The Effect Of Sense Of Virtual Travel Community On Member's Tourism Experience:

With the rapid development of information and communication technology,especially the popularization of the Internet,virtual travel communities begin to emerge in large numbers.As a virtual space for sharing tourism information,seeking travel companions and organizing offline travel activities,virtual travel community has become an important platform for tourists interaction and tourism enterprises network marketing.Virtual travel community,playing an essential role in promoting the development of tourism,attracts the attention of the tourist industry and academy.Researchers have given a considerable amount of attention to the analysis of members online behavior,while paying no attention to online and offline behavioral relations among community members.The research on relationship among sense of virtual community,members'offline tourism experience and virtual community attachment is helpful to deepen the new direction of tourism experience research and provides a new perspective for the study of virtual travel community.Taking non-profit travel clubs,a kind of virtual travel community,as a study case,this paper analyzes the general characteristics and the different characteristics of the sense of virtual community,members' offline tourism experience and virtual community attachment,following the main research strand of“online ? offline ?online".And this paper examines the relationship among sense of virtual community,members'offline tourism experience and virtual community attachment by constructing structural equation model.The conclusions of this paper mainly include the following aspects:(1)The sense of community is affected by the factors,such as the level of the sense of virtual community,members' offline tourism experience and virtual community attachment is medium to high.The length of time joining the community,the number of visiting to the community per week,the average time spending in the community every day,the frequency of offline tourism activities organized by the community,and the frequency of participation of members in offline tourism activities.The offline tourism experience is affected by the average time spending in the community every day.The virtual community attachment is affected by the average time spending in the community every day and the frequency of participation of members in offline tourism activities.(2)The sense of virtual travel community is comprised by three dimensions,namely membership,trust and immersion.Trust and immersion affects offline tourism experience of members positively and significantly,and the influence of immersion on tourism experience is greater than that of trust,which shows online relationship among members is an important factor influencing offline tourism experience(3)The members' offline tourism experience has a significant impact on online community attachment,in which tourism experience has a greater impact on community dependence than on community identity,and community dependence has a significant impact on community identity.Through organizing the offline activities,on one hand,the virtual travel community satisfies the members' tourism needs and enhances their community dependence.On the other hand,it builds and enriches collective memory of the community that is helpful to improve the members'community identityBased on these conclusions,in order to provide scientific basis and reference for the development of tourism virtual community and the marketing of tourism destination,this paper puts forward four suggestions for the operational management of virtual travel community,which are as follows:maintaining the environment and order of the community,creating a friendly social atmosphere,improving the quality of offline tourism experience of community members,and improving the function of virtual travel community.Besides,this paper also give some concrete advices for online relationship marketing of tourism enterprises or scenic areas.