The impact of tourists’ emotional experiences on their satisfaction and willingness to recommend a case of vietnam

Research ObjectivesThe study aims to investigate the following objectives: - To find correlations between emotional experiences, overall image, satisfaction, and willingness to recommend

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THI THANH TAM

THE IMPACT OF TOURISTS’

EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES ON THEIR SATISFACTION AND WILLINGNESS TO RECOMMEND: A CASE OF VIETNAM

MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

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

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

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 Mastercourse application, I was working as a senior accountant for Taisei – Vinaconex JointVenture, the main Japanese contractor conducted to build Noi Bai AirportInternational Terminal 2 in Hanoi Before making a decision to apply for VJU Mastercourse, I had spent a lot of time seeking an MBA course which cooperated betweenVietnamese University and the Foreign University Finally, I decided to choose theMaster program in VJU because VJU is not only appropriate for my career in myJapanese company but also a dynamic study environment where I would receive thestrongest support from lecturers and VJU staffs and classmates

I passed four semesters of hard daily struggling with myself but also enjoyedschool life to archive the master degree The first semester was the time of strugglingwith changing my habits and behavior I had to force myself to be familiar withacademic study after ten years of working engagement without learning the academicpractice The second semester was the busiest time when the subjects were fullschedule booked, daily classes attended, a bundle of tests and examinations weredelivered At that moment, I had to arrange my schedule to adapt to both studying andworking The third semester started with the four-month internship in Japan Duringfour months from October 3rd, 2018 until February 2nd, 2019, I did an internship atYokohama 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 knowledgebut more importantly, I also had an exciting chance to experience studying in aninternational environment where I became acquainted with foreign students fromdifferent countries around the world It was a great opportunity for me to enhance mytraining of communication skills that I practiced through the giving of presentations,

in discussions with my supervisory professors, and working in teams with myclassmates from foreign countries Moreover, company visits provided me practical

cosmetic, logistics, and the airline industry which will be necessary for my career inthe future The fourth semester was the hardest time when I was struggling with athesis 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 ThiLien for her expert guidance, understanding, and encouragement throughout my studyand 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 myprofessor 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 werealways 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 InternationalCooperation Agency, Vietnam Japan University, Yokohama National University forfunding and arranging this wonderful MBA Program, which helped me to developmyself 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

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research Problem 1

1.2 Research Objectives 3

1.3 Research Purposes 3

1.4 Research Questions 3

1.5 The Scope of the Study 4

1.6 The Research Design 4

1.7 The Structure of the Paper 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 The Concept of Tourist Satisfaction 6

2.2 The Definition of Tourists‟ Emotional Experiences 9

2.3 The Definition of Overall Destination Image 16

2.4 Conceptual Framework 16

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

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

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

CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES AND MODELS 22

3.1 Research Process 22

3.2 Research Model 22

3.3 Research Model 23

CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY 32

4.1 Research Method 32

4.2 Research Process 32

4.3 Measurement Scale 33

4.4 Data Analysis Method 36

4.5 Sampling and Data Collection 36

CHAPTER 5 RESULTS AND FINDINGS 38

5.1 Sample Profile 38

5.2 Descriptive Statistics and Internal Consistency Reliability Test 40

5.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 42

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

5.5 Moderator Analysis 50

5.6 Hypotheses Results 51

CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, ECOMMENDATIONS 53

6.1 Discussion 53

6.2 Limitation and Recommendation 54

6.3 Conclusion 56

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

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Problem

According to the report “Travel & Tourism Economic impact 2018, SouthEast Asia” issued by The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC, 2018), thecontribution 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 billionUSD in 2028 (estimated for 13% of total GDP) (WTTC, 2018) This rate points outthe important role of tourism in economic development currently Therefore, SouthEast Asia would be well served to develop tourism as an economic incentive.Moreover, the impact of globalization and economic trends towards emergentSoutheast Asia economies currently increased tourism demand in this areadramatically, thus bringing big potential in economic development In 2017, Asiaand Pacific accounts for 30% of world international tourism receipts (UNWTO,2017) Following these trends, Vietnam is also becoming an attractive destinationfor tourists In 2017, Vietnam welcomed 12.9 million international tourists, whichoffered 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 launchedmany activities such as issuing tourism legal documents, organized events, andfestivals, improving public transportation and tourism facilities Also, tourismresearch has recently developed tourism reports which are published frequently andprovide statistics Through the awareness of the important role of marketing intourism, tourism marketing strategies are also focused on promoting Vietnam as adestination image to the world through advertising actives, exhibitions, andinternational cooperation Tourist marketing researchers trying to find bettersolutions for Vietnam marketing tourism are concentrated on 1) evaluating thetourist satisfaction at destinations (Thuy, 2006; Giang, 2013); 2) the impact ofdestination on loyalty (Huong, 2015); and 3) tourism service quality to behaviour

