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The use of advertising in managing destination image
Reports The use of advertising in managing destination image Tourism is a major world industry and many countries rely on tourism revenues in their balance of payments. It is therefore imperative that a country convey a positive image to tourists. Preferences for tourism destinations are largely dependent on the favourableness of perceptions of those destinations and advertising is one of the most efficient means of conveying images. This study examines travelers attitudes towards a country in Southern Europe based on the amount of advertising to which they have been exposed. The results indicate that advertising is an effective means by which to improve image; however, it is uncertain whether this is a cognitive process or a mere exposure effect.
Since destination choice is influenced by an individual’s perception of alternative possibilities, it is important for countries wishing to increase tourism business to promote a coherent image of themselves as a tourist destination. Country image can be dcfined as the impressions that a person or persons hold about a country in which they do not reside.’ Images can be formed through contact and expcricnce, or they can be developed in the absence of contact. Perceptions about country image are formed through advertising and promotion, news accounts, conversations with friends and relatives, travel agents, and past experiences. Changing a country image is a difficult process involving much time and effort. Destinations cannot greatly alter their physical attributes (eg landscape and climate), so they must build their images around unique attributes that provide them with some kind of competitive advantage. Tourist attractions should be designed for that particular segment of tourists whose needs are best satisfied by the offering.’ Diagnosis of a destination’s strengths and weaknesses on relevant attributes is helpful in planning tourism facilities and creating marketing programmes. Several studies have discussed the importance of destination image in promotional strategy.” However, this is normally a conclusion or an implication of the study. For the most part,
352
these studies deal either with measuring destination image or comparing the images of various competitive sites. The purpose of this study is to determine if advertising can actually be used to improve the favourableness of perceptions and increase the likelihood of future visitation. The role of advertising is discussed and the mere exposure hypothesis is tested.
The role of advertising Advertising plays an important role in the change process because it provides one of the most efficient means by which a country can convey its image to potential travellers. According to Gunn advertising can improve the induced image of a country, or the impression people have of an area without having been there.4 Advertising has been shown to be valuable in creating and managing a product’s image.’ Advertising functions to enhance physical attributes and their relative importance to the consumer. The nature of the tourism product makes it easy to produce advertising that is both good and effective.” However, the promotional campaign is likely to succeed only if it brings information to people about attributes of which they are not aware or of which they have a distorted view.’ Attributes of a destination can be matched to the needs of one or more market segments through a promotional campaign.
TOURISM
One approach to setting advertising objectives is to consider advertising as instrumental in producing changes in attitudes. The firm should set advertising goals to influence attitudinal structures.” Some of the possible advertising goals are to:
l affect those forces which influence the choice of criteria used for evaluating brands within a product class; a add characteristics to those considered salient for the product class; the rating for a 0 increase/decrease salient characteristic; 0 change the perception of the company’s brand with regard to some particular salient characteristic; and/or of competi0 change the perception tive brands with regard to some particular salient characteristic. The attitudinal approach attempts to relate advertising objectives to the firm’s product/market objectives by indicating the functions that advertising will perform and the results that it will achieve. From a tourism perspective this means that destinations could either change the way in which consumers evaluate the destination, or change consumers’ perceptions of the destination on the present set of evaluative criteria. For example, a country could try to downplay the importance of attributes on which it is weak and emphasize those attributes on which it has a competitive advantage. Alternatively, a country could focus its advertising on changing consumers’ perceptions of its salient attributes such as value, historic appeal and hospitality.
Mere exposure versus classical conditioning Classical conditioning suggests that positive attitudes towards an advertised product or service may develop through its association in an advertisement with other positive stimuli.” However, these attitudes could also be the result of mere exposure to advertising.“’ Classical conditioning
MANAGEMENT
December
1991
Reports
assumes that advertising is used by consumers in a cognitive process whereby information is stored and evaluated, whereas mere exposure would only lead to positive affect. In other words, the mere exposure theory assumes people can develop a positive feeling toward objects they have seen before even if they cannot recall specific advertisements. People may not always be actively processing information and evaluating situations; there may be situations where information search and evaluation are not relevant to purchase behaviour.”
