Seobgyu Song, Seunghyun “Brian” Park and Kwangsoo Park
This study assessed the effect of photo themes to facilitate social media user engagement in Facebook brand pages and emphasized the important role of designing images for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study assessed the effect of photo themes to facilitate social media user engagement in Facebook brand pages and emphasized the important role of designing images for developing destination marketing strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzed 8,900 posts that were published by official tourism destination marketers for each destination (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea). Text mining analysis, image thematic coding analysis and two-way ANOVA were applied to examine the significant differences across proposed determinants for the following engagements: the numbers of likes, comments and shares.
Findings
The results indicated that photographs on social media of three tourism destinations can be explored based on 11 categories of image themes. The themes' significant and distinct effects on three indicators of social media engagement were verified.
Originality/value
This research presented methodological insights by integrating thematic and statistical analyses with social media analytics. The findings of this study provided theoretical evidence of the importance of image themes in the context of social media engagement marketing. Based on the implications of this study, practitioners would enhance the effectiveness of social media marketing.
Details
Keywords
Seobgyu Song, Courtney Suess, Makarand Amrish Mody and Tarik Dogru
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between two dimensions of servicescape (i.e. substantive and communicative servicescape), health care travelers’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between two dimensions of servicescape (i.e. substantive and communicative servicescape), health care travelers’ emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth intentions. It also assesses the moderating effects of accommodation type (i.e. hotel and Airbnb) and interior design styles (i.e. traditional and modern) on the relationship between the two servicescape dimensions and travelers’ emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample from a survey of 692 health care travelers who stayed at either a peer-to-peer accommodation (i.e. Airbnb) or a hotel, a multi-step structural equation model analysis tested the relationships among variables. It examined the moderating effects of accommodation type and interior design style.
Findings
The relationships between servicescape, emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth were significant. Also, the two moderators affected how servicescape influenced the emotions of health care travelers. For Airbnb guests, communicative servicescape had a more substantial effect on enhancing their positive emotions than hotel guests. For health care travelers who stayed at an accommodation with a traditional interior design style, in addition to enhancing positive emotions of health care travelers, substantive servicescape significantly reduced their negative emotions.
Practical implications
The findings suggest the need for the lodging industry to examine how health care travelers perceive and experience their accommodations with unique interior design characteristics. Also, stakeholders in the lodging industry should leverage the aspects of substantive servicescape in terms of relevant interior design styles, which, in turn, influence health care travelers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions. Given the increase in medical mobility and demand for accommodations by those traveling to receive health care services, understanding the lodging environment and how it affects travelers in this segment is essential.
Originality/value
This research develops a comprehensive servicescape model with a focus on the communicative dimension. Moreover, this study significantly contributes to the hospitality literature regarding how the core experience and various interior design styles influence a rapidly growing segment of health care travelers. Health care travelers’ emotions are essential to consider given the propensity to experience stress related to travel situational health factors.