Online reputation, virtual experience and tourists’ revisit intentions. The case of Vilakazi street tourism corridor in Soweto

Abstract

Background: Academic literature has documented the benefits of technology for the tourism business. However, the influence of the fourth industrial revolution environment on the destination reputation, pre-visit experience, visit intentions and how these affect tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty intentions have not received much attention, especially within the African context.Aim: The purpose of this study was to empirically test the effect of this environment on all these variables.Setting: This study is one of the few empirical types of research conducted in an urban tourism destination centre in a South African context.Methods: The study employed a positivist quantitative research methodology. Primary data (N = 235) were collected from tourists who visited the Vilakazi Street precinct during October–November 2019, using the convenient probability sampling approach. For analysis, the study employed structural equation modelling.Results: There are positive relationships between the fourth industrial revolution environment and the online reputation and the pre-visit experience. These, in turn, have a positive effect on the intention to visit the precinct, which affects the tourists’ feelings of satisfaction after actually visiting the centre. Satisfaction has a positive impact on their loyalty intentions.Conclusion: The findings create a space for future research by providing another framework for investigating the usefulness of new technology in the tourism industry, which can also extend to other industries. For managers, the findings can help in the creation of online advertisement strategies, online reputation management and online pre-visit experience enhancement.

The implications of industry 4.0 for the tourism sector: A systematic literature review

“…Similarly, [ 30 ] analyzed the effects of the 4IR on visitors' loyalty intentions. The study replicates the methodological and contextual approach of [ 31 ]. Therefore, the findings are identical.…”

“…The first case, brought by Ref. [ 31 ], explored the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies in the historical Vilakazi Street, Soweto. The study analyzed the influence of technology on the pre-visit experience, visit intentions, visitors' satisfaction, and loyalty intentions.…”

“Bringing Sandton into Soweto”

“…Soweto transformed from being a dormitory city of considerable size to being an increasingly diverse economic base beyond just acting as a labour pool for the more prominent (historically White) Johannesburg metropole (Harrison & Harrison, 2014). In the early 2000s, Orlando West, a part of Soweto, evolved as a place of tourist consumption, interwoven with middle-class professionals working across the larger metropolitan region and an emerging grouping of residents that embraced tourism as an economic opportunity (Mgiba & Chiliya, 2020). The data used in the study was from self-generated primary fieldwork obtained through face-to-face questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.…”

Revisiting and integrating residents' perceptions towards tourism development in urban areas

“…Some of the key findings indicate that a vast majority of respondents (79.1%) concur with the statement that tourism contributes to the economy of Vilakazi Street, which may be a result of the thriving tourism sector in the precinct. According to Mgiba and Chiliya (2020), the Vilakazi Street Precinct receives a large number of tourists yearly, especially international visitors and as such, in this study, it was important to gauge respondents' perceptions on whether tourism supports the local economy.…”

“…Residents' perceptions of tourism development(Acha-Anyi, 2016;Ambalao et al, 2022;George, Booyens, 2014;Halim et al, 2022;Mgiba, Chiliya, 2020;Nwokorie, Adeniyi, 2021; Shen et al, 2022) …”