Sample A survey was conducted of individuals living in the USA who had engaged in overseas travel in the past five years. These individuals were assumed to demonstrate the greatest potential for future travel. The respondents were questioned about their attitudes toward a particular country in Southern Europe (the country has been diaguised at the request of the government), their likelihood of visiting that country within the next three years, and the amount and type of advertising they had seen about the country. The sample consisted of approximately 2000 individuals living in major metropolitan areas (SMAs). The fact that the sample lived in metropolitan areas lends credibility to the assumption that they were exposed to all of the major forms of advertising. Most of the people in the sample (82.3%) were discretionary travellers. Their overseas trips were strictly voluntary; they could choose to stay at home or go to a different destination. The non-discretionary traveller takes trips out of necessity and does not have a choice between alternative destinations. It is the discretionary traveller who is most influenced by fares and travel advertisements. Table 1 contains information on the demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds of the individuals in the sample. The median age of the sample was around 40 years old; 60% were married and almost 30% had children under the age of IX. The median income of the sample was approximately $40 000 and 62% of the sample had a
TOURISM
MANAGEMENT
college degree. Finally, the individuals in the sample had taken an average of 2.9 overseas trips within the previous five years. This would suggest that they represented a prime target for future visitation.
Table 1. Demographic/socioeconomic of the sample.
profile
Sex
%
Male Female
50 5 41.5
Age
Results When the sample was asked how often they saw, heard, or read advertising about travel to the country in question, only 15% said they never did. This represented a total reach of approximately 85% for this sample. Newspapers and magazines were the media cited most often, by 51.4% and 32.4% of the respondents respectively. When asked their travel information source for overseas vacations, 47.3% cited advertising, while 77.2% cited professional sources such as airlines or travel agencies. Table 2 contains the respondents’ attitude measures for a series of questions regarding the country’s image. A five-point Likert scale was used to obtain the respondent’s attitude mea sure for each statement. The sample was divided into four groups for the purpose of analysis: 1) those who had never seen advertising for this country; 2) those who had rarely seen advertising; 3) those who had occasionally seen advertising; and 4) those who had often seen advertising for
23.0 24 4 20 1 13.3 12.7 6.5
18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ Income
2.9 98 18.1 18.0 13.8 11 1 57 20.6
< $10,000 $lc-19,999 $20-29,999 $3&39,999 $40-49,999 $5O-59,999 $6r369,999 $70,000+ Education
08 3.8 33.5 44.7 174
Grade school Some high school High school diploma College degree Advanced degree Marital Status
24.7 59 5 8.7 7.1
Single Married Drvorcediseparated Widowed Children
under 18 28.7 71.3
Yes No
travel to this country. The information for categorizing respondents into one
Table 2. Attitudes toward country.
Attitude statement
Group means Rarely Never
Sunny destination Beautiful archrtecture Boring place to wit Beautiful beaches Food is different People are dishonest US$ does not buy much Cities are interestrng Not safe to visit Shopprng bargains Good nrght lrfe Poor country Hardly any modern roads Many European tourists Hotels not as modern People are hospitable Out-of-the-way site People speak English Historical sites People don’t like Americans
3.37 3.28 1.80 2.57 3.29 1.73 1.59 3.09 1 96 2.32 3 00 2.19 1.77 2.25 1.88 2.68 2.21 1.87 3.34 1.72
3.67 3.50 1.88 2.95 3.40 1.68 1.70 3.58 1.95 2.47 3.41 2.22 1.72 2.47 1.83 3.08 2.29 2.12 3.77 1.75
Occasionally
Often
f-statistic
3.76 3.72 1.84 3.26 3.49 1.71 1.76 3.66 1.98 2.75 3.58 2.32 1.72 2.61 1.90 3.22 2.27 2.14 3.84 1.73
3.77 3.98 1.87 3.25 3.49 1.70 1.96 3.95 1.90 2.98 3.84 2.39 1 76 2.76 1.87 3.51 2.06 2.30 4.16 1.87
8.05”’ 18.51”’ 0.42 14.67”’ 1.81 0.19 3.84” 22.61”’ 0.38 10 22”’ 19.17”’ 1.57 0.20 5.70”’ 0.27 16 27”’ 2.57’ 4.74” 22.30”’ 1.18
Note:
* significant at 0 05 level; ** significant level; *** significant at 0.001 level.
December
1991
at 0.01
353
Reporrs
of the four groups was gathered using n fixed alternative question with a scale.” Category descriptors were provided to aid respondents in selecting a position on the ~cnie.‘~ Previous studies have either used controlled experiments or probability distributions to determine advertising exposure. As a result, there are no tested scales for acquiring exposure information through self reporting. Alternative methods would have involved categories with numerical labels representing exposure on a monthly or yearly basis, or asking respondents an open ended question as to how many exposures they received in a typical month or year. Both of these methods would enable the use of more powerful statistical tests, but they might not provide useful information because of the burden placed on respondents. It would also have been difficult to construct useful categories without additional informntion prior to the study. In general, 3s exposure to advertising increased respondents had more f;\vourable attitudes toward the COIIIItry (see Xtble I). The rel:ttionship between exposure to advertising and the overall attitude scores is depicted graphically in Figure 1. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the significance of the rel~~tioi~ship between advertising exposure and attitudes. Particular attention should be paid to those statemrnts for which the means are si~nificantiy different as demonstrated by the F-statistic ;md denoted by “, ** or ‘“**, It is interesting to note th:lt the positive statements regarding the country tended to varying significantly as exposure to advertising increased. Those who had been exposed to more advertising tended to have more favourable attitudes (F = 27.95, p = 0.001). However. there was no significant relationship between exposure to advertising and negative attitude statements (F = 1.15, 17 = 0.3283). When the positive and negative attitude statements were combined. there was a significant relationship (F = 13.91. Q = ~.O~Oi~but mainly between the ‘never‘ category and the ‘rarely’ category. This was determined by uxing a Duncan multiple range test on
354
m
”
Interest
Never
Rareeiy
Occasionally
Often
Exposure frequency
Figure 1. Mere advertising
effect.
the main effect means. There is a significant difference between the means for all exposure categories for the positive statements. Figure 1 provides a graphical representation of all three relationships. Finnily. the respondent’s interest in visiting the country and the likelihood that he/she would visit within the next three years were examined. Figure 2 provides a graphical representation of the two relationships. It can he Lecn that both the percent:tse of people interested in visiting the country ancl the likelihood that these people would visit within the next three years increase as the frequency of exposure to advertising increases. Figure 3 also illustrates that a greater percentage of respondents were interested in visiting than felt it was likely that they would visit within the next three years. The cross tabulations were tested using ;t &-square test statistic to determine whether the relationships were statistically significant. Both the relationship between advertising exposure and interest in visiting (x2 = 113.41, df = 9) and the relationship between advertising exposure and likelihood of visiting (x2 = 124.77. df = 12) are significant at the 0.001 level. Figure 3 shows the percentages of respondents in each of the exposure categories.
tourism department can determine what is important to people in choosing a tourism site, and then use this information to design advertising messages. Second, the actual media that were most successful in reaching the target market were newspapers and magazines. This information should prove beneficial when setting an advertising budget and allocating monies to specific media. It will also affect the type of message that can be used. Finatly, it has also been shown that advertising can be effective in creating interest and increasing the ii~elih~~od that people will visit a tourism site. The fact that the relationship between advertising exposure and positive attitude statements is s~~nific~~nt, while that between exposure 3nd negative attitude statements is not, can be explained in one of two ways. It could be suggested that the majority of the country’s advertising is focused on reinforcing the positive attributes associated with the country. An alternative explanation would be that Rarely
ManageriaI implications The results of this study provide some useful insights into the use of advcrtising in international tourism. First, ~~~lvertisin~ is successful in changing peoples’ perceptions of 3 country, as evidenced by the differences in attitudes between the groups. A country’s
TOURISM
Occasionally 40%
v
Figure 2. Advertising
by interest
and
likelihood.
MANAGEMENT
December 1991
Reports Notes:
_______
All attributes __________---2.5__,_________-------------
2.0
... .....
Negative ._._.._,,____ ._....__....__...___... .
._,._....,_...... Often
Occasionally
Rarely
Never
..
Advertising frequency
Figure
3. Respondents’
exposure
to advertising.
individuals respond differently to negative attitude statements than to positive ones. The reversed meaning of the scale may actually confuse them or the statements may be too negative to be believable. It is, therefore, difficult to get respondents to agree with the statement, regardless of their level of exposure to advertising. It is difficult to conclude whether the findings were the result of classical conditioning or mere exposure. This would have required an experimental design rather than a field study. However. the increase in internal validity would have been at the expense of external validity which was deemed more important by the government conducting the study. Given the uniformity of the results, a good case could be made for the mere exposure hypothesis. This would suggest that the country place more emphasis on reach and frequency and slightly less on message content. In addition, the focus of the message should be on creating and reinforcing positive attitudes. Some limitations associated with this study must be mentioned. The sample is large, but it pertains only to
TOURISM
MANAGEMENT
travellers from the USA and their impressions about travelling to one particular country. The results may not therefore be generalized to include travel from various origins to various destinations. Also, since this was a field study, there may be some questions regarding internal validity. Other factors which were not controlled may account for the variations both within and between the groups. The most important measure of advertising effectiveness would be increased travel; but people normally make their travel plans in advance, making it difficult to measure the actual effect of advertising on sales. Finally, the labels for the scale that measured exposure to advertising may be ambiguous. That is, different respondents may have assigned different meanings to the labels. However, this is an exploratory study and the information from this question is used solely for categorizing individuals and not for measuring any type of performance.
December
David C. Bojanic University of North Carolina 601 South Wilminaton.
1991
College
NC 2840%3297.
Road USA
‘John D. Hunt, ‘Image as a factor in tourism development’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol 13, 1975, pp l-7. ‘Dale. Fodness, ‘Consumer perceptions of tourist attractions’, Journal of Travel Research, Spring 1990, pp 3-9. 3Jonathan N. Goodrich, ‘The relationship between preferences for and perceptions of vacation destinations: application of a choice model,’ Journal of Travel Research, Fall 1978, pp 8-13; op tit, Ref 1; and Michael D. Reilly, ‘Free elicitation of descriptive adjectives for tourism image assessment’, Journa; of Travel Research, Spring 1990, pp 21-26. %lare Gunn, Vacationscape, Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas, Austin, TX, 1972. 5Thomas J. Reynolds and Jonathan Gutman, ‘Advertising is image management’, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol 24, No 1, 1984, pp 27-38. 6Philip G. Davidoff and Doris S. Davidoff, Safes and Marketing for Travel and Tourism, National Publishers of the Black Hills, . Rapid City, SD, 1983. ‘John L. Crompton, ‘An assessment of the image of Mexico as a vacation destination and the influence of geographical location upon that image’, Journal of Travel Research, Spring 1979, pp 18-23. ‘Harper W. Boyd Jr, Michael L. Ray and Edward C. Strong, ‘An attitudinal framework for advertising strategy’, Journal of Marketing, April 1972, pp 27-33. ‘Gerald J. Gorn, ‘The effects of music in advertising on choice behavior: a classrcal conditioning approach’, Journal of Marketing, Vol 46, Winter 1982, pp 94-101. ‘ORB. Zajonc, ‘Attitudinal effects of mere exposure’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Monograph Supplement, Vol 9, Part 2, 1968, pp l-27. “R.W. Olshavsky and D.H. Granbois, ‘Consumer decision making, fact or fiction?‘, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 6. September 1979, pp 93-l 00. ‘*Gilbert A. Churchill Jr, Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, 4th edn, Dryden Press, New York, p 289. j3Albert R. Wildt and Michael B. Mazis, ‘Determinants of scale response: label versus position’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 15, May 1978, pp 261-267.
355
Since destination choice is influenced by an individual’s perception of alternative possibilities, it is important for countries wishing to increase tourism business to promote a coherent image of themselves as a tourist destination. Country image can be dcfined as the impressions that a person or persons hold about a country in which they do not reside.’ Images can be formed through contact and expcricnce, or they can be developed in the absence of contact. Perceptions about country image are formed through advertising and promotion, news accounts, conversations with friends and relatives, travel agents, and past experiences. Changing a country image is a difficult process involving much time and effort. Destinations cannot greatly alter their physical attributes (eg landscape and climate), so they must build their images around unique attributes that provide them with some kind of competitive advantage. Tourist attractions should be designed for that particular segment of tourists whose needs are best satisfied by the offering.’ Diagnosis of a destination’s strengths and weaknesses on relevant attributes is helpful in planning tourism facilities and creating marketing programmes. Several studies have discussed the importance of destination image in promotional strategy.” However, this is normally a conclusion or an implication of the study. For the most part,
352
these studies deal either with measuring destination image or comparing the images of various competitive sites. The purpose of this study is to determine if advertising can actually be used to improve the favourableness of perceptions and increase the likelihood of future visitation. The role of advertising is discussed and the mere exposure hypothesis is tested.
