Online reviews have become increasingly important in tourist destinations and they affect the way in which they are perceived by potential consumers. They represent an overabundant source of information in the form of open answers, where customers freely express their experience regarding the tourist destination. Previous studies have made use of the shared experiences of visitors to obtain the main attributes of a tourist destination. This article goes one step further and proposes the identification of those attributes that are uniquely associated with a tourist destination when compared with some other destinations, using a combination of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s honestly significant difference. Findings reveal that the unique attributes are the best predictors of tourist destinations when compared with other destinations. Additionally, they represent a competitive advantage that could be reinforced by planners or agencies while minimizing the effect of the unique attributes of competitors.
Arenas-MarquezF. J.Martínez-TorresM. R.ToralS.2014. “Electronic Word of Mouth Communities from the Perspective of Social Network Analysis.”Technology Analysis & Strategic Management26 (8): 927–42.
2.
BalakrishnanM. S.2009. “Strategic Branding of Destinations: A Framework.”European Journal of Marketing43 (5/6): 611–29.
3.
BalogluS.MangalogluM.2001. “Tourism Destination Images of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy as Perceived by US-Based Tour Operators and Travel Agents.”Tourism Management22 (1): 1–9.
4.
BengioY.GrandvaletY.2004. “No Unbiased Estimator of the Variance of k-Fold Cross-Validation.”Journal of Machine Learning Research5:1089–105.
5.
BhatiaseviV.YoopetchC.2015. “The Determinants of Intention to Use Electronic Booking among Young Users in Thailand.”Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management23:1–11.
6.
BickartB.SchindlerR. M.2001. “Internet Forums as Influential Sources of Consumer Information.”Journal of Interactive Marketing15 (3): 31–40.
7.
BrownG.GetzD.2005. “Linking Wine Preferences to the Choice of Wine Tourism Destinations.”Journal of Travel Research43 (3): 266–76.
8.
BrownS.2005. “Travelling with a Purpose: Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers.”Current Issues in Tourism8 (6): 479–96.
9.
CambriaE.SchullerB.XiaY.HavasiC.2013. “New Avenues in Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis.”IEEE Intelligent Systems28 (2): 15–21.
10.
CantallopsA. S.SalviF.2014. “New Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research on eWOM and Hotels.”International Journal of Hospitality Management36:41–51.
11.
CaoQ.DuanW.GanQ.2011. “Exploring Determinants of Voting for the ‘Helpfulness’ of Online User Reviews: A Text Mining Approach.”Decision Support Systems50 (2): 511–21.
12.
CasaloL. V.FlavianC.GuinaliuM.EkinciY.2015. “Do Online Hotel Rating Schemes Influence Booking Behaviors?”International Journal of Hospitality Management49:28–36.
13.
ChoiS.LehtoX. Y.MorrisonA. M.2007. “Destination Image Representation on the Web: Content Analysis of Macau Travel Related Websites.”Tourism Management28 (1): 118–29.
14.
CoshallJ. T.2000. “Measurement of Tourists’ Images: The Repertory Grid Approach.”Journal of Travel Research39 (1): 85–89.
15.
EchtnerC. M.RitchieJ. R. B.1993. “The Measurement of Destination Image: An Empirical Assessment.”Journal of Travel Research31 (14): 3–13.
16.
EchtnerC. M.RitchieJ. R. B.2003. “The Meaning and Measurement of Destination Image.”Journal of Tourism Studies14 (1): 37–48.
17.
Erkus-ÖztürkH.2009. “The Role of Cluster Types and Firm Size in Designing the Level of Network Relations: The Experience from Antalya Tourism Region.”Tourism Management30 (4): 589–97.
18.
GaoL.ScottN.DingP.2016. “Attributes, Theme, and Value of a Visit to Zhouzhuang, China.”Journal of Destination Marketing & Management5 (3): 239–48.
19.
GarcíaJ. A.GómezM.MolinaA.2012. “A Destination-Branding Model: An Empirical Analysis Based on Stakeholders.”Tourism Management33 (3): 646–61.
20.
GodnovU.RedekT.2016. “Application of Text Mining in Tourism: Case of Croatia.”Annals of Tourism Research58:162–66.
21.
González-RodríguezM. R.Martínez TorresM. R.ToralS.2016. “Post-visit and Pre-visit Tourist Destination Image through eWOM Sentiment Analysis and Perceived Helpfulness.”International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management28 (11): 2609–27.
22.
GoversR.GoF. M.2003. “Deconstructing Destination Image in the Information Age.”Information Technology & Tourism6 (1): 13–29.
23.
