관광경험의 구전과 재구전 행동의 영향요인 비교

Factors Influencing WOM and Referral Behavior of Travel Experience

This study aims to identify factors that influence WOM and its referral behavior. This study classifies WOM into WOM by travelers with direct experience to receivers and referral behavior with which receivers transmit the communicate message to others. For this empirical study, a survey was conducted during the period from March 25 to June 3, 2013 in Busan, Korea. University students who are majoring in tourism and who participated in a field trip (n=230) were first surveyed in order to examine their WOM behavior. A follow-up tracking survey targeting those receivers (n=712) from students to collect their referral behavior data. Results indicate that about 95% of travelers generate WOM on their trip experience, while about 25% of receivers resend the communicated message. Results using logit analysis indicate that WOM behavior is significantly influenced by gender and conscientiousness, and resending behavior is significantly influenced by travel experience, conscientiousness, openness, and perception of recommendation intensity. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are addressed with suggestions on the direction for future study.