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

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

to attract more tourists because they think that emotions will impact tourist‟sexpectation on vacation destination (Nuria, 2017) For example, India “IncredibleIndia”, Thailand “Amazing Thailand”, Indonesia “Wonderful Indonesia”, thePhilippines “It is more fun in Philippines”, Brazil “Sensational Brazil” (Nuria,2017) Nevertheless, studying tourists‟ emotions are problematic because humanemotions 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 understudy In the research series of Prayag and Hosany and their collaborators, theydiscovered 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 arequite recent and more research using this theoretical model is warranted This studywill be utilizing the revised DES model, a model that has as yet only been used afew times (Payage,2017; Sharma,2018) None thus far have studied the variables in

my research, which considers the context of Vietnam as impacted by demographicmoderators such as cultural background, prior experience, age, gender, and type oftour Furthermore, this research aims to examine the new conceptual model ofemotion and satisfaction developed by Payage.G and his collaborators in 2017 inother different contexts in order to provide empirical evidence test for a boarderappropriate model In addition, outcomes of this project have the potential to raiseawareness of the role of tourists‟ emotional experiences in Vietnam tourismmarketing management Moreover, the research results may contribute to practical

1.2 Research Objectives

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 visitingVietnam;

- 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) andtourists‟ satisfaction are exhibit differences among by the type of tour and those aremoderated by culture background, prior experiences, age, and gender Therefore,the research also contributes to the analysis of that relationship for the literaturereview body of work of tourists‟ emotional experiences

1.3 Research Purposes

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

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

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

The research will investigate the impact of tourists‟ emotional experiences

on their satisfaction and willingness to recommend Vietnam to their friends andrelatives Therefore, this study uses two methods of an online and offline surveywith the participation of foreign tourists on group tours and foreign tourists inindependent tours Hanoi was chosen to conduct the offline survey research becauseHanoi is the symbol of Vietnam attracting all the most foreign tourists enteringVietnam Foreign social network community pages are chosen to collect the data offoreign tourists

1.6 The Research Design

This study adopted a quantitative methodology to conduct data collection andanalysis SPSS was used to analyze the data and test validity and reliability Inaddition, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was also used for a unidimensionalitytest (Pedhazur and Schmelkin, 1991) Finally, Amos 21 was also used to test theresearch model and hypotheses

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

The research paper is divided into five chapters excluding the introduction.They include the first chapter of literature review, the second chapter of hypotheses

and research model, the third chapter of methodology and data collection, the fourthchapter of data analysis and measurement models, and the five chapter of discussionand conclusions.

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background and summarizes the prior research ofthe relationship between tourists‟ satisfaction and its impact factors of emotionalexperiences, overall image, and behavior intention moderated by culturebackground, 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 offersconclusions, discusses the research results, and compares it between theory and practice Limitations and implications of this research are also included in this part

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

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

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

in its effects on willingness to recommend

Tourism is becoming the fastest growing industry and all destinations in overthe world would like to share that growth, in turn, creating strong competition in thehospitality and tourism industry To gain on this competition, most the destinationsare 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 oneach approach, scholars have given different definitions of satisfaction Forexample, Yi (1991) has reviewed customer satisfaction based on two approach ways

