International Tourist’s post-visit behaviors: A study of short-term revisit intention in the emerging tourism destination of Vietnam

Thesis Defense
International Tourist’s post-visit behaviors:
A study of short-term revisit intention in the emerging tourism destination of Vietnam.

Van Ha Luong, PhD candidate in the PhD programme ESCP, publicly defended his PhD thesis in Management Sciences.

7 July 2020
ESCP Business School Campus République

Abstract

By employing a mixed-method research design that combines both content analysis and structural equation models, it aims at bridging several research gaps raised in tourist behavior literature, which mainly are: the irrelevance of expectancy-disconfirmation theory (service quality paradigm) in explaining tourist's short-term revisit intention; the absence of time factor in examining the revisit intention; and the unidentified relationship of novelty-seeking motivation and tourist's behavior in the post-visit stage.

Through a non-linear buying process model, it first discovered that experiential and symbolic perceptions of a destination are found to be key mediators that should be incorporated in tourism destination research.

Furthermore, selfcongruity has been found to have a positive influence on short-term revisit intention whereas novelty seeking is revealed a robust motivation that discourage the revisit intention of tourist to the same destination by its moderating effect on the interrelationship of post-visit behavior constructs. This might explain the reality of the weak return rate of international tourists to Vietnam.

Finally, emerging destinations seem to attract more millennials who prefer novelty and unique traveling experience.

Jury