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The impact of
The impact of electronic word eWOM on
of mouth on a tourism tourism
destination choice
Testing the theory of planned behavior (TPB) 591
Mohammad Reza Jalilvand Received 9 August 2011
Revised 2 November 2011
Department of New Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Geophysics, 31 March 2012
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, and Accepted 2 April 2012
Neda Samiei
Department of Economics, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics,
University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract
Purpose – In an environment in which there has been a reduction in consumer trust of both
organizations and advertising, as well as a decrease in television advertising, word of mouth (WOM)
offers a way to obtain a significant competitive advantage. WOM is especially important in the
hospitality and tourism industry, whose intangible products are difficult to evaluate prior to their
consumption. When WOM becomes digital, the large-scale, anonymous, ephemeral nature of the
Internet induces new ways of capturing, analyzing, interpreting, and managing the influence that one
consumer may have on another. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of electronic
WOM (eWOM) on a tourism destination choice, using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Further,
an effort was employed to determine the effect of past travel experience on using eWOM and TPB
constructs.
Design/methodology/approach – A structural equation modeling procedure was applied to the
examination of the influences of eWOM on attitudes towards visiting Isfahan, subjective norms,
perceived behavioral control, and travel intention. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilised in order
to analysing the relations between these constructs and past travel experience. The research model
was tested empirically using a sample of 296 inbound tourists who had experience within the online
communities and travelled to Isfahan during the period of research.
Findings – Findings indicate that online WOM communications have a significant impact on
attitudes toward visiting Isfahan, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention to
travel. In addition, travel experience has a significant impact on using eWOM and TPB constructs.
Practical implications – The paper suggests that eWOM activity is more complex than previous
research has argued. Managers should consider various eWOM facets and try to motivate tourists for
participating in online travel communities and to build online travel communities with characteristics
such usefulness and ease of use.
Originality/value – There has been a lot of marketing research on eWOM but none has focused on
covering eWOM in tourism industry and its impact on tourism destination choice by adding new
dimension of eWOM to the theory of planned behavior. This paper seeks to fill this gap.
Keywords Iran, Tourism, Consumer behaviour, Electronic word of mouth,
Theory of planned behavior, Internet
Paper type Research paper

Internet Research
Vol. 22 No. 5, 2012
The authors would like to thank the Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their pp. 591-612
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
constructive suggestions and insightful guidance. The authors believe that their input has 1066-2243
resulted in the development of a much stronger paper. DOI 10.1108/10662241211271563
INTR 1. Introduction
22,5 Word of mouth (WOM) is communication about products and services between people
who are perceived to be independent of the company providing the product or
service, in a medium perceived to be independent of the company. This informal
communication is among people who are perceived to have little commercial vested
interest in persuading someone else to use the product and therefore no particular
592 incentive to distort the truth in favor of the product or service (Silverman, 2001, p. 25).
Whereas WOM initially referred to the idea of person-to-person conversation between
consumers about a product (Sen and Lerman, 2007), the worldwide spread of the
internet brought up a less personal but more ubiquitous form of WOM, the so-called
electronic WOM (eWOM) (e.g. Brown et al., 2007; Davis and Khazanchi, 2008; Godes
and Mayzlin, 2004; Kiecker and Cowles, 2001; Xia and Bechwati, 2008). eWOM cab be
defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former
customers about a product or company which is made available to multitude of the
people and institutes via the Internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). This new type of
WOM has become an important venue for consumer opinions (Mayzlin, 2006) and it is
assumed to be even more effective than WOM in the off-line world due to its greater
accessibility and high reach (Chatterjee, 2001). The internet also allows an individual
to provide feedback to many others by means of broadcast e-mails, web blogs, or
discussion board postings, resulting in a “written” form of eWOM which has higher
credibility than marketer created sources of information on the internet (Fong and
Burton, 2008). The recent studies on eWOM focus on the motives for posting and
reading reviews and the consumers’ responses to the eWOM messages (Park and Kim,
2008). For example, Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) have developed a typology for motives
of consumer online articulation based on findings from research on virtual
communities and traditional WOM literature. Hennig-Thurau and Walsh (2004)
derive several motives that explain why customers retrieve other customers’ online
articulations from web-based consumer opinion platforms. In addition, eWOM
encompasses a variety of media forms and types of web sites, of which online
consumer reviews that consumers post on the internet constitute one of the most
accessible and prevalent forms of eWOM (Chatterjee, 2001; Sen and Lerman, 2007).
Findings of prior studies indicate that online reviews can significantly influence the
popularity and sales of certain products (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Liu, 2006; Adjei
et al., 2009; Zhang and Tran, 2009; Zhu and Zhang, 2010). Xia and Bechwati (2008)
indicated that consumers evaluated an online review as more trustworthy and useful
when perceiving an agreement between the review and their own opinion which in turn
led to higher purchase intentions. Sen and Lerman (2007) found that the valence of
the reviews (positive vs negative) significantly affected consumers’ attitude toward the
reviewed product. In the context of tourism industry, travel reviews are helpful for
decision making on travels because it provides tourists with indirect experiences (Park
et al., 2007). An online review has a dual role: it provides information about products
and services, and serves as a recommendation (Park et al., 2007). Since tourists request
destination information and its recommendation information simultaneously for
traveling to a certain destination, in order to learn about it and reduce uncertainty
(Bickart and Schindler, 2001), online travel reviews playing these two roles can
completely meet tourists’ information needs. The impact of eWOM in the tourism
industry is especially strong. Intangibles such as tourism services cannot be evaluated
before the consumption experience; therefore, purchasing intangible products and
services brings a higher risk, so customers are more dependent on the interpersonal
influence of eWOM (Lewis and Chambers, 2000). To see how perceived eWOM The impact of
influences and behavior (destination choice) are interrelated in a tourism context, we eWOM on
need to first, investigate utilizing eWOM by tourists and second, measure the impact of
eWOM on tourists’ decision for traveling to a certain destination. Ajzen’s (1991) theory tourism
of planned behavior (TPB) has been widely adopted as one of the most powerful tools
to test consumers’ behavioral intention (Ajzen, 2001). This model has been employed in
previous studies on tourism and hospitality industry (Kassem et al., 2010; Sparks, 2007; 593
Sparks and Pan, 2009; Quintal et al., 2010). Beyond previous works on TPB, current
study is the first attempt to extending the TPB in the context of tourism destination by
adding a new dimension of eWOM to the theory. The paper is organized as follows.
First, background information on eWOM in tourism industry and a discussion of the
TPB are provided. This discussion also includes an explication of the key components
of the TPB, which leads to the development of hypothesis and research model.
A research methodology is proposed. Discussion and managerial implications will flow
from verification of the model and its propositions. Finally, limitations and directions
for future research will provide.