of previous researches are include of outcome and process According to anoutcome approach, satisfaction is defined as a final situation or as end-stateresulting from the consumption experience (Howard and Sheth, 1969; Westbrookand 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, thevarious object focus and the level of specificity also make the differences in thedefinition of customer satisfaction with two approach levels vertical (micro andmacro) and horizontal (antecedents and consequences) These levels of satisfactionwith the followings: 1) a product or service; 2) a purchase decision experience; 3) aperformance attribute; 4) from a consumption-use experience; 5) a department orstore of the business organization; 6) a pre-purchasing experience (Yi,1991).Additionally, the parallel relationship of customer satisfaction and other relatedterms such as quality, customer value, service, etc were also mentioned in severalstudies (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 withsignification differences, most of the definitions come from three aspects ofresponse They are included: “1) a response (emotional or cognitive); 2) theresponse pertains to a particular focus (expectations, product, consumptionexperience, 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 andattracted 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, theydevelop products, have the strategies relevant to prices, distributes, and promoteseffectively, 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, preliminarilyaccomplishing some theoretical models (Richard ,1964; Cardozo, 1965) Based onthe previous research, Pizam et al (1978) pioneered in applying the concept ofcustomer satisfaction in the tourism study, which developed into a hot issue in thetourism study He suggested that tourist satisfaction was also derived from thecustomer satisfaction thus, tourism products might be treated as good and products

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

to their expectations, if the results of 1) gratification feelings, the tourists aresatisfied 2) displeasure feelings, the tourists are dissatisfied in contrast David et al.(2002) summarized the conceptual considerations of tourist satisfaction on qualityand 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

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

Studied on expectancy disconfirmation, Miller (1977) defined four types ofexpectation as followings: 1) ideal; 2) lowest tolerable level; 3) deserved; and 4)expected Paralleling with comparison standards: 1) can be; 2) must be; 3) shouldbe; 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 Thereare several concepts of customer satisfaction has defied exact specification even inthose disciplines having Perhaps the most frequently raised question regarding thedefinition of satisfaction has been whether it is a cognitive process or an emotionalstate For example, Howard and Sheth (1969) defined satisfaction as "the buyer'scognitive state of being adequately or inadequately rewarded for the sacrifice he hasundergone." In the same vein, satisfaction was defined as "an evaluation (cognitive]that the chosen alternative is consistent with prior beliefs with respect to thatalternative" (Engel and Blackwell, 1982) (Oh, H.Parks, S C, 1997)

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

Emotions are affective states characterized by episodes of intense feelingsassociated with a specific referent and instigate specific response behaviors (Cohenand Areni (1991) According to the previous literature, there are two majortheoretical approaches to study emotions They are dimensional (valence based) andcategorical (emotion specificity) To explain for the relationship of humanemotions, 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 andnegative emotion There are sixteen emotions including eight basic emotions andeight advanced emotions, with two basic emotions in each The mixture of twoemotions into the circular pattern creates new emotions For examples, the mixture

of joy and acceptance creates loves; the combination of joy and surprise createsdelight This study selected joy, love is the main items of emotional experiences forthe following reasons:

Joy plays an important role in tourists‟ emotional experiences (Hosany andGilbert,2010) Joy is often associated with positive outcomes in tourism such asloyal with using a service or satisfy in choosing a destination In addition, the joydimension includes emotions of cheerfulness, pleasure, and playfulness Thoseemotional experiences are high expectation seeking of tourists while they are ontheir 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 affectionwhich effect on the consumers‟ emotions The feeling of love was found in somestudies tourism researches related to branding strategies and destination marketing.Previous studies discovered that there is a connection between brand loyalty andpositive word of mouth Therefore, love plays an importation role of emotioninfluencing to recommendation behaviors

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

it is no difference between positive and negative emotions Conversely, the scholarsfollowing the categorical approach supposed that emotions are a set of idiosyncraticaffective 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 threecomponents are: 1) the experience or conscious feeling of emotion; 2) the processesthat occur in the brain and nervous system; 3) and the observable expressivepatterns of emotion, particularly those on the face (Izard, 1977 pp 21)

In the tourism industry, emotions act as a significant component of touristexperiences Tourist emotional experiences with the same valence but have differentinfluences on outcome variables such as judgment (Lerner and Keltner,2001); thedestination 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.

