긍정적 구전과 부정적 구전 효과의 비교

Differences of Positive WOM and Negative WOM Effects in On-line Tourism Information

The purpose of this study was to compare differences of tourism destination's images and attitudes according to the balance of online Word of Mouth (WOM) tourism informations. Data were collected from 167 tourism majors throughout the month of May, 2011. using a static-group collection method and comparison design including two experimental groups and one control group. A preliminary analysis to identify appropriate measurement dimensions including exploratory factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis was conducted, followed by t-test to examine analysis propositions. Through the analysis, five factors of tourism destination's image were identified as follows: cognitive image: tourism infrastructure, tourism activity, tourism environment/ emotional image: active, comfort. The results show that there are significant differences among three groups. Most discernable, the group which had negative information was responded to almost factors strongly rather than the other groups. This result supports a prospect theory. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed based on the results for marketers of the online tourism companies and organizations. Also limitations of the study were discussed.