2. eWOM in tourism industry

WOM can play a particularly important role for service organizations, as intangibility
makes the pre-purchase trial of services impossible. WOM is particularly important
when services are complex or have high-perceived risk (Zeithaml et al., 1996) because it
is seen as a highly credible information source as the sender is usually independent of
the organization providing the service and is not seen to gain directly from advocating
the service (Silverman, 2001). Murray (1991) found that service consumers were more
confident in personal sources of information and personal information had a greater
influence on service purchase decisions. Thus, WOM play a particularly significant
role for those services that have high-credence qualities, such as tourism industry.
Recent research in the tourism area has demonstrated the influence of both positive
and negative WOM upon tourism products in studies across a broad range of nations.
Among these, O’Neill et al. (2002) studied wine tourism in Australia, and found that
visitors’ WOM recommendations boost wine sales when vacationing opinion leaders
return home and tell others of their experiences; Shanka et al.’s (2002) study of
destination selection methods found that a majority of Western Australia travel
decisions were based upon WOM communications; In a US-based study, Litvin et al.
(2004) noted that tourists’ restaurant selections were predominantly influenced by the
WOM recommendations of opinion leaders, with surprisingly few decisions based on
the influences of more formal media. In sum, literature indicated that receiving WOM
has an impact on the receiver’s awareness (Sheth, 1971), attention (Mikkelsen et al.,
2003), consideration (Grewal et al., 2003), brand attitudes (Herr et al., 1991; Laczniak
et al., 2001), intentions (Grewal et al., 2003), and expectations (Webster, 1991). With the
advancement of internet technologies, increasing numbers of travelers are using the
internet to seek destination information and to conduct transactions online. According
to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA, 2005), 67 percent of US travelers
have used the internet to search for information on destinations or check prices or
schedules. Even more impressively, 41 percent of US travelers have booked at least
some aspects of their trips via the medium. In spite of increasing importance of online
communications in tourism industry, a few study addressed to the role of eWOM in a
tourism destination choice (Litvin et al., 2008; Park and Gretzel, 2007; Zhu and Lai,
2009). For example, Litvin et al. (2008) described online interpersonal influence, or
INTR eWOM, as a potentially cost-effective means for marketing hospitality and tourism,
22,5 and discussed some of the nascent technological and ethical issues facing marketers as
they seek to harness emerging eWOM technologies. They defined eWOM “as all
informal communications directed at consumers through internet-based technology
related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods and services, or their sellers.”
This includes communication between producers and consumers as well as those
594 between consumers themselves – both integral parts of the WOM flow, and both
distinctly differentiated from communications through mass media (Litvin et al., 2008).
Zhu and Lai (2009) studied how the online information influences on the tourism
destination choice. They found that the volume of the online reviews and the tourists’
blogs correlate significantly with the actual tourist reception population, but
comments grades and the volume of travels consultation do not correlated significantly
with tourist reception population. Park and Gretzel (2007) also investigated
success factors for destination marketing web sites using a qualitative meta-analysis.
They proposed a unified framework of commonly used web site success factors
emerged from the analysis and included nine factors: information quality, ease of use,
responsiveness, security/privacy, visual appearance, trust, interactivity,
personalization, and fulfillment. There have existed much opinion regarding the
power of eWOM, and most prior literature on this topic is survey based in which
respondents were asked to report the impact of online reviews on their travel-related
decisions (Gretzel and Yoo, 2008; Vermeulen and Seegers, 2009). For example,
Vermeulen and Seegers (2009) conducted an experimental study among 168
participants to determine the impact of online reviews on the attitudes of travelers
to hotels, and revealed that exposure to online reviews enhances the awareness of
hotels and positive reviews can improve the attitudes of travelers toward hotels. In
addition, a small number of recent studies used secondary data collected from the
internet and drew inferences from observations of actual product performance.
Clemons et al. (2006) found that the variance of ratings and the strength of the most
positive quartile of reviews have a significant impact on the growth of craft beers.
Within the hospitality context Ye et al. (2009) found that positive reviews can
significantly increase the number of bookings in a hotel. Additionally, researchers are
interested in investigating the motives for seeking eWOM (e.g. Goldsmith and
Horowitz, 2006) and for sharing or articulating the eWOM (e.g. Lee et al., 2006),
providing implications for marketers to better understand online consumer behavior.
Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) found that consumers engage in communicating their
experiences with products or services to others via the web for a number of reasons:
their desire for social interaction, economic incentives, their concern for other
consumers, and the potential to enhance their own self-worth are the primary
factors that lead to eWOM behavior. Stauss (2000) discussed the threats and
opportunities for businesses brought about by the rise in online customer articulations.
A recent survey found that most consumers perceive online opinions to be as
trustworthy as brand web sites (ACNielson, 2007). Rowley (2001) also proposed
that commercial enterprises should try organizing online communities rather than
to simply advertise on the internet. These studies indicate how great of a potential
impact eWOM can have on the consumer decision process. Senecal and Nantel
(2004) examined how eWOM influences product choice using an experimental
study of consumers’ use of online recommendation sources. The various platforms,
which facilitate eWOM such as discussion boards and other online communication
tools are also increasingly being recognized for how they influence the adoption
and use of products and services (Subramani and Rajagopalan, 2003). Some The impact of
related studies have also indicated that eWOM messages are an important means eWOM on
whereby consumers can obtain information about product or service quality
(Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006). Moreover, this kind of message can effectively reduce tourism
the risk and uncertainty recognized by consumers when purchasing products or
services, so that their purchase intention and decision making can be further
influenced (Chatterjee, 2001). In the context of Islamic destinations, Jalilvand and 595
Samiei (2012) also found that WOM affects the decision of tourists for traveling
to Isfahan. In the next section, Ajzen’s TPB will be described to provide a framework to
develop research hypotheses.