- Differential Emotion Scales (“DES”) is developed by Izard (1977) contains

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

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

Tellegen (1988)

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

- Destination Emotion Scales (“DES”) of Honasy (2010)

To explain the occurs of emotions, some scholars supposed that emotion is ajoint function of a physiologically arousing situation and the person's evaluation orappraisal of the situation (Schachter, 1971; Lazarus & Averill, 1972); emotions areactivated by changes in the density of neural stimulation (Tomkins, 1962) Todistingue the difference between emotions and mood, Richard (1999) explained thatmood is last longer and lower in intensity rather than emotion Moreover, emotionsare different with moods because of its intentional Emotions often have an object orreferent In contrast, moods are nonintentional or diffused Additionally, moods arenot as directly coupled with action tendencies and explicit actions as are manyemotions (Richard 1999)

The role of positive emotion was recognized early the 1970s and 1980sthrough the cognition of social psychology The emotions are “a subset of thebroader class of affective phenomenon” (Barbara, 2001, pp 1) If the mission ofpositive psychology is to understand and foster the factors that allow individuals,communities, and societies to flourish, the mission of positive emotions are themarkers 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,

2.2.1 Joy

According to Izard (1977), “Joy is characterized by a sense of confidenceand significance, a feeling of being loved or being loveable” Characteristics of joyare not only internal acceptance but also external acceptance in creating goodrelationships 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 neuralstimulation” According to his principle, the ongoing experience is characterized byemotion or feeling, to experience joy There has to be a decrease in the density ofneural firing In Tomkin‟s perception, joy also results from a marked decrease in thepositive 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 thepsychology status among the interpersonal relationship In the early historyresearch, love was viewed such as the same intensity and faith required of religion(Hatfield and Rapson, 1987), manifestations observation (e.g., marriages, fertilityrates) through view of sociology, and sexuality through the a view ofpsychoanalysis

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

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

that another person” (Rubin, 1970, p 265) According to this view, there are threedimensions 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 threecomponents: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment which combined intoeight 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 andMadden (1988) propose a conceptual model of “consumer–object relationships”included liking, yearning, and decision/commitment in a consumption context Aperson may feel love for an object when the level of integration and desire for thatobject 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 theresearch 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 ofpassionate emotional attachment that a person has for a particular trade name.”Consumers' love, hence, includes the following characteristics: (1) passion for abrand, (2) brand attachment, (3) positive evaluation of the brand, (4) positiveemotions 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 behaviorcontext but yet have some theoretical, methodological, and managerial limitations

Love was examined in the differing context of tourism such as love for thetourism industry (Wu, 2013), love for a destination (Godrey, 1984), and love for anairline organization (Thomas, 2015) However, the research on “love” are arguing

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 beone 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 hassome useful functions The surprise is activated by a sharp increase in neuralstimulation 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 Thesurprise is not like other emotions because it does not motivate behavior for a longtime Thus, studying on surprise to help prepare for the individual to deal effectivelywith 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 thenervous system of ongoing activity that would interfere with adjustment to a suddenchange in our environment

In the marketing field, Lindgreen (2003) argued that surprise has effects onmarketing variables such as customer satisfaction, retention, and trust (Vanhammeand Lindgreen, 2001a, 2001b) Surprise was used mainly to measure emotionconsumption such as automobile field (Oliver and Westbrook, 1993) Plutchik(1980) with his empirical work on emotions found the combination of surprise andjoy result to delight the customer Followers Westbrook and Oliver (1991) alsoreport some indirect evidence for the relationship of positive surprise andsatisfaction when analyzed emotions customers experience with products/servicesconsumption, the result showed that “pleasantly surprised customers” Furtheranalysis of satisfaction scores showed that these pleasantly surprised customerswere 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 therelationship 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 itemswhich are two of the three items of the DES scales (Izard, 1997) for a surprise

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

Table 2.1: Destination image definitions

Source: Hallman et al, 2003

First, the conceptual framework of this study based on DES dimensionsdeveloped 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 authorscontributed to developing a Destination Emotion Scales (DES) conceptual modelwith 15-items, three-dimensional confirmatory factor (Joy, Love, and PositiveSurprise) After that, the researchers analyze the relationship between emotionalexperiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend According to the researchresults, the authors supposed that tourists‟ emotional experiences have significanteffects on behavioral intentions through satisfaction.

