Title: Effects of tourists' locus of attributions on tourists' online reviews

Authors: Mahmoud Ibraheam Saleh

Addresses: Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University, Russia; Faculty of Tourism and Hotel, Helwan University, Egypt

Abstract: Tourists' online reviews of tourism destination brands are crucial indicators of tourists' (re)visit intention and attachment to tourism destinations. Numerous studies have considered the impact of tourists' experiences on tourists' online reviews. However, no prior research has explored how events' outcomes attributions to internal versus external causes influence tourists to positively versus negatively review tourism events. This study adopts locus of control theory to address this issue, which studies how individuals determine the responsibility of events outcomes. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with travellers from different countries. The results reveal that ascribing positive experiences to external causes stimulates tourists to positively review tourism events more than attributing these positive events to internal reasons. Moreover, attributing negative experiences to internal causes eliminates tourism events' negative reviews more than attributing these adverse events to external causes. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: locus of causality; attribution dimensions; tourists' attribution; tourists' online reviews; locus of control; tourism destination reviews.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2022.123871

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2022 Vol.16 No.3, pp.187 - 203

Received: 20 Jul 2021
Accepted: 27 Sep 2021
Published online: 04 Jul 2022 *

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