The impact of destination websites and cultural exposure: a comparison study of experienced and inexperienced travelers

Purpose – As a growth of the competition between cities in Asia effective tourism marketing of the city cultural tourism product will become increasingly important. Cultural exposure to a particular foreign city through the media affects people’s preferences for that destination and may ultimately be a function of the behavior of that city cultural product. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of experienced and inexperienced travelers’ media exposure and their perception of the media exposure on their intention to visit the actual site (i.e. South Korea). Design/methodology/approach – To enhance the understanding of the intention to visit the destination, this study proposes a research model based on use and gratification (U & G) theory and information system (IS) success model. Findings – The authors found a direct, positive effect of satisfaction with the Korea Tourism Organization’s website on potential travelers’ intentions to visit Korea. Research limitations/implications – First, although most measurement items were adopted from previously validated empirical studies and the results of the measurement model testing showed high reliability and validity, further study is warranted to validate the measurement scales in the context of smart tourism. Second, given the relatively small sample size, the findings of this study should not be generalized to other populations. Originality/value – The authors built a conceptual model that synthesized the IS success model and U & G theory in the context of tourism and empirically tested the model using a set of data collected from potential travelers. Overall, the proposed research model is well supported by the results of the study.