IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i11p4552-d1403135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Tourism Appeal: The Effectiveness of Communication Channels and Multimedia Formats in Creating Tourists’ Expectations

Author

Listed:
  • Ivana Skočajić

    (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Vladimir Pavković

    (Academy of Applied Studies Belgrade, The College of Tourism, 11070 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Jelena Krstić

    (Economics Institute a.d. Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Milica Kostić-Stanković

    (Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Tamara Vlastelica

    (Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

  • Tamara Rajić

    (Economics Institute a.d. Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia)

Abstract

Tourists’ expectations related to urban tourist destinations, which often derive from wider concept of destinations’ images, encompass a wide range of needs, desires and anticipations that tourists develop prior to visiting a particular destination. They are formed under the influence of different factors, one of which is traditional and digital communication channels. The objective of this research is to determine whether different communication channels and multimedia formats, used by tourists in the pre-travelling phase, could shape their expectations related to tangible and intangible characteristics of urban tourist destinations. The data gathering was conducted by applying Computer-Aided Web Interviewing (CAWI) on a representative sample of 312 adult citizens residing in Belgrade, the capital of the Republic of Serbia. The findings indicate that both traditional and digital communication channels, alongside personal recommendations used prior to the trip, significantly contribute to shaping respondents’ expectations concerning tangible characteristics of urban tourist destinations. Digital communication channels and personal recommendations appeared to be more important in shaping expectations related to the intangible characteristics of urban tourist destinations. Also, different formats of online media content exhibited positive associations with expectations concerning the tangible and intangible characteristics of urban tourist destinations. The obtained results provide recommendations for tourist organizations and local government entities, valuable for developing effective communication strategies for targeting potential tourists.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivana Skočajić & Vladimir Pavković & Jelena Krstić & Milica Kostić-Stanković & Tamara Vlastelica & Tamara Rajić, 2024. "Urban Tourism Appeal: The Effectiveness of Communication Channels and Multimedia Formats in Creating Tourists’ Expectations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-26, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4552-:d:1403135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4552/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4552/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jansson, André, 2018. "Rethinking post-tourism in the age of social media," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 101-110.
    2. Astrid Dickinger & Lidija Lalicic, 2016. "An analysis of destination brand personality and emotions: a comparison study," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 317-340, January.
    3. Brian Garrod & Alan Fyall, 2017. "Collaborative destination marketing at the local level: benefits bundling and the changing role of the local tourism association," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7), pages 668-690, May.
    4. Artemisia Apostolopoulou & Dimitra Papadimitriou, 2015. "The role of destination personality in predicting tourist behaviour: implications for branding mid-sized urban destinations," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(12), pages 1132-1151, December.
    5. Harrigan, Paul & Evers, Uwana & Miles, Morgan & Daly, Timothy, 2017. "Customer engagement with tourism social media brands," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 597-609.
    6. Ekkapong Cheunkamon & Sajjakaj Jomnonkwao & Vatanavongs Ratanavaraha, 2020. "Determinant Factors Influencing Thai Tourists’ Intentions to Use Social Media for Travel Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-22, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huseyin Arasli & Maryam Abdullahi & Tugrul Gunay, 2021. "Social Media as a Destination Marketing Tool for a Sustainable Heritage Festival in Nigeria: A Moderated Mediation Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-27, May.
    2. Rand Al-Dmour & Ola H. Alkhatib & Hani Al-Dmour & Eatedal Basheer Amin, 2023. "The Influence of Social Marketing Drives on Brand Loyalty via the Customer Satisfaction as a Mediating Factor in Travel and Tourism Offices," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    3. Moro, Sérgio & Lopes, Rui J. & Esmerado, Joaquim & Botelho, Miguel, 2020. "Service quality in airport hotel chains through the lens of online reviewers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. He, Wei & Prentice, Catherine & Wang, Xuequn, 2024. "Symmetrical and asymmetrical approaches to brand loyalty– The case of intelligent voice assistants," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    5. Fujita, Momoko & Harrigan, Paul & Soutar, Geoffrey N. & Kumar Roy, Sanjit & Roy, Rajat, 2020. "Enhancing member-institution relationships through social media: The role of other-user engagement behavior and similarity perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 642-654.
    6. Adamantia Pateli & Naoum Mylonas & Aggeliki Spyrou, 2020. "Organizational Adoption of Social Media in the Hospitality Industry: An Integrated Approach Based on DIT and TOE Frameworks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Luis Manuel Ruiz-Gómez & Julio Navío-Marco & Luisa Fernanda Rodríguez-Hevía, 2018. "Dynamics of digital tourism’s consumers in the EU," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 59-81, December.
    8. Lim, Weng Marc & Rasul, Tareq, 2022. "Customer engagement and social media: Revisiting the past to inform the future," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 325-342.
    9. Mohamed Soliman & Tawat Noipom & Muhammadafeefee Assalihee & Arunneewan Buaniew & Ahmad Albattat, 2025. "From Trust to Triumph: What Drives Tourists to Recommend Thailand’s Hidden Cultural Gems?," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-28, May.
    10. Raouf Ahmad Rather & Jyoti Sharma, 2019. "Dimensionality and Consequences of Customer Engagement: A Social Exchange Perspective," Vision, , vol. 23(3), pages 255-266, September.
    11. Jiang, Jingxian & Ellis, Gary D. & Ettekal, Andrea V. & Nelson, Chad, 2022. "Situational engagement experiences: Measurement options and theory testing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 223-236.
    12. Flávio Tiago & Pedro Correia & Victor-Alexandru Briciu & Teresa Borges-Tiago, 2021. "Geotourism Destinations Online Branding Co-Creation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Albert Chukwunonso Diachi & Ayşe Tansu & Oseyenbhin Sunday Osemeahon, 2021. "No One Is Leaving This Time: Social Media Fashion Brand Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    14. Shahbaznezhad, Hamidreza & Dolan, Rebecca & Rashidirad, Mona, 2021. "The Role of Social Media Content Format and Platform in Users' Engagement Behavior," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 47-65.
    15. Adil Zahoor, 2023. "Capitalizing on Service Failures: Implications for Customer Engagement and Loyalty," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 11(1), pages 81-93, January.
    16. Shafig Al-Haddad & Abdel-Aziz Ahmad Sharabati & Mohammad Al-Khasawneh & Rand Maraqa & Raya Hashem, 2022. "The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Consumer Engagement via Social Media," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Cheung, Millissa F.Y. & To, W.M., 2021. "Effect of customer involvement on co-creation of services: A moderated mediation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Neven Ivandić & Zrinka Marušić, 2025. "The Relevance of the “Usual Environment” Concept in Nautical Tourism Monitoring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-17, August.
    19. Sterchele, Davide, 2020. "Memorable tourism experiences and their consequences: An interaction ritual (IR) theory approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Sardar, Sainaz & Tata, Sai Vijay & Sarkar, Subhro, 2024. "Examining the influence of source factors and content characteristics of influencers' post on consumer engagement and purchase intention: A moderated analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4552-:d:1403135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.