Tourists’ locus of control impact on destination brands online reviews: Destination employees’ efficiency as a mediator

Abstract

Tourist behavior is crucial when studying tourists’ reviews. Fleeting but powerful, greedy behavior drives tourists to exaggerate negativity while reviewing tourism destination brands. To date, however, the current studies on tourism have not considered the role of greed to harm destination reputations. To address the issue, this study relies on locus of control theory as one of critical theories that treat consumer behavior. The study investigates the correlation between tourists’ locus of control and their review of tourism destinations in terms of the employees’ efficiency at destinations. The study uses a distributed survey among 230 frequent travelers using STATA software to analyze regressions for data analysis and mediation analysis. The study uses different measurement scales with 17 items to ensure the reliability and validity of the research. The results revealed that tourists who attribute the holiday success to their choices of destinations, provide positive reviews of those destinations and do not exaggerate negative feedback in the reviews. The study also shows that employees’ efficiency at the destination plays a crucial role as a mediator between tourists’ locus of control and their reviews. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.