Second, the study applied DES dimension because of the usefulness inmeasuring the tourists‟ emotional experiences toward destinations In addition, thescale‟s validity of DES was tested with the appropriated results (Hosany andPrayag,2015)

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

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

(revisit or recommend) Before conducting the research, they predicted thatsatisfaction would be the mediator for the relationship between emotions andbehavioral intentions However, the research results showed that satisfaction wasnecessary but not enough condition to influence the behavior intention Theinteresting results inspired to this study to test the influence of satisfaction onbehavioral 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, andwillingness to recommend was continue conducted by the same authors In 2017,Hosany and his colleagues implemented to add more the factor “Overall images” toverify the relationship among them The research subjects were domestic Italiantourists visiting Sardinia, Italy Data collected from airport and port areas in Olbiaafter the tourists ended their holiday 350 respondents were approached to take part

in the survey and 275 valid questionnaires were obtained The methods to measurehypothesis 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 nosupport to the overall image In conclusion, the emotional experiences played therole as the antecedents of perceived overall image and satisfaction evaluation; theoverall image has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention torecommend

The newest study of Sharma and Nayak (2018) based on the result of Hosanyand 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 isfoothill 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 theresults, 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).

There is a number of researches on the role of emotion in the relationshipbetween satisfaction or overall image in different tourism context and destination.Prior studies of Hosany (2015) examined the suitability of DES in differentdestinations such as a country (Thailand) and a heritage site (Petra) aimed to provethat DES is a useful tool to measure tourists „emotional experiences on destinationimage The results of using DES to measure those relationships are normally thesame in different contexts For examples, the relationship of all emotionalexperiences (joy, love, positive surprise) on tourist satisfaction in the context ofIndia yoga destination (Rishikesh) are supportive (Sharma and Nayak,2018).Moreover, the emotional items (joy, love, and positive surprise) and satisfaction aresupportive in the case of a UNESCO world heritage site (Petra) (Hosany andPrayag,2013) In the context of Thailand, positive emotion and satisfaction aresignificant determinants of place attachment (Hosany et al, 2017) However, therecent study of Prayage et al (2017) on the island of Sardinia, Mediterranean Seadiscovered that emotional experiences have different support to the relationshipwith overall image and satisfaction For example, the relationship of overall imageand joy, love are supportive while overall image and positive surprise are notsupportive 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 theVietnam context in order to provide further empirical evidence of the relationship.

Behavioral Intentions.

Emotions were used as a segmentation variable For example, customerswere divided into four segments: satisfied, happy, sad, and angry consumers(Hirschman and Stern,1999) Emotion impacts satisfaction Satisfied consumers arelikely to be brand loyal Because of their low arousal levels, such consumers do nothave the desire to be innovative or variety seeking and are unlikely to voicecomplaints 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 ofdestination image on behavioral intentions in both directly and indirectly Also, hisstudy pointed out the linkage path destination image->trip quality->perceived value-

>satisfaction->behavioral intentions

Previous research showed out that destination image has an influence ontourist 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 importantroles 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 Relatedresearch indicates that satisfaction is a function of expectations and overallperformance After comparing the expectations with perceived performance of thedestination, destination satisfaction can be considered (Korzay, Alvarez, 2005: 179)

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES AND MODELS3.1 Research Process

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

Literature Pilot test Reliability

Research Reliability EFA, CFA,

Hypotheses Adjustment Analysis Of

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

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

Figure 3.2 Research Model

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

willingness to recommend Finally, the forth hypotheses group consists ofdemographic variables such as cultural background, age range, gender, priorexperience, type of tour.