3. The TPB
Ajzen’s (1991) TPB model, described how behavior is formed. According to TPB, one’s
attitude toward a behavior, coupled with prevailing subjective norms, and with
perceptions of behavioral control factors, all serve to influence an individual’s intention
to perform a given behavior (Ajzen, 1991). A search of the major online databases
revealed a large number of published studies in the social sciences using Ajzen’s model.
These studies address such areas as smoking behavior (Babrow et al., 1990), ethical
behavior (Flannery and May, 2000), risk-oriented behavior (Quinlan et al., 2006), or
internet activity (Hsu and Chiu, 2004). The majority of these studies support the
usefulness of Ajzen’s theory and his view that behavioral intent is a powerful predictor
of the targeted behavior. However, there are few studies in the literature that examines
Ajzen’s model in the context of tourism and hospitality industry (Kassem et al., 2010;
Sparks, 2007; Sparks and Pan, 2009; Quintal et al., 2010; Alam and Sayuti, 2011; Martin
et al., 2011). Further, there is one research that integrated an additional variable, called
past behavior, into the TPB model (Cheng et al., 2005). Past behavior contains a kind of
WOM behavior. This study tries to add a new dimension of eWOM to TPB and
investigates whether eWOM has impact on the TPB relationships. The research model
includes the interaction of eWOM with attitude, subjective norm, and perceived
behavioral control, all on intention to travel.

Attitude toward visiting a tourism destination

Attitudes, which are relatively permanent and stable evaluative summaries about an
item, are an important psychological construct because they have been found to
influence and predict many behaviors (Kraus, 1995). TPB defines attitude toward a
behavior as “the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation
or appraisal of the behavior in question” (Ajzen, 1991, p. 188). In general, the more
favorable the attitude toward the behavior, the stronger will be an individual’s
intention to perform the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). In our case, the target behavior is the
intention to travel, and the attitude is that toward visiting Isfahan. Further, WOM is
acknowledged to play a considerable role in influencing and forming consumer
attitudes and behavioral intentions (e.g. Chatterjee, 2001; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006;
Sen and Lerman, 2007; Smith and Vogt, 1995; Xia and Bechwati, 2008). In the context of
information exchange, Smith and Vogt (1995) showed that when exposed to positive
(negative) information first, subjects formed a positive (negative) attitude that
subsequent negative (positive) WOM information was not able to change. Soderlund
and Rosengren (2007) indicate that WOM transmission has an indirect impact on the
receiver’s attitude toward the firm through the receiver’s assessment of the senders’
emotions. Ying and Chung (2007) also showed that positive WOM leads to more
INTR favorable attitude toward a specific product than negative WOM. Castaneda et al.
22,5 (2009) showed the importance of attitude toward the web site and attitude toward the
internet in explaining attitude toward the brand and consumer behavior. Dennis et al.
(2009) developed a conceptual model to explain e-consumer behavior. In their model,
e-consumer intentions to purchase from an e-retailer is positively influenced by
positive attitudes toward the e-retailer. In sum, the results of previous studies indicated
596 that eWOM has a significant impact on attitude (Soderlund and Rosengren, 2007;
Ying and Chung, 2007; Herr et al., 1991; Laczniak et al., 2001) and intention (Soderlund
and Rosengren, 2007; Ying and Chung, 2007; Grewal et al., 2003). Thus, it is
hypothesized that:

H1. eWOM has a significant impact on attitudes toward visiting Isfahan.

H1a. Attitudes toward visiting Isfahan has a significant impact on intention to

travel.