GoversR.GoF. M.KumarK.2007. “Virtual Destination Image a New Measurement Approach.”Annals of Tourism Research34 (4): 977–97.
24.
GovindarajanM.ChandrasekaranR. M.2010. “Evaluation of k-Nearest Neighbor Classifier Performance for Direct Marketing.”Expert Systems with Applications37 (1): 253–58.
25.
GreenacreM.2007. Correspondence Analysis in Practice, Vol. 2. New York: Chapman & Hall.
26.
HashimiH.HafezA.MathkourH.2015. “Selection Criteria for Text Mining Approaches.”Computers in Human Behavior51:729–33.
27.
IbrahimE. E.GillJ.2005. “A Positioning Strategy for a Tourist Destination, Based on Analysis of Customers’ Perceptions and Satisfactions.”Marketing Intelligence & Planning23 (2): 172–88.
28.
JalilvandM. R.2016. “Word-of-Mouth vs. Mass Media: Their Contributions to Destination Image Formation.”Anatolia1-12.
29.
JaniD.HwangY. H.2011. “User-Generated Destination Image through Weblogs: A Comparison of Pre- and Post-visit Images.”Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research16 (3): 339–56.
30.
JoungJ.KimK.2017. “Monitoring Emerging Technologies for Technology Planning Using Technical Keyword Based Analysis from Patent Data.”Technological Forecasting and Social Change114:281–92.
31.
KimH.RichardsonS. L.2003. “Motion Picture Impacts on Destination Images.”Annals of Tourism Research30 (1): 216–37.
32.
KimJ. H.2014. “The Antecedents of Memorable Tourism Experiences: The Development of a Scale to Measure the Destination Attributes Associated with Memorable Experiences.”Tourism Management44:34–45.
33.
KimJ. H.RitchieJ. B.McCormickB.2012. “Development of a Scale to Measure Memorable Tourism Experiences.”Journal of Travel Research51 (1): 12–25.
34.
LaiK.LiX.2016. “Tourism Destination Image: Conceptual Problems and Definitional Solutions.”Journal of Travel Research55 (8): 1065–80.
35.
LarsenH. G.2014. “The Emerging Shanghai City Brand: A Netnographic Study of Image Perception among Foreigners.”Journal of Destination Marketing & Management3 (1): 18–28.
36.
LauK. N.LeeK. H.HoY.2005. “Text Mining for the Hotel Industry.”Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly46 (3): 344–62.
37.
LeeM.JeongM.LeeJ.2017. “Roles of Negative Emotions in Customers’ Perceived Helpfulness of Hotel Reviews on a User-Generated Review Website: A Text Mining Approach.”International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management29 (2): 762–83.
38.
LevyS. E.DuanW.BooS.2013. “An Analysis of One-Star Online Reviews and Responses in the Washington, DC, Lodging Market.”Cornell Hospitality Quarterly54 (1): 49–63.
39.
LiJ. J.WongI. A.KimW. G.2016. “Re-segmenting a Gaming Destination Market: A Fresh Look at Mainland Chinese Tourists in Macau.”Journal of Vacation Marketing23 (3): 205–16.
40.
LitvinS. W.GoldsmithR. E.PanB.2008. “Electronic Word-of-Mouth in Hospitality and Tourism Management.”Tourism Management29 (3): 458–68.
Marine-RoigE.ClavéS. A.2016. “A Detailed Method for Destination Image Analysis Using User-Generated Content.”Information Technology & Tourism15 (4): 341–64.
43.
Martínez-TorresM. R.2015. “Content Analysis of Open Innovation Communities Using Latent Semantic Indexing.”Technology Analysis & Strategic Management27 (7): 859–75.
44.
Martínez-TorresM. R.Diaz-FernandezM. C.2014. “Current Issues and Research Trends on Open-Source Software Communities.”Technology Analysis & Strategic Management26 (1): 55–68.
45.
Martínez-TorresM. R.Rodriguez-Piñero.F.ToralS. L.2015. “Customer Preferences versus Managerial Decision-Making in Open Innovation Communities: The Case of Starbucks.”Technology Analysis & Strategic Management27 (10): 1226–38.
46.
Martínez-TorresM. R.ToralS. L.BarreroF.GregorD.2013. “A Text Categorisation Tool for Open Source Communities Based on Semantic Analysis.”Behaviour & Information Technology32 (6): 532–44.
OrtigosaA.MartínJ. M.CarroR. M.2014. “Sentiment Analysis in Facebook and Its Application to E-learning.”Computers in Human Behavior31:527–41.
49.
PangB.LeeL.2008. “Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis.”Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval2 (1/2): 1–135.
50.
