496473

research-article2013
JTRXXX10.1177/0047287513496473Journal of Travel ResearchVan der Veen and Song

Article

Journal of Travel Research

Impact of the Perceived Image of

XX(X) 1­–14
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DOI: 10.1177/0047287513496473

Intentions to Visit jtr.sagepub.com

Robert van der Veen1 and Haiyan Song2

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the mediating effects of the impact of the perceived image of celebrity
endorsers on tourists’ intentions to visit, using celebrity-endorsed print advertisements for travel destinations. The results
indicate that celebrity endorsers have a significant impact on people’s attitudes and visit intentions, thus verifying the
mediating effects of this variable. The study also provides clues to what extent celebrity-endorsed advertisements differ from
nonendorsed advertisements and explores such differences in terms of destination match-up between native and nonnative
celebrity-endorsed advertisements.

Keywords
celebrity endorsement, destination marketing, print advertisements, structural equation modeling

Introduction
Marketing campaigns featuring celebrity endorsers are
thought to have a positive impact on people’s attitudes and
lead to positive behavioral intentions. This is certainly one of
the reasons why Jackie Chan was appointed by the United
Nations World Tourism Organization as Asia’s Tourism
Ambassador at the Asia-Pacific Tourism Ministerial
Conference in Macau (June 13, 2006). The aim of his
appointment is to promote Asia in order to stimulate more
tourist arrivals and boost the region’s image. For similar rea-
sons, he serves as Hong Kong’s Tourism Ambassador, a
position to which he was officially appointed in 1995.
Celebrity endorsement has played a prominent role in
Australian tourism marketing as a means of engaging with
potential tourists. The Australia—A Different Light cam-
paign was launched featuring various Australian celebrities
(Glover 2009). More recently, Tourism Australia teamed up
with Oprah Winfrey in December 2010 and hosted a market-
ing campaign to persuade North American tourists to visit.
The idea behind celebrity-endorsed destination cam-
paigns is simple: to draw attention to the endorsed destina-
tion and to complement the desired image values. Celebrities
are the preferred choice because they act as role models and
are powerful cultural, financial, and media figures and image
creators (Andrews and Jackson 2001). Essentially, celebri-
ties are favored because they are more likely to capture peo-
ple’s attention than an unknown person (Agrawal and
Kamakura 1995; Hsu and McDonald 2002; Misra and Beatty
1990). This phenomenon is related to society’s obsession
with fame, which has existed since ancient times (Braudy
1997). Appointing famous spokespeople as endorsers dates
back at least to the 1800s, and the aim of such appointments
has always been to increase the persuasiveness of the mes-
sage (Knott and St. James 2004). The ultimate aim is to influ-
ence people’s behavioral intentions positively, which may
then lead them to take action. However, celebrity endorse-
ment does not always directly influence people’s behavioral
intentions (Johnson and Harrington 1998; Ohanian 1991;
Stafford, Stafford, and Day 2002). We propose that the
impact of celebrity endorsement on behavioral intentions is
mediated by attitude, because attitude is conceptualized in
many previous studies as an important mediator of behav-
ioral intentions (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Armitage and
Conner 2000; Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw 1988).
Mediation analysis provides a clue to the sequence of pos-
sible effects that lead to behavioral intentions. Ohanian’s
(1991) model is particularly appropriate for such an analysis
because it examines the impact of celebrity endorsers’ per-
ceived image on consumers’ intention to purchase. Similar
to buyers of general consumer products, individuals pass
through several stages when making a travel decision.
1
University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
2
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Corresponding Author:
Robert van der Veen, Australian Centre for Asian Business, International
Graduate School of Business, University of South Australia, City West
Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Email: robert.vanderveen@unisa.edu.au

