Conjoining the Concepts of Visitor Attitude and Place Image to Better Understand Casino Patrons' Behavioral Intentions

IntroductionBoth the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the cognitive-affective-conative place image model (CAC) have been broadly applied in analyzing visit motivation and behavioral intention in the field of tourism and hospitality studies. Apart from the components of subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, TPB's primary component is attitude (Ajzen, 1985). TPB assumes that a positive attitude toward casino gaming would lead to more participation. According to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), an attitude is an index of the degree to which a person likes or dislikes an object, where "object" is used in the generic sense to refer to any aspect of the individual's world. In contrast, CAC uses two image components - cognitive image and affective image - to predict people's visit intention, i.e., conative image (Gartner, 1996). According to Mercer (1981), place image is the signal or symbol presented to the individual by a site or region; it is the aggregate sum of beliefs about each place attribute. Place image plays an important role in determining visitors' decision-making process by triggering their choices and preferences (Fakeye & Crompton 1991).While the roles of TPB and CAC components have both been emphasized in tourism and hospitality literature in examining visitor's behavioral intention, the conceptual difference between attitude and image does not seem to be explicitly clarified, and the application of the two concepts seems to be amalgamated in previous studies. For instance, in Huang's (2009) study, attitude was conceptualized as another term of place image and the concept of place image was recommended to substitute the onedimensional concept of attitude when applying the theory of planned behavior. Given that both visitor's attitude and place image are considered to be important indicators of visitor's behavior intention (Ajzen, 1991, Gartner, 1996), there is a need to examine the inter-relationships of the two concepts in terms of their distinctive roles and marketing implications. This study is designed to fill this gap, to distinguish the distinctive roles of the two concepts in assessing visitor's behavioral intention. Specifically, this study aims to explore how visitor's attitude and place image are inter-related, and act together in influencing one's behavior intention in the context of casino gaming.Conceptual BackgroundTheory of Planned Behavior (TPB): Generic versus Specific AttitudeThe main concept of TPB is that most human behavior is under volitional control; people engage in actions because they want to act in a certain behavioral way, and their conscious motives trigger them to engage in that action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). TPB explains human behaviors based on behavioral intention predicted by three key core determinants - attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. TPB claims that attitude toward a behavior is, at the most basic level, a function of behavioral beliefs and outcome evaluations. Attitude toward a behavior refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior in question (Ajzen, 1991). Based on TPB, attitude is populated to be the first and most important antecedent of behavioral intention. Attitude is an individual's positive or negative belief about performing a specific behavior. Once an attitude is formed about an action or event, the attitude leads to the formation of behavioral intention with respect to that action. TPB assumes that attitude has a direct effect on behavioral intention. For instance, Ajzen and Driver (1992) suggested that leisure choice intention is predicted with considerable accuracy from attitude toward behavior. Tourism and hospitality researchers stress that an individual holding a positive attitude toward casinos more likely intends to visit a casino (Moore & Ohtsuka, 1999; Oh & Hsu, 2001).In terms of one's attitude, according to Zajonc (2000), affect is often the driving force behind responses to social stimuli, and perhaps the primary dimension of all interpersonal; affective attitude indeed functions as an independent, primary, and often dominant force in determining people's responses and dispositions to social situations. …