Subjective norms
TPB postulates a second determinant of intention, subjective norm. Within TPB,
subjective norm is defined as “the perceived social pressure to perform or not to
perform the behavior” by the individual (Ajzen, 1991, p. 188). A component of
subjective norm is normative belief, or the individual’s perception of a significant
referent other’s opinion about the individual’s performance of the behavior. TPB views
the role of social pressure to be more important when the motivation to comply with
that pressure is greater (Mathieson, 1991). The role of subjective norm as a determinant
of intention is well documented in situations where the actual behavior entails tangible
and beneficial consequences for the consumer (Taylor and Todd, 1995). Venkatesh et al.
(2003) developed a unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology, among
which social influence derived from subjective norm is an important determinant of
user intention. Subjective norm is also found to affect users’ intention to make online
purchase (Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006), play online games (Hsu and Lu, 2004), adopt
blog (Hsu and Lin, 2008), and use advanced mobile services (Lopez-Nicolas et al., 2008).
Li et al. (2008) revealed that subjective norm significantly affects user trust in
organizational information systems. Further, Zhou (2011) found that subjective norm
significantly affects online community users’ participation intention. In terms of
technology adoption, Hung et al. (2003) and Pedersen (2001) both concluded peer
influence and external social influence as determinants of subjective norm. Peer
influence usually includes WOM from friends, colleagues, and family members,
whereas external influence usually includes expert opinions, media reports, and
non-personal information (Bhattacherjee, 2000; Teo and Pok, 2003). Schepers and
Wetzels (2007) in a meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model asserted that
when considering technology adoption in a consumer market the subjective norm
construct is created by WOM. In addition, Guoqing et al. (2009) in their study of
Chinese consumers found that WOM has a positive influence on the receiver’s objective
norms. Thus, it is hypothesized that:

H2. eWOM has a significant impact on subjective norms.

H2a. Subjective norm has a significant impact on intention to travel.

Perceived behavioral control The impact of
Perceived behavioral control refers to (Ajzen, 1991, p. 188): “the perceived ease or eWOM on
difficulty of performing the behavior.” Moreover, perceived behavioral control (Ajzen,
1991, p. 122) “is assumed to reflect past experience as well as anticipated impediments tourism
and consequences.” According to TPB, it is the perception of behavioral control, as
opposed to the degree of actual behavioral control that directly impacts both intentions
to perform a behavior, as well as the actual performance of that behavior. Ajzen’s (2002) 597
view of perceived behavioral control is similar to Bandura’s (1982) notion of perceived
self-efficacy, which is “concerned with judgments of how well one can execute courses
of action required to deal with prospective situations” (Bandura, 1982, p. 122).
Bandura’s research has demonstrated that people’s behavior is strongly affected by
their confidence in their ability to perform that behavior. When behaviors are perceived
as challenging or there are barriers to performance, however, perceived behavioral
control becomes a more important factor predicting behavior. Perceived behavioral
control is comprised of two factors: first, control beliefs, which relate to the sense of the
self-availability of skills, resources, and opportunities; and second, perceived
facilitation, which relates to an individual’s assessment of the importance of those
skills, resources and opportunities for the achievement of desired outcomes. Control
beliefs can be situational as well as personal (Mathieson, 1991). Within the context of
tourism destination choice, perceived behavioral control relates to the tourists’s
perception of the satisfactory of destination and to the opportunities for traveling to
that destination, and to an individual’s self-confidence in his or her ability to travel to
that destination. Perceived behavioral control has been shown to be an important
determinant of travel intention (Martin et al., 2011), intention to purchase halal food
products (Alam and Sayuti, 2011) and intention to consume soft drink (Kassem et al.,
2010). In a direct test, Mathieson (1991) found that perceived behavioral control did
have a significant effect of intention to use information technology. Palka et al. (2009) in
their study of mobile WOM found that resource-based conditions could influence
the recipient’s perceived behavioral control. Furthermore, Cheng et al. (2006) showed
that consumers’ negative WOM communication is positively related to perceived
behavioral control. Findings of their study demonstrated that TPB is applicable in
measuring consumers’ negative WOM communication. Thus, it is hypothesized that:

H3. eWOM has a significant impact on perceived behavioral control.

H3a. Perceived behavioral control has a significant impact on intention to travel.

Behavioral intention
In TPB, behavioral intention is central to the model and represents the extent of the
individual’s intentions to perform or not to perform one certain behavior (Ajzen, 1991).
According to TPB, perceived behavioral control, together with behavioral intention,
can be used to directly predict actual behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Behavioral
intention has long been recognized as an important mediator in the relationship
between behavior and other factors, such as attitude, subjective norm, and perceived
behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). In addition, WOM has been
shown to influence other people’s purchase behavior. In Soderlund and Rosengren’s
(2007) study, WOM has showed an indirect impact on purchase intention through the
receiver’s assessment of the senders’ emotions and the receivers’ attitude toward
the firm. Further, Ying and Chung (2007) indicated that positive WOM leads to more
INTR intensive intention to purchase a specific product than negative WOM. Chevalier
22,5 and Mayzlin (2006) examined effects of online product reviews on relative sales of
two online book shops based on publicly available data from two leading online
booksellers. The results of their study show that such online communications
significantly affect other consumers’ purchase behavior. In addition, Gruen et al. (2006)
studied the online know-how forum and determined that online WOM impacted not
598 only the receiver’s perceived value of a company’s products, but also their loyalty
intentions. Recent studies have investigated online consumer reviews as eWOM that
influences consumer behavior (Chatterjee, 2001; Chen and Xie, 2008). For example,
people make purchasing decisions based on consumer-created information over the
internet (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004) and rely on internet postings to make decisions that
range from which movie to watch to which stocks to invest in (Dellarocas, 2003). Other
research showed eWOM to be a significant power that affects consumer loyalty and
purchase decisions (Gruen et al., 2006; Lin et al., 2005). Therefore it is vital to know how
much importance consumers give eWOM and why consumers search for advice from
virtual opinion platforms when making purchase decisions. Thus, it is hypothesized
that:

H4. eWOM has a significant impact on intention to travel.

