Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Sameer U. Hosany is a Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway University of London. His research interests lie at the intersection of psychology, marketing, and tourism, focussing on consumer (tourist) behavior and emotional experiences.

Ibrahim Abosag is a Reader in International Business and Marketing at SOAS, University of London. His research interests focus on the cross-cultural issues associated with Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships, especially the unique forms of business relationships such as Et-Moone/Maynanah (Gulf States) and Guanxi (China).

Fatima Z. Yilmaz is a final year PhD student in Marketing at SOAS, University of London. Her research interests focus on the cross-cultural issues associated with understanding the various aspects of tourist behavior and emotional experiences.

Abstract (150 Words)

Although a considerable number of earlier studies have empirically investigated the effects of self-congruity on various constructs such as motivation, revisit intention, word-of-mouth, and evaluation of a destination (e.g. Usakli and Baloglu, 2011; Tassiello and Tillotson, 2020; Šegota, Chen and Golja, 2021), the direct and indirect relationship between self-congruity and tourist happiness remain under-investigated in tourism and hospitality settings (Sirgy, 2019). Therefore, to fill this gap in the literature, drawing on marketing, psychology, and tourism literature, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between self-congruity and tourist happiness via the influence of positive emotions (hedonia) and meaning (eudaimonia). The integrative model was tested using data generated from a convenient sample of 460 tourists from USA. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), a powerful multivariate statistical analysis technique, the results statistically confirm that actual and ideal self-congruity influence tourist happiness and the conditions necessary for mediation are supported.

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Self-Congruence and Tourist Happiness: The Mediating Role of Positive Emotions and Meaning

Although a considerable number of earlier studies have empirically investigated the effects of self-congruity on various constructs such as motivation, revisit intention, word-of-mouth, and evaluation of a destination (e.g. Usakli and Baloglu, 2011; Tassiello and Tillotson, 2020; Šegota, Chen and Golja, 2021), the direct and indirect relationship between self-congruity and tourist happiness remain under-investigated in tourism and hospitality settings (Sirgy, 2019). Therefore, to fill this gap in the literature, drawing on marketing, psychology, and tourism literature, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between self-congruity and tourist happiness via the influence of positive emotions (hedonia) and meaning (eudaimonia). The integrative model was tested using data generated from a convenient sample of 460 tourists from USA. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), a powerful multivariate statistical analysis technique, the results statistically confirm that actual and ideal self-congruity influence tourist happiness and the conditions necessary for mediation are supported.