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2 Journal of Travel Research XX(X)
Intentions to visit are a commonly researched topic (Lee
2009; Mechinda, Serirat, and Gulid 2009), and several stud-
ies have indicated that attitude is an important factor in tour-
ist choice behavior (Mohsin 2005; Pike 2006; Um and
Crompton 1991). Some studies have empirically demon-
strated that attitudes toward a destination influences travel-
ers’ preferences and intentions (Court and Lupton 1997;
Milman and Pizam 1995). This leads to the twofold research
question: (1) Do celebrity endorsers have a positive impact
on peoples’ attitudes? and (2) If so, do these attitudes lead to
positive visit intentions? This study answers these queries
using a modified conceptual framework and a set of hypoth-
eses within the context of Chinese tourists potentially visit-
ing Hong Kong. Past conceptualizations of celebrity
endorsement for intangible products are limited, with the
current study extending the tradition of endorsement studies
often carried out in North America among student partici-
pants in laboratory settings. Research that collects informa-
tion on several indices within a field design is better able to
identify whether attitude is part of a range of other outcome
variables. To increase the generalizability of the model, it is
important to replicate the framework among different popu-
lations and for different product types, as it is possible that
the structural relationships between the proposed factors or
impacts do not occur elsewhere.
The majority of the celebrity endorsement studies use
group difference methods, such as ANOVA or MANOVA,
to examine the endorser effects and advertising effective-
ness. However, this study uses structural equation modeling
to analyze interrelationships among latent variables and their
observable manifest variables (Kline 2005; Reisinger and
Mavondo 2006). While MANOVA is acceptable for an
emergent variable system, structured means modeling is
more appropriate when the interest is in the comparison of
latent variable means because it accounts for the unreliability
of measures (Thompson and Green 2006). Celebrity endorse-
ment in the tourism literature is perceived as a potential and
effective stimulus; however, extant studies are either experi-
mental or conceptual and do not use structural equation mod-
eling (Chang, Wall, and Tsai 2005; Glover 2009; Higham
and Hall 2003; Lee, Scott, and Kim 2008; Magnini, Garcia
and Honeycutt 2010; Van der Veen 2008).
The nature of this study is confirmatory, and it empiri-
cally tests the proposed structural relationships while taking
into account the mediating constructs of cognitive process-
ing. Apart from other external effects, the model examines if
people form a favorable attitude toward a destination and
advertisement for that destination which is partly due to a
celebrity’s endorsement. It considers attitude as a possible
significant and necessary antecedent of consequent behav-
ioral intentions and suggests that it be included in relevant
follow-up models. The remainder of the article is organized
as follows. The next section reviews the phenomenon of
celebrity endorsement and introduces the conceptual frame-
work used in this study. The third section discusses the
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measurement model and method used to test the hypotheses.
The fourth section presents the empirical results of both the
structural equation model analysis and the structured means
analysis. The final section discusses the results and the man-
agerial implications.
Literature Review
Consumer research regards celebrity endorsement as a type
of extrinsic cue intended to positively affect people’s percep-
tions of a product or brand (Dean 1999). Considerable
emphasis has been placed on various credibility models con-
cerning the effects of certain stimuli on consumer behavior,
thus satisfying the idea that emotions or moods trigger buy-
ing responses (Gardner 1985). It is assumed that the effect
elicited by contextual stimuli becomes associated with the
product or brand, in turn leading to positive feelings and
increased likelihood of purchase or action (Gorn 1982;
Morris and Boone 1998).
Various models have been proposed to illustrate the
endorsement process, of which the elaboration likelihood
model by Petty and Cacioppo (1986) is the most popular.
This model shows how the elaboration of advertising
works, taking into account involvement and whether per-
suasion follows a central, peripheral, or dual route. With
the central route, a person actively considers and judges
information related to the message. However, if a person
lacks the motivation or ability to think about the informa-
tion, then it is believed that persuasion follows a peripheral
route. The intention of persuasion is to make someone do
something, especially by reasoning, urging, or inducing,
and thus communication can either be persuasive or unper-
suasive (Hunt 1993).
Rather than analyzing the effects on persuasion,
McCracken (1989) suggests that the effectiveness of endorse-
ment is better explained by the “meanings” that people asso-