The role of advertising Advertising plays an important role in the change process because it provides one of the most efficient means by which a country can convey its image to potential travellers. According to Gunn advertising can improve the induced image of a country, or the impression people have of an area without having been there.4 Advertising has been shown to be valuable in creating and managing a product’s image.’ Advertising functions to enhance physical attributes and their relative importance to the consumer. The nature of the tourism product makes it easy to produce advertising that is both good and effective.” However, the promotional campaign is likely to succeed only if it brings information to people about attributes of which they are not aware or of which they have a distorted view.’ Attributes of a destination can be matched to the needs of one or more market segments through a promotional campaign.
TOURISM
One approach to setting advertising objectives is to consider advertising as instrumental in producing changes in attitudes. The firm should set advertising goals to influence attitudinal structures.” Some of the possible advertising goals are to:
l affect those forces which influence the choice of criteria used for evaluating brands within a product class; a add characteristics to those considered salient for the product class; the rating for a 0 increase/decrease salient characteristic; 0 change the perception of the company’s brand with regard to some particular salient characteristic; and/or of competi0 change the perception tive brands with regard to some particular salient characteristic. The attitudinal approach attempts to relate advertising objectives to the firm’s product/market objectives by indicating the functions that advertising will perform and the results that it will achieve. From a tourism perspective this means that destinations could either change the way in which consumers evaluate the destination, or change consumers’ perceptions of the destination on the present set of evaluative criteria. For example, a country could try to downplay the importance of attributes on which it is weak and emphasize those attributes on which it has a competitive advantage. Alternatively, a country could focus its advertising on changing consumers’ perceptions of its salient attributes such as value, historic appeal and hospitality.
Mere exposure versus classical conditioning Classical conditioning suggests that positive attitudes towards an advertised product or service may develop through its association in an advertisement with other positive stimuli.” However, these attitudes could also be the result of mere exposure to advertising.“’ Classical conditioning
MANAGEMENT
December
1991
Reports
assumes that advertising is used by consumers in a cognitive process whereby information is stored and evaluated, whereas mere exposure would only lead to positive affect. In other words, the mere exposure theory assumes people can develop a positive feeling toward objects they have seen before even if they cannot recall specific advertisements. People may not always be actively processing information and evaluating situations; there may be situations where information search and evaluation are not relevant to purchase behaviour.”
Sample A survey was conducted of individuals living in the USA who had engaged in overseas travel in the past five years. These individuals were assumed to demonstrate the greatest potential for future travel. The respondents were questioned about their attitudes toward a particular country in Southern Europe (the country has been diaguised at the request of the government), their likelihood of visiting that country within the next three years, and the amount and type of advertising they had seen about the country. The sample consisted of approximately 2000 individuals living in major metropolitan areas (SMAs). The fact that the sample lived in metropolitan areas lends credibility to the assumption that they were exposed to all of the major forms of advertising. Most of the people in the sample (82.3%) were discretionary travellers. Their overseas trips were strictly voluntary; they could choose to stay at home or go to a different destination. The non-discretionary traveller takes trips out of necessity and does not have a choice between alternative destinations. It is the discretionary traveller who is most influenced by fares and travel advertisements. Table 1 contains information on the demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds of the individuals in the sample. The median age of the sample was around 40 years old; 60% were married and almost 30% had children under the age of IX. The median income of the sample was approximately $40 000 and 62% of the sample had a
TOURISM
MANAGEMENT
college degree. Finally, the individuals in the sample had taken an average of 2.9 overseas trips within the previous five years. This would suggest that they represented a prime target for future visitation.
