The influence of online word of mouth communications on tourists’ attitudes toward Islamic destinations and travel intention: Evidence from Iran

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationships among online word of mouth (WOM), tourists’ attitudes toward Islamic destinations, and travel intention. Questionnaires were distributed to international tourists in Isfahan through a nonprobability convenience sampling approach. Respondents were selected at different tourist attractions of Isfahan. Reliability and validity of the measurement scale were established through average variance extracted (AVE), Cronbach’s alpha analyses, and intercorrelation analyses. A structural equation model (SEM) test with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to test the relationship among online word of mouth, tourists’ attitudes, and travel intention using 189 participants. Empirical results from the structural model suggest that online word of mouth communications positively influence tourists’ attitudes toward Islamic destinations and travel intention. In addition, tourists’ attitudes toward Islamic destinations are significantly associated with intention to travel. Convenience sampling method restricts the representativeness of results across all international tourists. Future studies can examine the influence of culture, national and multiculturism on using electronic word of mouth (eWOM). This study can also be replicated with larger sample sizes.   Key words: Online word of mouth communications, tourists’ attitude, travel intention, Islamic destination, Isfahan.