| Large sums of money have been spent to build positive images of products and services. Thus, it is not surprising that much attention has been devoted to studying image, especially within the travel and tourism context. Image is defined as the impressions that a person or persons hold about a state in which they do not reside (Hunt, 1971). Image is also considered to be a set of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a person holds regarding an object. Gunn (1972), who was one of the first researchers to develop a conceptual framework of destination image, theorized that destination image consists of two major components---organic and induced. Organic images are based primarily upon information assimilated from non-touristic, non-commercial sources, such as the general media (news reports, magazines, books, movies); education (school courses); and the opinions of family and friends. Induced images are formed through more commercial information sources such as travel brochures, travel agents and travel guidebooks. Hence, people can have images without actually visiting a destination, and their images can be impacted through multi sensory processing such as seeing a travel brochure, smelling the surrounding environment, listening to music, tasting a local dish, and touching handicrafts. Unclear is to what extent each type (i.e., seeing, smelling, listening, tasting, touching) of multi sensory processing influences image?;The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of multisensory processing on individuals' image of South Korea as a tourism destination while comparing study participants' responses to the dependent variable of empathy, image of South Korea and willingness to visit. This study employed a 2 x 2 between subject experimental design in which 1,027 participants were randomly assigned to one of the group (i.e., control, video, blog, drama) that theoretically influenced by their image of the travel destination. The structure equation model results showed that the proposed causal model for the multisensory processing, fit the data satisfactorily (chi2 = 187.50, df = 45, NNFI = .986, CFI = .990, RMSEA = .055). Thus, multisensory processing of both narrative and video had significant effect on empathy, images, and willingness to visit. |
