The impact of destination online review content characteristics on travel intention: experiments based on psychological distance perspectives
| Date | 08 December 2022 |
| Pages | 42-64 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-06-2022-0293 |
| Published date | 08 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
| Author | Zhangxiang Zhu,Yaxin Zhao,Jing Wang |
The impact of destination
online review content
characteristics on travel
intention: experiments based
on psychological
distance perspectives
Zhangxiang Zhu, Yaxin Zhao and Jing Wang
College of Tourism, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to explore the relationship between the content characteristics of destination online
reviews and travel intention under three individual circumstances: temporal distance, social distance and experiential
distance.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on construal-level theory (CLT), this study divides online travel
reviews into concrete and abstract reviews. Three experiments were conducted to test the moderating effects of
temporal distance, social distance and experiential distance on the influence of review content characteristics on
tourists’travel intentions.
Findings –The results show that abstract reviews would lead to higher travel intentions than concrete
reviews. Furthermore, tourists’travel intentions differed depending on social distance and were significantly
affected by reviews posted by reviewers similar to review recipients. In addition, the study contributes by
discovering that the moderating effects of temporal distance, social distance and experiential distance were not
significant, which differs from most of the previous research conclusions.
Originality/value–This study focused on review content characteristics, which provided a novel perspective
for constructing online travel reviews. Furthermore, this research defined the concept of experiential distance
in the context of online travel and expanded the research on psychological distance.
Keywords Destination online reviews, Travel intention, Construal-level theory, Temporal distance, Social
distance, Experiential distance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the age of e-commerce, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) is more persuasive than ever
before.Electronic word-of-mouth refersto sharing knowledgeand opinions about productsand
serviceson online platforms(Tsao and Mau, 2019). Tourists post onlinereviews of experienced
tourismproducts and servicesas a part of e-WOM.Intangibilityand experientialnature make it
difficult for potential tourists to accurately evaluate the quality of tourism before the experience;
therefore,they will refer to others’opinions to reduce perceived risk, reinforcing the acceptance
of online travel reviews (Shin et al., 2019;Zeng et al., 2020). However, massive online reviews
increase information processing difficulty, resulting in inferior decision-making. Therefore, it is
of greatsignificance to identify valuablereviews and effectivelyuse them to stimulate potential
AJIM
76,1
42
The authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief Dan Wu and two anonymous reviewers for their
honest, helpful, and constructive comments. This work was funded by grants from the Hunan Provincial
Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 2022JJ30409], and the National Natural Science
Foundation of China [Grant No. 71901226].
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 22 June 2022
Revised 21 September 2022
2 November 2022
Accepted 19 November 2022
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 76 No. 1, 2024
pp. 42-64
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-06-2022-0293
tourists’travel intentions. Although a considerable amount of literature has provided insights
into the impact of online reviews on tourists’decision-making in quantity (Zeng et al., 2020),
timeliness (Li et al., 2019), rating (Kim et al., 2020), textual length (Zinko et al., 2020)and
usefulnessvote (Tang et al.,2021), it is relatively simpleto examine the impact of quantitative
characteristics of potential tourists’online r eviews.
The tourism experience cannot be represented with a numeric indicator, such as a review
rating (Fang et al., 2016). Determining whether an online review is useful requires a user to read a
review carefully instead of simply browsing the rating (Shin et al., 2019). The qualitative
characteristics of online travel reviews are more elaborate than the quantitative characteristics.
Prior studies have pointed out that review quality (Zeng et al.,2020), language style (Banerjee,
2022) and content (Kim et al.,2020;Shin et al., 2019) significantly impact tourists’emotions,
cognitions and behaviors. Essentially, potential tourists learn more about tourism destinations by
paying attention to the review content when reading reviews (Kim et al., 2020).Asthecorefactorof
an online travel review, the review content expresses the reviewer’s evaluation and tourism
experience, enabling potential tourists to obtain trustworthy advice from experienced tourists
(Fang et al., 2016). Existing research has explored the relationship between review content
characteristics and tourists’behavioral intentions from the aspects of content detail (Sparks et al.,
2013), specificity (Zhang et al., 2021) and sensory cues (Kim et al.,2020;Lv et al., 2020). It is also
worth noting that consumers tend to share their purchase experiences in concrete or abstract way
(Li et al., 2013). Concrete content involves the features of the focal product, while abstract content
describes the reviewer’s feelings (Huang et al., 2018).However,inthetourismfield,thereislittle
research on how review content describing the destination experience in terms of objective factual
aspects (concrete content) and subjective emotional aspects (abstract content) affects potential
tourists’travel intentions.
Consumers’evaluation of online reviews is subjectively processed and is affected by
individual circumstances (Huang et al., 2022). However, some research suggests that if an
online review meets the reader’s needs, it will be perceived as helpful, regardless of the
individual’s situation (Shin et al., 2019;Tang et al., 2021). It is necessary to explore whether the
impact of online reviews on potential tourists varies according to individual circumstances.
Psychological distance reflects the subjective cognition that something is close or far away in
terms of time, space, sociality and probability (Trope et al., 2007). According to construal-level
theory (CLT), different psychological distances evoke different construal levels, which affect
consumers’cognition and behavior (Trope and Liberman, 2010). Individuals at a far
psychological distance prefer abstract messages, whereas consumers making decisions from
a near psychological distance prefer concrete information. When reading reviews, the travel
departure date, reviewer identity and potential tourists’online purchasing experience create
various psychological distances, that is, temporal distance, social distance and experiential
distance. If online reviews are compatible with readers’psychological distance, their positive
behavioral intentions may be enhanced (Huang et al., 2022). Theoretically, the notion of
psychological distance is appropriate for illuminating review recipients’travel intentions
related to online destination reviews. Although many studies have verified this hypothesis,
some studies have found that the moderating role of psychological distance is absent in
certain situations (Shin et al., 2019;Tang et al., 2021). Therefore, this study appropriately
expands the dimensions of psychological distance and further examines the interaction
effects of review content characteristics and psychological distances on travel intention.
This research aims to (1) explore the impactof content characteristics of destination online
reviews on tourists’travel intention and (2) examine whether there is an interaction effect
between psychological distance and content characteristics of destination online reviews.
Considering the context of readingonline travel reviews,this study selected temporaldistance
and socialdistance and introducedexperiential distance as individual circumstances. Based on
CLT, two true experiments and a quasi-experiment were conducted to compare the travel
Destination
online reviews
and travel
intention
43
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