Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of two types of presentation formats (textual and imagery) involving online restaurant reviews (ORRs). The study examines ORRs on the basis of review usefulness and review enjoyment; the study investigates the effects of the two presentation formats on review usefulness and review enjoyment. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 1,776 reviews were collected from Yelp.com using a Web data-harvesting technique. Hypothesized relations in the model were tested by Tobit regression analysis. Findings: Empirical results show that different formats of ORRs affect review usefulness and review enjoyment in different manners; whereas both attributes of textual format (review length and readability) affect review usefulness, both aspects of imagery format (physical environment images and food and beverage images) are positively related to review enjoyment. However, review length and food and beverage images are the most important factors affecting both review usefulness and review enjoyment. In particular, the relation between the two formats of ORRs and review usefulness is mediated by review enjoyment. Research limitations/implications: The focus of this study is the two formats of ORRs in terms of dual coding theory and the mediating role of review enjoyment. The findings help online review website organizers manage the operation of various review formats in a proper manner. Managers can effectively select those formats that would achieve the desired effect. Originality/value: Unlike previous studies on the relation of attributes to online reviews, this study examines the perceptions of ORRs’ usefulness and enjoyment. In addition, this study encompasses diverse ORR factors (review length, review readability, physical environment images, food and beverage images) for a more comprehensive interpretation of ORRs.

With tremendous growth and potential of online consumer reviews, online reviews of hospitality and tourism are now playing a significant role in consumer attitude and buying behaviors. This study reviewed and analyzed hospitality and tourism related articles published in academic journals. The systematic approach was used to analyze 55 research articles between January 2008 and December 2017. This study presented a brief synthesis of research by investigating content-related characteristics of hospitality and tourism online reviews (HTORs) in different market segments. Two research questions were addressed. Building upon our literature analysis, we used the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) to summarize and classify the characteristics affecting consumer perception in previous HTOR studies. We believe that the framework helps researchers to identify the research topic in extended HTORs literature and to point out possible direction for future studies.

Because tourism destinations are difficult to assess in certain standard aspects, the factors that contribute to the helpfulness of reviews remain largely unknown. Moreover, the helpfulness of online reviews has not been explored in terms of the interaction between language style (high- vs. low-cognitive) and attraction type (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Hence, this study examines the impact of language style on the helpfulness of an online review of an attraction, depending on the type of attraction and the meaning of the destination. This study’s data included 8,032 reviews of four attractions (2 hedonic x 2 utilitarian), drawn from TripAdvisor in two different meanings of destinations. Specifically, our findings indicate that when a reviewer posts a utilitarian attraction of the destination, high-cognitive language is perceived to be more helpful. First, we discuss the theoretical contribution of our study using cognitive fit theory, and then provide the study’s managerial implications.

A competitive smart tourism city can be a solution for building resilience to address current and future crises and even be a booster of the economic effects of tourism, since it has an economic ripple effect both inside and outside of the city. This study tried to estimate the intra- and inter-regional economic effects of the smart tourism city Seoul, which has high competitiveness as a smart tourism city. First, this study tried to objectively clarify the scope of smart tourism based on a Delphi survey and then adopted the inter-regional input–output model. The results showed that smart tourism city Seoul is expected to create high income, high value-added, and job creation effects inside the city, and will greatly contribute to securing tax revenue. Outside of the city, smart tourism city Seoul is expected to induce high production effects. Based on these results, this study highlights the economic effects of a smart tourism city, which describes the convergence of technology and tourism.