4. Methodology
Sampling
To achieve the research goal, a field survey was conducted at Isfahan as a tourism
destination in Iran. The target population was inbound tourists who visited Isfahan
during a four-week period of research in June 2011. The questionnaires were
distributed based on a cluster sampling method and collected at international hotels in
Isfahan. Tourists who had experience with online communities and used travel reviews
as an information source about tourism destinations were asked to complete the
questionnaires. In all, 400 questionnaires were distributed and 296 usable samples were
obtained after excluding the incomplete ones, yielding a 74 percent response rate
from those who agree to participate. The assumed links between eWOM and TPB has
not been examined empirically before and will be analyzed in the empirical study
presented subsequently (Figure 1).

Attitude toward
H1a
H1 visiting Isfahan

Electronic word H4 Intention to

of mouth among travel
tourists about H2a
Isfahan H2
Subjective
norms
H3 H3a
Figure 1.
Perceived behavioral
Research model control
Instrument The impact of
A self-administrated questionnaire was designed to measure the research model eWOM on
variable constructs. Each variable construct (e.g. eWOM, attitude, subjective norm,
perceived behavioral control, and intention) was measured using multiple items (see tourism
Appendix). The survey consisted of three parts covering the following issues: eWOM,
TPB scale, and demographics. In the eWOM section, with six items that were
adapted from Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold’s (2011) study and modified for tourism 599
context, respondents were asked about using eWOM. A seven-point rating scale (from
1 ¼ strongly disagree to 7 ¼ strongly agree) was employed to measure eWOM. The
second section contains the scale of TPB including attitude toward behavior (three
items), subjective norm (three items), perceived behavioral control (three items), and
behavioral intention (three items) which adopted from Kassem et al.’s (2010) study and
modified by the researcher. Similar to previous section, a seven-point rating scale was
employed to measure the above determinants. The third section is about demographic
characteristics of tourists. This section concluded six items: nationality, age, gender,
education, trip purpose, and number of previous visits. Table I shows the demographic

Characteristic Frequency % CF (%)

Nationality
USA 47 15.9 15.9
Australia and east of Asia 33 11.1 27
Germany 46 15.5 42.6
UK 31 10.5 53
Other European countries 138 46 100
Age
Under 25 10 3.4 3.4
25-35 93 31.4 34.8
35-45 47 15.9 50.7
45-55 41 13.9 64.5
More than 55 105 35.5 100
Gender
Male 193 65.2 65.2
Female 103 34.8 100
Purpose of trip
Pleasure/vacation 239 80.7 80.7
Business 10 3.4 84.1
Transit to other countries 20 6.8 90.9
Spot tournament 3 1 91.9
Visiting a trade fair 6 2 93.9
Study 18 6.1 100
Education
Primary or below 6 2 2
Secondary 36 12.2 14.2
University 196 66.2 80.4
Postgraduate 58 19.6 100
Number of previous visits
Never 144 48.6 48.6
One time 67 22.6 71.3 Table I.
Two times 34 11.5 82.8 Demographical
3-5 times 24 8.1 90.9 characteristics of
6 times or more 27 9.1 100 respondents
INTR profile of the respondents. A pilot study was performed to assess how well the survey
22,5 instrument captured the constructs it was supposed to measure, and to test the internal
consistency and reliability of questionnaire items. The first draft of the survey
instrument was distributed to 30 randomly selected tourists who were resided in
Abbasi hotel, the largest hotel among other international hotels in terms of number of
tourists’ referrals. A total of 30 questionnaires were collected at the site. Cronbach’s
600 a was used to verify the internal consistency reliability. The eWOM scale shows a
significant internal consistency of 0.805. Cronbach’s coefficients of travel intention,
attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were 0.91, 0.87, 0.83, and
0.81, respectively. The reliabilities of the different measures in the model range from
0.80 to 0.92, which exceed the recommended threshold value of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1981).
Based on the results of the pilot study, the final version was modified considering
questionnaire design, wording, and measurement scale. Data analysis involves
descriptive statistics using SPSS and structural equation modeling using AMOS
structural equation program.

5. Data analysis and results

Structural equation modeling
Amos, a path structural equation program, is used to test the full structural equation
model presented in Figure 1. The primary task in this model-testing procedure is to
impose the causal structure of a hypothesized model on a set of observed data so as to
determine the goodness of fit between the hypothesized model and the sample data
(Byrne, 2001). A model generating, theory building approach to structural equation
modeling (Joreskog, 1993) is adopted in this study, that is, an initial conceptual model is
specified and tested, and modifications driven either by the theory or the data are made
in an attempt to identify a final model which not only fits the data well from a
statistical point of view, but is also theoretically justified and substantively meaningful
(Smith and Langfield-Smith, 2004). The estimations of the parameters and the overall
fit index of the measurement model are based on the maximum likelihood (ML)
method. The basic conditions assumed for the use of ML estimation (Byrne, 2001) are
met or closely approximated in the study. Table II reports the means, SDs, and the
correlations among all variables included in the analyses. There are two important
observations regarding Table II. First, it can be noted that all sub-scales display
acceptable reliabilities, these being of the order above the generally accepted value of
0.70 (Hair et al., 1998). Second, the correlations between the constructs used in this
study are generally lower than their reliability estimates, indicating good discriminant
validity for these factors (Hair et al., 1998).

