, and thereby influenced the revisit intention or positive word of mouth recommendations (Wang, 2017) Although most of the studies confirm that overall

image has significant effects on behavioral recommendations through satisfaction, the overall image in the context of positive emotions impacted on tourists‟ satisfaction and the willingness to recommend is recently mentioned in the researches of Prayag et al (2017) Based on this literature, hypotheses are

in order to explain the meaning of tourism “Tourism is „both an expression and experience of culture‟ (Jamal and Robinson, 2009) Studying cultural differences in emotion, Lim (2016) explained that there are significant differences among the Western (individualist) and Eastern (collectivist) culture related to valence and arousal Western culture tends to high arousal emotions more than low arousal emotions while Eastern is contrast Emotion is influenced by the environment, and social or cultural situations There are various studies supporting the cultural difference in the level of emotional arousal However, culture background has a significant effect on positive emotions (joy, love, and positive surprise) are still continuing Hypotheses for culture background are conceptualized as follows:

H10 (a): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and overall image

H10 (b): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H10 (c): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and overall image

H10 (d): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H10 (e): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and satisfaction

H10 (f): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and satisfaction

H10 (g): Cultural background significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and satisfaction

Prior Experience

Mazursky (1989) suggested that past experiences and norms were resulted from actual performance and referred to as comparative baselines in order to predict consumer's performance Francken and van Raaij (1981) suggested that satisfaction

of leisure activities was derived from earlier experiences, spatial expectation, and social expectation Marchiori and Cantoni (2015) proved the key role of prior experience in the perception of tourism destination while other scholars studied the significant influence of prior experience on destination image formation (Guiry and Vequist, 2015) Further studies have found that tourist behaviors were impacted by prior experience (Kerstetter and Cho, 2004; Marchiori and Cantoni, 2015) However, to understand the relationship among positive emotions, destination image, and satisfaction with socio-demographic variables required further research Based on this demand, these hypotheses below will be explored:

H11 (a): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and overall image

H11 (b): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H11 (c): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and overall image

H11 (d): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H11 (e): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and satisfaction

H11 (f): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and satisfaction

H11 (g): Prior experience significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and satisfaction

Age Range

Recently, Moal-Ulvoas (2017) interpreted the relationship between aging, spirituality and the role of positive emotions aim to demonstrate that positive emotions can enhance people‟s feelings that life is meaningful In tourism, age plays an importation role to moderate human emotion For example, older travelers prefer focusing on activities generated positive emotions and maximized emotionally positive interactions and experiences They also tend to react positively

to the manmade heritage and artistic beauty with attitudes of admiration and appreciation

However, in the literature review of studying on tourism with age different segment, the older adults seem to have more demands on frequently longer and farther vacations than the youngers (Rosenfeld, 1986) The study of (Smith, Mackay, 2001) found out that there are no different in memory the picture of a destination between the younger and the older adults Additionally, age is not affected by the advertising format (Smith, Mackay, 2006) Studying on interrelationships among destination personality, image, and recommendation with the moderation of demographics variables, Kim et al 2017 pointed out that age

significant moderates the relationship between the destination personality trait of not only excitement and destination image but also comfort and destination image However, age does not moderate the relationship between the destination personality trait of sincerity or attractiveness and destination image Although, there are a lot of debates surrounding the age moderator variables on the relationship between positive emotion and destination image or satisfaction Therefore, studying

on age moderators are required for further research The series of the hypotheses are conceptualized as follow:

H12 (a): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and overall image

H12 (b): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H12 (c): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and overall image

H12 (d): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and overall image

H12 (e): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of joy and satisfaction

H12 (f): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of love and satisfaction

H12 (g): Age significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and satisfaction

Gender

Gender is a popular moderator variable examined in a variety of research fields In the tourism area, gender is one of the factors moderated the relationship among service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral recommendations (Wang, 2017) Besides, male and females have different responses of excitement on destination image (Kim et al, 2017) In the other psychology area, there is a difference between male and female in the process of emotion in general and affective disorders (Kateri

et al, 2008) However, there are lacking understanding about the role of gender variable in influencing on overall image and satisfaction through positive emotions Therefore, the hypotheses of this study were established to explore this need:

H13 (a): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of joy and overall image

H13 (b): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of love and overall image

H13 (c): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of positive surprise and overall image

H13 (d): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of love and overall image

H13 (e): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of joy and satisfaction

H13 (f): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of love and satisfaction

H13 (g): Gender significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion

of positive surprise and satisfaction

Type of Tour

In tourism marketing, type of tour, especially group package tours are popular research topics such as package tour advertising components (Wang et al,2007a); critical service features (Wang et al,2000); measuring group package tour service (Wang et al,2007b); purchasing decision of senior tourists (Wang et al,2007c) Aware that travel independent is a global trend nowadays However, there are only a few studies on independent tourists and many of them mention about knowledge and skills (Tsaur, Yen and Chen, 2010) Thus, studying on type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) moderates the relationship among positive emotions and overall image and satisfaction is deficient and require further research This study proposes hypotheses bellows:

H14 (a): Type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and overall image H14 (b): Type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) significantly moderates the relationship among the emotion of positive surprise and satisfaction H14 (b): Type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) significantly moderates the relationship among the overall image and willingness to recommend H14 (c): Type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) significantly moderates the relationship among the overall image and willingness to recommend H14 (d): Type of tour (group tour/ independent tour) significantly moderates the relationship among the satisfaction and willingness to recommend