Title Page
Contents
LIST OF ABBREVIATION 18
LIST OF PUBLICATION 21
ABSTRACT 22
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 27
1.1. Introduction 27
1.2. Background of the study 27
1.3. Problem statement and research gaps 34
1.4. Research objectives 37
1.5. Research questions 38
1.6. Scope of the study 39
1.7. Significance of the study 41
1.8. Operational definitions of key terms 42
1.8.1. Social media 42
1.8.2. Social media usage 43
1.8.3. Visitors' perception of overtourism 43
1.8.4. Social media attachment 44
1.8.5. Tourist flows concentration 45
1.9. Summary 45
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 47
2.1. Introduction 47
2.2. Conceptualisation of visitors' perception of overtourism 47
2.2.1. Definition of overtourism 47
2.2.2. Drivers of overtourism 48
2.2.3. Overtourism impact 56
2.2.4. Visitors' perception of overtourism 61
2.3. Uses and gratification theory 64
2.4. Social media 66
2.4.1. Social media and categories 66
2.4.2. Social media usage in tourism 67
2.4.3. Social media attachment 99
2.5. Tourist flows concentration 105
2.5.1. Tourist flow and influence factors 105
2.5.2. Tourist flows concentration 114
2.6. Proposed framework and hypotheses 116
2.6.1. Proposed framework 116
2.6.2. Hypotheses 117
2.7. Summary 128
CHAPTER 3. TOURISM INDUSTRY IN CHINA 130
3.1. Introduction 130
3.2. Tourism industry in China 130
3.3. Social media in China 133
3.4. Tourism in Hangzhou 137
3.4.1. General information 137
3.4.2. Overtourism in Hangzhou 139
3.5. Summary 141
CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 143
4.1. Introduction 143
4.2. Research paradigm 143
4.3. Research methodology 146
4.4. Research process 149
4.5. Research design 151
4.5.1. Choosing the research strategy 151
4.6. Questionnaire development 157
4.6.1. Items generation 159
4.6.2. Operationalization of constructs 160
4.6.3. Exogenous variables 161
4.6.4. Endogenous variables 162
4.6.5. Mediator variables 163
4.6.6. Demographic variables 167
4.7. Questionnaire 167
4.8. Expert review of the questionnaire 169
4.9. Translation process 172
4.10. Data collection 173
4.10.1. Population 173
4.10.2. Sampling method 175
4.10.3. Sample size 176
4.10.4. Pilot study 178
4.10.5. Data collection 183
4.11. Data analysis methods used in the research 183
4.12. Summary 184
CHAPTER 5. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT 185
5.1. Introduction 185
5.2. Selection of appropriate statistical analysis technique 186
5.3. Partial least squares structural equation modelling 194
5.3.1. Data characteristics 195
5.3.2. Model characteristics 196
5.3.3. PLS-SEM algorithm properties 196
5.3.4. PLS-SEM model evaluation 196
5.4. Specifying the structural model 197
5.4.1. The structural model 197
5.4.2. Mediation 198
5.4.3. Social media usage hierarchical component model 200
5.5. Specifying the measurement model 203
5.5.1. Social media usage formative measurement model and each dimension reflective measurement model 203
5.6. Data examination 209
5.6.1. Missing data 209
5.6.2. Suspicious response patterns 210
5.6.3. Outliers 210
5.6.4. Data distribution 210
5.7. Visitors' motivation, purpose, composition, and visit frequency in Hangzhou 212
5.7.1. Profile of respondents 212
5.7.2. Visitors' motivation, purpose, composition, and visit frequency in Hangzhou 214
5.7.3. Descriptive analysis 216
5.8. Measurement model evaluation- reliability and validity 219
5.8.1. Internal consistency reliability 220
5.8.2. Convergent validity 222
5.8.3. Discriminant validity 223
5.9. Structural model evaluation 227
5.9.1. Collinearity 228
5.9.2. Coefficient of determination (R² value) 229
5.9.3. Path coefficients 230
5.10. Mediator analysis 233
5.10.1. Mediation analysis procedure 234
5.10.2. Mediation analysis 236
5.11. Hypotheses testing 239
5.11.1. Social media usage and social media attachment 239
5.11.2. Social media usage and tourist flows concentration 243
5.11.3. Social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 246
5.11.4. Social media attachment, social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 248
5.11.5. Tourist flows concentration, social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 254
5.11.6. Summary of main findings 258
5.12. Discussion of the study result 260