Meana SD EWOM ATV SN PBC IT

EWOM 4.465 0.854 0.805b 0.685* 0.645* 0.674* 0.681*

ATV 5.105 0.998 0.685* 0.87 0.578* 0.507* 0.651*
SN 5.097 0.942 0.645* 0.578* 0.83 0.467* 0.639*
PBC 5.164 0.921 0.674* 0.507* 0.467* 0.81 0.633*
IT 6.128 0.569 0.681* 0.651* 0.639* 0.633* 0.91
Notes: eWOM, electronic word of mouth; ATV, attitude toward visiting Isfahan; SN, subjective norms;
Table II. PBC, perceived behavioral control; IT, intention to travel. aN ¼ 296; bcoefficient a’s (as) are located on
Descriptive statistics the diagonal. *Pearson correlation coefficient significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed test)
The sample is sufficiently large (n ¼ 296 cases), over the recommended size of 200 cases The impact of
(Medsker et al., 1994), the scale of observed variables is continuous, and no violations of eWOM on
multivariate normality are found in the survey responses. As indicated in Table III, the
hypothesized model generally provides a good fit of the data (w2 ¼ 181.9; df ¼ 128; tourism
p ¼ 0.001). The Bentler and Bonnet (1980) normed fit index (NFI ¼ 0.910,
with 1 indicating maximum fit), Bentler’s (1990) comparative fit index (CFI ¼ 0.971,
1 ¼ maximum fit), and the Steiger and Lind (1980) root mean square error of 601
approximation (RMSEA ¼ 0.038, with values o0.05 indicating good fit) provide
statistical corroboration that the specified model fits the data well. The ML estimates
for the proposed model are included in Table III and the standardized path regression
coefficients that indicate the direct influences of the predictor upon the predicted
latent constructs for the model are shown in Figure 2. All tests are directional t-tests of
the critical ratios (CR) of the regression weight estimates over the estimates of their
standard errors (SE) provided in the Amos output. As shown in Figure 2, of seven
paths specified in the hypothesized model, six are found to be statistically significant.
These paths reflect the impact of eWOM on attitudes toward destination (b ¼ 0.874,
po0.001), eWOM on subjective norm (b ¼ 0.884, po0.001), eWOM on perceived
behavioral control (b ¼ 0.836, po0.001), attitudes toward destination on intention to
travel (b ¼ 0.646, po0.01), subjective norms on intention to travel (b ¼ 0.951, po0.01),
and perceived behavioral control on intention to travel (b ¼ 0.685, po0.001).

Independent Dependant Standardized

Hypothesis variable variable Estimate estimate SE CR p-value

H1 Electronic word Attitude toward

of mouth visiting Isfahan 1.097 0.874 0.117 9.341 ***
H2 Electronic word Subjective norm
of mouth 0.992 0.884 0.120 8.245 ***
H3 Electronic word Perceived
of mouth behavioral control 0.924 0.836 0.106 8.760 ***
H4 Electronic word Intention to travel
of mouth 0.420 0.819 0.2341.796 0.073*
H1a Attitude toward Intention to travel
visiting Isfahan 0.264 0.646 0.091 2.913 0.004**
H2a Subjective norm Intention to travel 0.435 0.951 0.157 2.769 0.006**
H3a Perceived Intention to travel
behavioral control 0.317 0.685 0.089 3.586 ***
Structural model Cut-off value
Model fit
statistics w2 ¼ 181.9
df ¼ 128
p-value ¼ 0.001 o0.05
Normed w2 ¼ 1.421 1.0-3.0
GFI ¼ 0.938 40.90
NFI ¼ 0.910 40.90
CFI ¼ 0.971 40.90
TLI ¼ 0.965 40.90
Table III.
RMR ¼ 0.49 o0.50
Maximum likelihood
RMSEA ¼ 0.038 o0.08: good fit
estimates for
Notes: n ¼ 296; ***,**,*significant at the po0.001, po0.01 and po0.1 levels (two-tailed), respectively research model
INTR e1 e2 e3

22,5 ATV1 ATV2

0.64
ATV3

0.76 Attitude toward 0.72

visiting Isfahan
e10 e11 e12

z1
0.87

602 d1 eWOM1 0.65

IT1 IT2 IT3

0.72 0.46
d2 eWOM2 0.48
0.63
0.65 –0.82 0.37
d3 eWOM3 Electronic Intention
word of mouth to travel
d4 eWOM4 z2
0.61 0.88
0.62 0.95
d5 eWOM5
z4
d6 eWOM6 0.60 Subjective
0.65 norms 0.63
0.61
SN1 SN2 SN3
0.84
0.69
e4 e5 e6

z3

Perceived
behavioral control
0.71 0.64 0.72
PBC1 PBC2 PBC3

e7 e8 e9
Figure 2.
Standardized regression Notes: Significant at p < 0.001 (two -tailed)

coefficients Significant at p < 0.01 (two -tailed)

Significant at p < 0.1 (two -tailed)

In addition, the impact of eWOM on behavioral intention was significant in the

proposed model (b ¼ 0.819, po0.1) (see Table III and Figure 2).
It should be noted that the path coefficient of H4 is negative. This negative
relationship originated from the specific circumstance of Iran as a tourism destination.
The activities of Jonbesh Sabz after electing President Ahmadi Nezhad and the nuclear
issues in Iran have added to the pressures on the country and its destination image.
These events led to disseminate negative information among tourists about Iran.
Furthermore, according to Norris and Ken (2003) and Aburish (1997), Muslims,
particularly Iranians stereotyped as the instigators of terrorism and violence. This
negative information available at virtual communities has a negative effect on tourists’
travel intention. To examine the interplay between the four variables that affect
intention to travel and subsequently traveling decision (or a tourism destination
choice), an analysis of the standardized direct, indirect, and total effects is conducted
(see Table IV). Of particular interest is the indirect effect of eWOM on intention to
travel (1.978) through its impact on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral
control. The analysis also indicates that eWOM has a direct impact on attitude,
subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (0.874, 0.884, and 0.836,
respectively). Finally, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control
have a direct impact on intention to travel (0.646, 0.951, and 0.685, respectively).

