earticle

영어

The cultural similarity is a key factor in the intentions to travel. This study put focus on investigating the impact of geographic distance on cultural similarity and finding the key factor which causes the irregular relationship between cultural similarity and visit intentions. The empirical analysis was operated using the SPSS WIN Ver. 21.0 statistical package program after the questionnaire was collected, and the survey was conducted to 350 residents in China from 15 August to 23 August in 2021. Findings revealed that there exits direct impact among geographic distance, cultural similarity and visit intentions. The results of the difference analysis on cultural similarity and visit intentions according to geographic distance show that when selecting a specific tourist destination, Chinese tourists tend to prefer tourist destinations that are similar to their own customs and communication ways, among which, the visitors living in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai comparatively have higher visit intentions with higher cultural similarity towards Korea, and there exits the moderating factor like cultural motivation between cultural similarity and visit intentions. In more detail, while a sense of distance is formed from tourist countries with different social environments or lifestyles, and the visit intentions is lowered, yet in pursuit of cultural exploration, there is a tendency to visit the countries with different cultural backgrounds or low cultural similarity. This study bears valuable theoretical contributions and implications for destination marketing practices.