5.12.1. Social media usage and social media attachment 261
5.12.2. Social media usage and tourist flows concentration 264
5.12.3. Social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 266
5.12.4. Social media attachment, social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 268
5.12.5. Tourist flows concentration and visitors' perception of overtourism 270
5.12.6. Tourist flows concentration, social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism 271
5.13. Summary 275
CHAPTER 6. IMPLICATION AND CONCLUSION 277
6.1. Introduction 277
6.2. Recapitulation 277
6.3. Implications of the study 279
6.3.1. Theoretical implications 280
6.3.2. Managerial implications 282
6.4. Limitation and future suggestion of the study 283
6.5. Summary 285
References 287
Appendix 324
[Table 3.1] Growth of Hangzhou Population and Tourism Visitors (2017-2019) 139
[Table 3.2] Benchmarks for cities to assess overcrowding risk. 141
[Table 4.1] Key features of positivism, constructivist and critical theory research paradigm. 145
[Table 4.2] The main differences between the two approaches. 147
[Table 4.3] Descriptive and experimental research design 148
[Table 4.4] Research strategy. 152
[Table 4.5] Total of items used to measure constructs. 159
[Table 4.6] Measurement items. 164
[Table 4.7] Construct operational definitions and the number of items measured. 170
[Table 4.8] Result of the pilot study 180
[Table 5.1] Types of data in quantitative analysis. 187
[Table 5.2] Main types of multivariate methods. 190
[Table 5.3] Comparison CB-SEM with PLS-SEM. 192
[Table 5.4] Profile of respondents. 213
[Table 5.5] Hangzhou tourism attributes. 215
[Table 5.6] Tourists' perception of social media usage in visitors' perception of overtourism. 216
[Table 5.7] The Internal consistency reliability and convergent validity of the... 221
[Table 5.8] Cross loading of latent variables and indicators. 224
[Table 5.9] Discriminant Validity (Fornell-Larker Criterion). 226
[Table 5.10] Discriminant validity (HTMT). 226
[Table 5.11] Collinearity statistic. 229
[Table 5.12] Path Coefficients among Constructs (Total effect). 231
[Table 5.13] Significance testing results of the Total effect. 233
[Table 5.14] Significance analysis of direct and indirect effects. 237
[Table 5.15] Hypothesis 1 testing. 240
[Table 5.16] Hypothesis 2 testing. 242
[Table 5.17] Hypothesis 3 testing. 244
[Table 5.18] Hypothesis 4 testing. 247
[Table 5.19] Hypothesis 5 and 6 testings. 249
[Table 5.20] Hypothesis 7 testing 251
[Table 5.21] Hypothesis 8 testing 253
[Table 5.22] Hypothesis 9 and 10 testings. 255
[Table 5.23] Summary of main findings. 258
[Figure 2.1] Hypothesized relationship between social media usage and visitors'... 117
[Figure 3.1] Total Tourism Revenue of China (2012-2019). 131
[Figure 3.2] Contribution of tourism industry to GDP (2012-2019). 132
[Figure 3.3] Chinese domestic tourism number (2012-2019). 133
[Figure 3.4] Number of Online travels booking users in China (2013-2018). 134
[Figure 3.5] Study setting. 138
[Figure 3.6] Overcrowding in Hangzhou. 141
[Figure 4.1] Research process. 150
[Figure 5.1] Model of a mediation. 199
[Figure 5.2] Types of Hierarchical Component Models. 202
[Figure 5.3] Difference between reflective and formative measures. 205
[Figure 5.4] The reflective-formative model of social media usage. 208
[Figure 5.5] Revision of the proposed model. 209
[Figure 5.6] Result of structural model evaluation by running PLS algorithm. 227
[Figure 5.7] Bootstrapping result of the structural model. 232
[Figure 5.8] Mediation analysis procedure. 235
[Figure 5.9] Hypotheses: Social media usage and social media attachment. 240
[Figure 5.10] Hypotheses: social media usage and tourist flows concentration. 244
[Figure 5.11] Hypotheses: social media usage and visitors' perception of overtourism. 247
[Figure 5.12] Hypotheses: social media attachment and visitors' perception of overtourism. 249
[Figure 5.13] Hypotheses: social media usage, social media bridge attachment and... 251
[Figure 5.14] Hypotheses: social media usage, social media bond attachment and... 253
[Figure 5.15] Hypotheses: tourist flows concentration and visitors' perception of overtourism. 254
[Figure 5.16] Hypotheses: tourist flows concentration, social media usage and... 256