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Using eWOM and TPB constructs can also be explained by respondents’ past travel
experience (see Table V). Cheng et al. (2005) indicated that past behavior could
 Total Direct Indirect
The impact of
Independent variable Dependant variable effect effect effect eWOM on
tourism
Word of mouth Attitude toward visiting Isfahan 0.874 0.874 0.000
Word of mouth Subjective norm 0.884 0.884 0.000
Word of mouth Perceived behavioral control 0.836 0.836 0.000
Word of mouth Intention to travel 1.159 0.819 1.978 603
Attitude toward visiting Isfahan Intention to travel 0.646 0.646 0.000
Subjective norm Intention to travel 0.951 0.951 0.000
Perceived behavioral control Intention to travel 0.685 0.685 0.000 Table IV.
Decomposition of total
Note: n ¼ 296 effects for research model

Electronic word Attitude toward Subjective Perceived Intention to

Factors of mouth visiting Isfahan norms behavioral control travel

Number of
previous visits F ¼ 152.468* F ¼ 51.693* F ¼ 40.85* F ¼ 46.89* F ¼ 43.26*
Never 5.12 5.66 5.57 5.67 6.44
One time 4.21 5.04 5.02 5.07 6.03
Two times 3.89 4.59 4.83 4.74 5.89
Table V.
Three to five
One-way ANOVA
times 3.59 4.20 4.20 4.29 5.68
results of variations
Six times or more 3.11 3.77 3.89 4.01 5.41
of using eWOM and
Note: *Significant at the level of pp0.01 TPB constructs

influence TPB constructs and should be integrated in it. The test for ANOVA found
that number of visits has a strong and significant impact on eWOM (F ¼ 152.47),
attitude toward visiting Isfahan (F ¼ 51.69), subjective norm (F ¼ 40.85), perceived
behavioral control (F ¼ 46.89), and intention to travel (F ¼ 43.26). The more travel
experience, the less use of eWOM.

6. Discussion
The internet has greatly empowered consumers in their ability to gather and
disseminate product-related information. Today, consumers can easily access peer-
generated product information around the globe and can also influence numerous
consumers by voicing their own experiences (Ward and Ostrom, 2003). Researchers
who are aware of this new phenomenon call for new knowledge to understand
consumer behavior in virtual communities and, more importantly, how organizations
can use this knowledge (Laroche, 2010). This research attempts to explain eWOM
influences on the process of a tourism destination choice. TPB provides a conceptually
appealing interpretation of the process of decision making on a tourism destination.
According to findings, eWOM among tourists has a significant, positive, and direct
impact on attitude toward visiting Isfahan, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral
control. It also has a strong impact on intention to travel. Additionally, the results of
this survey validate the predictive constructs as determinants of behavioral intention
INTR in TPB. Attitude toward visiting a destination, subjective norm, and perceived
22,5 behavioral control are all found to be significant determinants of the intention to travel
to a certain destination. In a service industry such as tourism industry, regardless of
prior travel experience with a tourism destination, the tourists’ attitude toward visiting
a destination is a strong indicator of intended choice of that destination. This study
also confirms that subjective norm is a significant, positive determinant of intention to
604 travel. This finding is consistent with Hartwick and Barki’s (1994) assertion that the
relative influence of subjective norm on behavioral intention is significant even
when users have only limited direct experience from which to develop attitudes
about information system use. This study also provides further direct evidence that
perceived behavioral control has a significant, positive impact on intention to travel.
Furthermore, results indicated that past travel experience has a significant impact
on using eWOM and TPB constructs. The findings of this research offer important
implications for tourism managers that will be discussed in the next section. It is
important to say that positive WOM and eWOM play an important role in increasing
tourists’ travel intentions, creating a favorable image of the destination, and reducing
promotional expenditures. Tourism managers need to acquaint themselves with
the phenomenon of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds offer an inspiring perspective
for enhancing quantity and quality of tourism activities through collaborating with
tourists.