PangY.HaoQ.YuanY.HuT.CaiR.ZhangL.2011. “Summarizing Tourist Destinations by Mining User-Generated Travelogues and Photos.”Computer Vision and Image Understanding115 (3): 352–63.
51.
PapathanassisA.KnolleF.2011. “Exploring the Adoption and Processing of Online Holiday Reviews: A Grounded Theory Approach.”Tourism Management32 (2): 215–24.
52.
PavlouP. A.DimokaA.2006. “The Nature and Role of Feedback Text Comments in Online Marketplaces: Implications for Trust Building, Price Premiums, and Seller Differentiation.”Information Systems Research17 (4): 392–414.
53.
PawitraT. A.TanK. C.2003. “Tourist Satisfaction in Singapore—A Perspective from Indonesian Tourists.”Managing Service Quality: An International Journal13 (5): 399–411.
54.
PedregosaF.VaroquauxG.GramfortA.MichelV.ThirionB.GriselO.BlondelM.PrettenhoferP.WeissR.DubourgV.et al. 2011. “Scikit-Learn: Machine Learning in Python.”Journal of Machine Learning Research12:2825–30.
55.
PrayagG.2007. “Exploring the Relationship between Destination Image and Brand Personality of a Tourist Destination: An Application of Projective Techniques.”Journal of Travel and Tourism Research2:111–30.
56.
PrebensenN. K.2007. “Exploring Tourists’ Images of a Distant Destination.”Tourism Management28 (3): 747–56.
57.
QuH.KimL. H.ImH. H.2011. “A Model of Destination Branding: Integrating the Concepts of the Branding and Destination Image.”Tourism Management32 (3): 465–76.
RyanC.CaveJ.2005. “Structuring Destination Image: A Qualitative Approach.”Journal of Travel Research44 (2): 143–50.
60.
SinghN.HuC.RoehlW. S.2007. “Text Mining a Decade of Progress in Hospitality Human Resource Management Research: Identifying Emerging Thematic Development.”International Journal of Hospitality Management26 (1): 131–47.
61.
SotiriadisM. D.Van ZylC.2013. “Electronic Word-of-Mouth and Online Reviews in Tourism Services: The Use of Twitter by Tourists.”Electronic Commerce Research13 (1): 103–24.
62.
StepchenkovaS.MorrisonA. M.2006. “The Destination Image of Russia: From the Online Induced Perspective.”Tourism Management27 (5): 943–56.
63.
StepchenkovaS.MorrisonA. M.2008. “Russia’s Destination Image among American Pleasure Travelers: Revisiting Echtner and Ritchie.”Tourism Management29 (3): 548–60.
64.
StepchenkovaS.LiX. R.2014. “Destination Image: Do Top-of-Mind Associations Say It All?”Annals of Tourism Research45:46–62.
65.
TanP.-N.SteinbachM.KumarV.2005. Introduction to Data Mining. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.
66.
TasciA. D.GartnerW. C.Tamer CavusgilS.2007. “Conceptualization and Operationalization of Destination Image.”Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research31 (2): 194–223.
67.
ToralS. L.TorresM. R.BarreroF.ArahalM. R.2010. “Current Paradigms in Intelligent Transportation Systems.”IET Intelligent Transport Systems4 (3): 201–11.
68.
TsengC.WuB.MorrisonA. M.ZhangJ.ChenY. C., 2015. “Travel Blogs on China as a Destination Image Formation Agent: A Qualitative Analysis Using Leximancer.”Tourism Management46:347–58.
69.
TungV. W. S.RitchieJ. B.2011. “Exploring the Essence of Memorable Tourism Experiences.”Annals of Tourism Research38 (4): 1367–86.
70.
WaldhörK.2009. “eTourism Case Studies: Management and Marketing.” Issues in eTourism. Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft1 (2): 213–15.
71.
WanC. H.LeeL. H.RajkumarR.IsaD.2012. “A Hybrid Text Classification Approach with Low Dependency on Parameter by Integrating K-Nearest Neighbor and Support Vector Machine.”Expert Systems with Applications39 (15): 11880–88.
WoodsideA. G.DubelaarC.2002. “A General Theory of Tourism Consumption Systems: A Conceptual Framework and an Empirical Exploration.”Journal of Travel Research41:120–32.
74.
YeQ.ZhangZ.LawR.2009. “Sentiment Classification of Online Reviews to Travel Destinations by Supervised Machine Learning Approaches.”Expert Systems with Applications36 (3): 6527–35.
75.
Youn KimH.YoonJ. H.2013. “Examining National Tourism Brand Image: Content Analysis of Lonely Planet Korea.”Tourism Review68 (2): 56–71.