ciate with the celebrity endorser, which are then transferred
to the product or brand. McCracken (1989) provides one of
the most frequently cited definitions of a celebrity endorser,
which is “any person who enjoys public recognition and who
uses this recognition to endorse consumer goods or services
by appearing with it in an advertisement” (McCracken 1989,
p. 310). Some examples of meaning transfers are Tiger
Woods with Nike and Cindy Crawford with Omega. Some
features of the sports star, or his “activeness,” is supposed to
be transferred to the sports brand, and the image of the
actress, or her “elegance,” is transferred to the watch brand
(De Mooij 1997).
Celebrity-endorsed print advertisements for a destination
can thus be considered successful or persuasive when the
properties of the celebrity are in line with, or are transferred
to, the properties of the endorsed destination. From this per-
spective, it appears that the major objective is to show the
celebrity in such a way that the target group associates the
endorsed destination or brand with the celebrity.
Van der Veen and Song 3
Attractiveness
H1
Attitude toward the
H2
H3
Believability H4
Figure 1.  Conceptual framework for celebrity destination endorsement.
The phenomenon of association was clearly described and
proposed as the Match-up hypothesis by Kamins (1990) and
will be examined using structured means analysis in this
study. However, apart from an effective association, it is
necessary to identify the factors that accurately measure
those features that represent the celebrity endorser and to
determine whether they actually have an impact on the
desired outcomes. Ohanian (1990, 1991) explored these
issues, and her three-factor source credibility model is held
to be the most appropriate model for understanding the fac-
tors that explain the impact of celebrity-endorsed print
advertisements. Ohanian’s model is in accordance with
Source Model Theory, which illustrates that endorsements
are usually effective because of the credibility and attractive-
ness of the source (Sternthal and Craig 1973). Van der Veen
and Song (2010) replicated Ohanian’s measurement model
in a tourism context, and their results indicate that certain
changes are required. Based on their results, the current study
further enhances the applicability of the model by specifying
a structural equation model for hypothesis testing and com-
pares different groups using structured means analysis (see
Figure 1).
One of the antecedents in the model is the perceived
attractiveness of a celebrity endorser. Physical attractiveness
is included because many studies have found that this feature
is one of the most visible and accessible characteristics of a
person that others use when making a judgment (Caballero
and Solomon 1984; Patzer 1983). However, Ohanian’s
(1991) empirical study reports a nonsignificant direct rela-
tionship between attractiveness and purchase intentions. She
argues that although most celebrity endorsers are physically
attractive, attractiveness may not be an important factor in
respondents’ final decision-making processes. As Johnson
and Harrington (1998) indicate, it remains uncertain whether
attractive celebrity endorsers are able to create purchase
intentions, but it is likely that they positively improve attitudes
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Advertisement
H5
H6 Visit Intentions
H7
Attitude toward
Hong Kong
toward advertising and brands. Baker and Churchill (1977)
find that physically attractive communicators can be suc-
cessful in changing consumer attitudes. Other source credi-
bility studies similarly indicate that the physical attractiveness
of a celebrity endorser has a positive impact on people’s atti-
tudes toward an advertisement and a brand (Kahle and
Homer 1985; Kamins 1990; Patzer 1983; Petroshius and
Crocker 1989). Therefore, we include the physical attractive-
ness of a celebrity endorser as an antecedent and propose that
the total effect may be mediated by attitude.
Hypothesis 1: Attractiveness positively affects attitudes
toward an advertisement.
Hypothesis 2: Attractiveness positively affects attitudes
toward a destination.
The two other perceived celebrity image constructs exam-
ined in Ohanian’s study were expertise and trustworthiness.
However, Van der Veen and Song (2010) were unable to
identify these two distinctive factors and revised the mea-
surement model accordingly. They proposed a construct that
consists of perceived expertise combined with two manifest
variables of trustworthiness, which they call “believability.”
The believability construct represents the knowledge to sup-
port the claims made in the advertisements that the commu-
nicator is perceived to possess. At the same time, it represents
the extent to which these claims are provided in an honest
and trustworthy way. According to Maddux and Rogers
(1980), expert endorsements enhance the believability of an
advertisement, primarily because of the greater source cred-
ibility. This is important because research on the persuasive
effect of credible sources versus less credible sources has
consistently demonstrated that credible sources produce