7. Implications, limitations, and future research

The intangibility of hospitality and tourism-related products makes it difficult to
evaluate them before consumption, and it has long been recognized that interpersonal
communications are important information sources among tourists (Litvin et al., 2008).
With the growing popularity of consumer advice web sites, virtual interactions among
online users have become commonplace, which has led some tourism researchers to
assert that eWOM plays a vital role in the acquisition and retention of consumers
(Litvin et al., 2008; Vermeulen and Seegers, 2009). In this paper, we examined the
impact of eWOM on tourist travel intention to determine the effect of destination
information on the tourists’ destination choice process. Based on our results, we
recommend the following practical implications to the managers of tourism
destinations. First, managers can encourage travelers to participate in discussing in
online communities. This may be a useful strategy to increase the likelihood of WOM
dissemination about a certain destination via cyberspace. When the volume of tourist
reviews on a destination is high, the more information about a certain destination will
disseminate among potential tourists and as a result, the possibility of choosing the
destination will increase. Hence, each tourist organization should adopt each way to
motivate the travelers to publish tourist reviews. For example, we can give prizes to a
tourist who is the member of community if he/she published a tourist review. The
characteristics of an online travel community (such usefulness and ease of use) may
also help to form more positive tourist attitudes. To motivate tourists for participating
in online travel communities, managers should promote the benefits of participating in
these communities and thereby enable consumers to perceive the usefulness of
participation. Indeed, ease-of-use favors improve comprehension of the contents
and the structure of the community and offer a more comfortable atmosphere to
users (Casaló et al., 2008). Second, destination managers can build online tourism
communities. The tourism web site’s community is the main place in which travelers
carry on exchanging information online, and the travelers may freely speak about own
traveling feeling, their previous travel experiences, the service of restaurant and hotel The impact of
in the community. A good example of consumers sharing their hospitality and tourism eWOM on
opinions is the web site tripadvisor.com – touted (by the company) as the largest site
for unbiased travel reviews which gives tourists the real story about hotels, attractions, tourism
and restaurants around the world. It boasts more than 1,926,031 unbiased reviews and
is updated every minute and every day by real travelers (Tripadvisor.com, 2005).
It should be noted that eWOM information in the community is different from tourist 605
enterprise’s propagation. It has the character of two-way exchange and having no
commercial motive. Hence, eWOM have the more influence on tourism decision making
compared to the tourism enterprises’ propagation. Tourism enterprises’ web site
should establish the discussion community for consumers to exchange opinions
conveniently, and promote tourism enterprise’s propagation through eWOM. Third,
managers may monitor the exchange of volume of eWOM to evaluate the image of
tourism destination and the tourist’s cognition through the content of online reviews.
The tourist enterprise may purposefully mold the image of tourism destination.
Further, tourism managers are able to deal with tourists’ comments easily and deliver
better and improved tourism services. Tourists’ perception of service quality of a
tourism destination is a predictor of behavior intentions, such as eWOM. Boulding
et al. (1993) indicated that service quality positively affects behavioral outcomes such
as loyalty and positive WOM. Zeithaml et al. (1996) proposed a model of the behavioral
consequences of service quality and suggested that perceived service quality was
related to positive behavioral intentions including WOM, purchase intentions, and
complaining behavior. Thus, receiving complaints of tourists who have traveled to a
specific destination about supplied tourism services must be initiated. Poor tourism
services result in increasing the customer’s level of dissatisfaction. Ignoring complaints
can lead tourists to defect and engage in negative eWOM about destination. Forth, one
of the aspects of post-traveling behavior is eWOM. Thus, tourism managers should
provide tourists with a memorable experience. For example, destinations can award
some gifts to tourists in order to form a suitable image in their mind. Satisfied tourists
will disseminate positive eWOM about destination in online travel communities. Both
practical experience and previous research suggested that in an online WOM context,
consumers are especially interested in writing and reading negative product reviews
(Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold, 2011). Hence, tourism practitioners should pay
attention to tracking tourist opinion web sites so that they can learn and improve the
aspects that have received negative comments. Additionally, managers should try to
respond to tourist reviews through web platforms, as the recent study by Ye et al.
(2008) suggested that a hotel’s online reply to guest comments on an opinion web site is
positively associated with the actual sales of hotel rooms. It is important to say that
eWOM would not appear to be restricted to any one particular service industry (such
as tourism industry) or country. Developing a better understanding of consumers’
verbal behavior related to services should be of interest to marketing managers and
researchers globally. As this research utilized a sample with a single country focus, we
would like to suggest that future researchers examine the generalizability of these
findings via cross-cultural studies. In addition, future studies of the influence of social
and cultural factors on using eWOM and intention to travel would provide researchers
and practitioners alike with an advanced understanding of those unique individual and
societal factors that predict intention to travel. While this paper has shed some light on
the eWOM literature, it has some limitations. Sampling was one of the limitations
identified in this study. Some tourists used other information sources before traveling
INTR to Iran. Therefore, we excluded tourists who had not used travel reviews as an
22,5 information source to make travel decision. As another limitation, qualitative data
such the main information sources was not gathered. Open-ended questions would be
helpful in order to report which are the main information sources of tourists.

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INTR Appendix
.
22,5 Appendix A.
A. Electronic word of mouth
(eWOM1) I often read other tourists’ online travel reviews to know what destinations make good
impressions on others.
(eWOM2) To make sure I choose the right destination, I often read other tourists’ online travel reviews
612 (eWOM3) I often consult other tourists’ online travel reviews to help choose an attractive destination.
(eWOM4) I frequently gather information from tourists’ online travel reviews before I travel to a
certain destination.
(eWOM5) If I don’t read tourists’ online travel reviews when I travel to a destination, I worry about my
decision.
(eWOM6) When I travel to a destination, tourists’ online travel reviews make me confident in
travelling to the destination.
B. The theory of planned behavior
Attitude
What do you think about Iran as a tourism destination?
(ATV1) Very bad ......:......:......:.....:......:......:....... Very good
(ATV2) Very worthless ......:......:......:.....:......:......:....... Very valuable
(ATV2) Very unpleasant ......:......:......:.....:......:......:....... Very pleasant
Subjective norm
(SB1) Important people in my life say I ought to visit Iran.
(SB2) Most people who are important to me would want me to visit Iran.
(SB3) People whose opinions I value would prefer me to visit Iran.
Perceived behavioral control
(PBC1) I would be able to visit Iran.
(PBC2) I have the resources and the knowledge and the ability to visit Iran.
(PBC3) If I want to visit Iran, it would be easy.
Intention to travel
(IT1) I predict I will visit Iran in the future.
(IT2) I would visit Iran rather than any other tourism destination.
(IT3) If everything goes as I think, I will plan to visit Iran in the future.

Corresponding author
Mohammad Reza Jalilvand can be contacted at: rezajalilvand@ut.ac.ir

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