Exploring the Triggering Mechanism of Different Word-of-Mouth Intentions by Guest Experience and Well-Being Perception

Abstract

This study examines the triggering mechanism of hotel guests’ engagement in word-of-mouth (WOM) by integrating guest experience, well-being perception, one-to-one WOM intention, one-to-many WOM intention and many-to-many WOM intention. A survey was conducted with 306 experienced guests of the resort hotel sector in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to estimate relationships between guest experience, well-being perception and WOM intentions. The findings of this study indicated a significantly direct effect of esthetic experience on well-being perception, followed by escapism experience, education experience and entertainment experience. The findings also revealed well-being perception was a salient predictor of WOM intentions (i.e., one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many), aided to tourism and hospitality literature by providing empirical evidences to demonstrate how different WOM intentions were triggered by various experiences via psychological reaction of well-being perception. The theoretical and managerial implications for the tourism marketers were discussed.