Table 1. Demographic/socioeconomic of the sample.
profile
Sex
%
Male Female
50 5 41.5
Age
Results When the sample was asked how often they saw, heard, or read advertising about travel to the country in question, only 15% said they never did. This represented a total reach of approximately 85% for this sample. Newspapers and magazines were the media cited most often, by 51.4% and 32.4% of the respondents respectively. When asked their travel information source for overseas vacations, 47.3% cited advertising, while 77.2% cited professional sources such as airlines or travel agencies. Table 2 contains the respondents’ attitude measures for a series of questions regarding the country’s image. A five-point Likert scale was used to obtain the respondent’s attitude mea sure for each statement. The sample was divided into four groups for the purpose of analysis: 1) those who had never seen advertising for this country; 2) those who had rarely seen advertising; 3) those who had occasionally seen advertising; and 4) those who had often seen advertising for
23.0 24 4 20 1 13.3 12.7 6.5
18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ Income
2.9 98 18.1 18.0 13.8 11 1 57 20.6
< $10,000 $lc-19,999 $20-29,999 $3&39,999 $40-49,999 $5O-59,999 $6r369,999 $70,000+ Education
08 3.8 33.5 44.7 174
Grade school Some high school High school diploma College degree Advanced degree Marital Status
24.7 59 5 8.7 7.1
Single Married Drvorcediseparated Widowed Children
under 18 28.7 71.3
Yes No
travel to this country. The information for categorizing respondents into one
Table 2. Attitudes toward country.
Attitude statement
Group means Rarely Never
Sunny destination Beautiful archrtecture Boring place to wit Beautiful beaches Food is different People are dishonest US$ does not buy much Cities are interestrng Not safe to visit Shopprng bargains Good nrght lrfe Poor country Hardly any modern roads Many European tourists Hotels not as modern People are hospitable Out-of-the-way site People speak English Historical sites People don’t like Americans
3.37 3.28 1.80 2.57 3.29 1.73 1.59 3.09 1 96 2.32 3 00 2.19 1.77 2.25 1.88 2.68 2.21 1.87 3.34 1.72
3.67 3.50 1.88 2.95 3.40 1.68 1.70 3.58 1.95 2.47 3.41 2.22 1.72 2.47 1.83 3.08 2.29 2.12 3.77 1.75
Occasionally
Often
f-statistic
3.76 3.72 1.84 3.26 3.49 1.71 1.76 3.66 1.98 2.75 3.58 2.32 1.72 2.61 1.90 3.22 2.27 2.14 3.84 1.73
3.77 3.98 1.87 3.25 3.49 1.70 1.96 3.95 1.90 2.98 3.84 2.39 1 76 2.76 1.87 3.51 2.06 2.30 4.16 1.87
8.05”’ 18.51”’ 0.42 14.67”’ 1.81 0.19 3.84” 22.61”’ 0.38 10 22”’ 19.17”’ 1.57 0.20 5.70”’ 0.27 16 27”’ 2.57’ 4.74” 22.30”’ 1.18
Note:
* significant at 0 05 level; ** significant level; *** significant at 0.001 level.
December
1991
at 0.01
353
Reporrs
of the four groups was gathered using n fixed alternative question with a scale.” Category descriptors were provided to aid respondents in selecting a position on the ~cnie.‘~ Previous studies have either used controlled experiments or probability distributions to determine advertising exposure. As a result, there are no tested scales for acquiring exposure information through self reporting. Alternative methods would have involved categories with numerical labels representing exposure on a monthly or yearly basis, or asking respondents an open ended question as to how many exposures they received in a typical month or year. Both of these methods would enable the use of more powerful statistical tests, but they might not provide useful information because of the burden placed on respondents. It would also have been difficult to construct useful categories without additional informntion prior to the study. In general, 3s exposure to advertising increased respondents had more f;\vourable attitudes toward the COIIIItry (see Xtble I). The rel:ttionship between exposure to advertising and the overall attitude scores is depicted graphically in Figure 1. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the significance of the rel~~tioi~ship between advertising exposure and attitudes. Particular attention should be paid to those statemrnts for which the means are si~nificantiy different as demonstrated by the F-statistic ;md denoted by “, ** or ‘“**, It is interesting to note th:lt the positive statements regarding the country tended to varying significantly as exposure to advertising increased. Those who had been exposed to more advertising tended to have more favourable attitudes (F = 27.95, p = 0.001). However. there was no significant relationship between exposure to advertising and negative attitude statements (F = 1.15, 17 = 0.3283). When the positive and negative attitude statements were combined. there was a significant relationship (F = 13.91. Q = ~.O~Oi~but mainly between the ‘never‘ category and the ‘rarely’ category. This was determined by uxing a Duncan multiple range test on
354
m
”
Interest
Never
Rareeiy
Occasionally
Often
Exposure frequency
Figure 1. Mere advertising
effect.
