Impact of TV dramas on consumers' travel, shopping and purchase intentions

Abstract

Countries are increasingly competing with each other to attract tourists. However, little is known about how consumers' tourism-related behaviors respond to country image endeavors, such as TV dramas. We propose that as an important image source TV dramas from a country contribute to crafting the country's brand image and thereby influence viewers' tourism related intentions. Considering the case of Turkish TV dramas and drawing on the Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM), a survey of 400 Arab viewers revealed that exposure to Turkish TV dramas results in increased intentions to visit and shop in Turkey as well as to purchase products made in Turkey. Furthermore, while increase in purchase intentions results primarily from enhanced experiential associations related to the country, increase in visit or shopping intentions results from improved status associations related to the country. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd