A meta-analysis of tourists’ destination visits and theory of planned behavior: the moderating roles of destination scale and cultural difference

ABSTRACT

The literature has explored what motivates tourists to visit a place, but there has not been much work done to compile and synthesize the results of empirical investigations. This study meta-analytically reviews extant research in tourists’ destination visits and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) exploring the moderating roles of destination scale (large versus small) and cultural difference (Eastern versus Western). Using 99 individual samples (N = 46,307) with a series of meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), this study demonstrated that the predictive power of TPB for tourists’ destination visits varies given the differences in destination scale and culture. There is a discussion of the findings’ significance for researchers and practitioners in the tourism field.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourists’ destination visits
• theory of planned behavior (TPB)
• meta-analytical structural equation modeling (MASEM)
• cultural difference
• destination scale

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation: [Grant Number 623RC444]; Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 721QN22].

Notes on contributors

Fangxuan (Sam) Li

Fangxuan (Sam) Li is a Professor from College of International Tourism and Public Administration, Hainan University. His research interests include tourism marketing, tourist behavior, and travel experience.

Dan Zhu

Dan Zhu is a Research Officer at School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His major research interests include vocational psychology, meta-analysis, and marketing in the contexts of tourism and hospitality.

Mao-Tang (Brian) Lin

Mao-Tang (Brian) Lin is a Ph.D. candidate at School of Hospitality and Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His research interests include sustainable tourism, tourism and hospitality marketing, persuasive communication, and consumer behavior.

Peter B. Kim

Peter B. Kim is a Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the Auckland University of Technology. He received his PhD from the Pamplin College of Business at the Virginia Tech University. His research focuses on service management and marketing in the contexts of hospitality and tourism.