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

There are several theoretical studies on the relationship between emotionsand 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 emotionalempirical research, for example, the empirical study in unique historicalenvironment and culture destination (Prayag et al,2017); in the wellness area ofyoga in India (Sharma and Nayak,2018) However, investigating the relationshipbetween positive overall image is new and scare, thus demanding for furtherexamination 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 popularresearch topic of scholars Recently, the relationship between emotion andsatisfaction is an emerging topic attracted to scholars such as satisfaction isinfluenced favorably by the emotion of joy (Faullant, Matzler, and Mooradian2011), or emotion of not only happiness but also excitement and pleasure (Grappiand 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 asheritage destination with domestic tourists (Hosany, and Odeh, 2013; Prayag et al,

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 destinationimage because destination image plays the center of components influence onsatisfaction As Pike (2000) figured out that there are around 142 studies on variousaspect of the influence of destination image on consumer behavior, imageformation, and image scale development However, the most popular destinationimage studies on the influence of destination image on tourists‟ satisfaction andbehaviors (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 imageenhances the intention to return in the future Although destination imagesignificantly 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 toexamine the relationship among destination image, satisfaction, and tourists‟behavior intentions The findings were overall image impacted directly on touristsatisfaction, and thereby influenced the revisit intention or positive word of mouthrecommendations (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 theresearches of Prayag et al (2017) Based on this literature, hypotheses areestablished as follows:

H7: A more favourable overall image will result in higher level of tourist satisfaction with a destination.

H8: A more favourable overall image will result in higher propensity to recommend the destination.

H9: A higher level of tourist satisfaction with a destination will result in higher propensity to recommend the destination

Group 4: Demographics Moderators: Culture Background, Prior Experience, Age Range, Gender, Type of Tour

Culture Background

Early studies found that culture play a significant role in influencing theattractiveness of a tourism region (Marris, 1978) Bowen (2002) supposed that thedifferent cultural backgrounds might lead to emphasize different components ofsatisfaction in the tourism context Recently, Sharpley (2017) mentioned “culture”

in order to explain the meaning of tourism “Tourism is „both an expression andexperience of culture‟ (Jamal and Robinson, 2009) Studying cultural differences inemotion, Lim (2016) explained that there are significant differences among theWestern (individualist) and Eastern (collectivist) culture related to valence andarousal Western culture tends to high arousal emotions more than low arousalemotions while Eastern is contrast Emotion is influenced by the environment, andsocial or cultural situations There are various studies supporting the culturaldifference in the level of emotional arousal However, culture background has asignificant effect on positive emotions (joy, love, and positive surprise) are stillcontinuing 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 resultedfrom actual performance and referred to as comparative baselines in order to predictconsumer's performance Francken and van Raaij (1981) suggested that satisfaction

of leisure activities was derived from earlier experiences, spatial expectation, andsocial expectation Marchiori and Cantoni (2015) proved the key role of priorexperience in the perception of tourism destination while other scholars studied thesignificant influence of prior experience on destination image formation (Guiry andVequist, 2015) Further studies have found that tourist behaviors were impacted byprior experience (Kerstetter and Cho, 2004; Marchiori and Cantoni, 2015).However, to understand the relationship among positive emotions, destinationimage, 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 positiveemotions can enhance people‟s feelings that life is meaningful In tourism, ageplays an importation role to moderate human emotion For example, older travelersprefer focusing on activities generated positive emotions and maximizedemotionally positive interactions and experiences They also tend to react positively

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

However, in the literature review of studying on tourism with age differentsegment, the older adults seem to have more demands on frequently longer andfarther vacations than the youngers (Rosenfeld, 1986) The study of (Smith,Mackay, 2001) found out that there are no different in memory the picture of adestination between the younger and the older adults Additionally, age is notaffected by the advertising format (Smith, Mackay, 2006) Studying oninterrelationships among destination personality, image, and recommendation with

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

on age moderators are required for further research The series of the hypotheses areconceptualized 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 researchfields In the tourism area, gender is one of the factors moderated the relationshipamong service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral recommendations (Wang, 2017).Besides, male and females have different responses of excitement on destinationimage (Kim et al, 2017) In the other psychology area, there is a difference betweenmale 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 gendervariable 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 arepopular research topics such as package tour advertising components (Wang etal,2007a); critical service features (Wang et al,2000); measuring group package tourservice (Wang et al,2007b); purchasing decision of senior tourists (Wang etal,2007c) Aware that travel independent is a global trend nowadays However,there are only a few studies on independent tourists and many of them mentionabout knowledge and skills (Tsaur, Yen and Chen, 2010) Thus, studying on type oftour (group tour/ independent tour) moderates the relationship among positiveemotions 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