the main effect means. There is a significant difference between the means for all exposure categories for the positive statements. Figure 1 provides a graphical representation of all three relationships. Finnily. the respondent’s interest in visiting the country and the likelihood that he/she would visit within the next three years were examined. Figure 2 provides a graphical representation of the two relationships. It can he Lecn that both the percent:tse of people interested in visiting the country ancl the likelihood that these people would visit within the next three years increase as the frequency of exposure to advertising increases. Figure 3 also illustrates that a greater percentage of respondents were interested in visiting than felt it was likely that they would visit within the next three years. The cross tabulations were tested using ;t &-square test statistic to determine whether the relationships were statistically significant. Both the relationship between advertising exposure and interest in visiting (x2 = 113.41, df = 9) and the relationship between advertising exposure and likelihood of visiting (x2 = 124.77. df = 12) are significant at the 0.001 level. Figure 3 shows the percentages of respondents in each of the exposure categories.
tourism department can determine what is important to people in choosing a tourism site, and then use this information to design advertising messages. Second, the actual media that were most successful in reaching the target market were newspapers and magazines. This information should prove beneficial when setting an advertising budget and allocating monies to specific media. It will also affect the type of message that can be used. Finatly, it has also been shown that advertising can be effective in creating interest and increasing the ii~elih~~od that people will visit a tourism site. The fact that the relationship between advertising exposure and positive attitude statements is s~~nific~~nt, while that between exposure 3nd negative attitude statements is not, can be explained in one of two ways. It could be suggested that the majority of the country’s advertising is focused on reinforcing the positive attributes associated with the country. An alternative explanation would be that Rarely
ManageriaI implications The results of this study provide some useful insights into the use of advcrtising in international tourism. First, ~~~lvertisin~ is successful in changing peoples’ perceptions of 3 country, as evidenced by the differences in attitudes between the groups. A country’s
TOURISM
Occasionally 40%
v
Figure 2. Advertising
by interest
and
likelihood.
MANAGEMENT
December 1991
Reports Notes:
_______
All attributes __________---2.5__,_________-------------
2.0
... .....
Negative ._._.._,,____ ._....__....__...___... .
._,._....,_...... Often
Occasionally
Rarely
Never
..
Advertising frequency
Figure
3. Respondents’
exposure
to advertising.
individuals respond differently to negative attitude statements than to positive ones. The reversed meaning of the scale may actually confuse them or the statements may be too negative to be believable. It is, therefore, difficult to get respondents to agree with the statement, regardless of their level of exposure to advertising. It is difficult to conclude whether the findings were the result of classical conditioning or mere exposure. This would have required an experimental design rather than a field study. However. the increase in internal validity would have been at the expense of external validity which was deemed more important by the government conducting the study. Given the uniformity of the results, a good case could be made for the mere exposure hypothesis. This would suggest that the country place more emphasis on reach and frequency and slightly less on message content. In addition, the focus of the message should be on creating and reinforcing positive attitudes. Some limitations associated with this study must be mentioned. The sample is large, but it pertains only to
TOURISM
MANAGEMENT
travellers from the USA and their impressions about travelling to one particular country. The results may not therefore be generalized to include travel from various origins to various destinations. Also, since this was a field study, there may be some questions regarding internal validity. Other factors which were not controlled may account for the variations both within and between the groups. The most important measure of advertising effectiveness would be increased travel; but people normally make their travel plans in advance, making it difficult to measure the actual effect of advertising on sales. Finally, the labels for the scale that measured exposure to advertising may be ambiguous. That is, different respondents may have assigned different meanings to the labels. However, this is an exploratory study and the information from this question is used solely for categorizing individuals and not for measuring any type of performance.
December
David C. Bojanic University of North Carolina 601 South Wilminaton.
1991
College
NC 2840%3297.
Road USA
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