greater attitude change (Craig and McCann 1978; Erdogan
1999). Experts are more credible because they are assumed
to be more efficient external information seekers and better
4 Journal of Travel Research XX(X)
able to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant informa-
tion (Alba and Marmorstein 1987; Hutchinson and Moore
1984). However, it is irrelevant whether a celebrity endorser
is actually an expert on the subject; the issue is how the target
audience perceives the expertise of the celebrity endorser
(Ohanian 1991). Therefore, we examine perceived expertise:
“the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a
source of valid assertions” (Hovland, Janis, and Kelly 1953,
p. 21). Although various studies indicate that the endorser’s
perceived expertise is important and affects attitudes and
intentions to buy an endorsed brand (Daneshvary and Schwer
2000; Erdogan 1999; Lafferty and Goldsmith 1999; Till and
Busler 1998), other scholars have found that it does not nec-
essarily affect purchase intentions (Stafford, Stafford, and
Day 2002). We thus propose that the direct relationship
between the believability of a celebrity endorser and behav-
ioral intentions is mediated by attitude.
Hypothesis 3: Believability positively affects attitudes
toward an advertisement.
Hypothesis 4: Believability positively affects attitudes
toward a destination.
As stated in the foregoing hypotheses, we assume that the
relationships between the characteristics of the celebrity
endorser and visit intentions are mediated by attitude. We
include attitude because it serves as a reliable indicator of
how people act in a given set of circumstances (Mayo and
Jarvis 1981). Attitude can be regarded as “a psychological
tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favour or disfavour” (Eagly and Chaiken
1993, p. 1). Attitude in the current study refers to a general
positive or negative feeling about an object (i.e., an adver-
tisement and a destination), following the approach of Petty
and Cacioppo (1981).
The evaluative responses to advertisements persuading
consumers are often measured in terms of attitude, such as
attitude toward the advertisement and the brand (Brown and
Stayman 1992; Shimp 1981). Attitude toward the advertise-
ment and the brand are both defined as learned predisposi-
tions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable
manner (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989). The positive effect of
the advertisement on intentions is intertwined with the posi-
tive effect of the advertisement on the attitude toward the
destination. Various consumer studies support the mediating
effects of attitude toward the advertisement and the brand on
purchase intentions (Biehal, Stephens, and Curlo 1992;
Homer 1990; Miniard, Bhatla, and Rose 1990). The outcome
variable for this study is visit intentions, which is often a
desired strategic aim for a destination marketing organiza-
tion. Intention is the likelihood of a person intending to do
something or a self-prediction or expectation that one will
act (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Bagozzi, Gurhan-Canli, and
Priester 2002). The following three hypotheses focus on
the relationship between the attitudinal variables and their
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presumed impact on visit intentions and explore the mediat-
ing nature of these constructs in the framework.
Hypothesis 5: Attitude toward an advertisement positively
affects the intention to visit a destination.
Hypothesis 6: Attitude toward an advertisement positively
affects attitude toward the destination.
Hypothesis 7: Attitude toward a destination positively
affects the intention to visit that destination.
Method
A conceptual framework is proposed to explain and predict
the impact of celebrity endorsement on people’s attitudes
and intentions to visit a destination. Structural equation mod-
eling is used to assess the relationships because it is the pre-
ferred method for analyzing relationships among dimensions
and their manifest variables (Reisinger and Mavondo 2006).
The print advertisements presented to respondents showed
a color photo of a celebrity endorser and a picture of the
famous Wan Chai harbor front in Hong Kong and the official
slogan in the background. The advertisements are not pre-
sented here due to space limitations. The respondents were
randomly exposed to one of the four advertisements featur-
ing one celebrity endorser (Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung,
David Beckham, or Britney Spears). The variance across
treatment groups will be discussed after the hypothesis test-
ing using structured means analysis. We ensured that celebri-
ties were familiar to the respondents and the study focuses on
novices to minimize the effect of past behavior in predicting
travel intentions. The respondents were asked a single filter
question “Have you visited Hong Kong before?” to exclude
repeat travelers to Hong Kong. Controlling for past visits is
important because research indicates that the best predictor
of behavioral intentions and future actual behavior is the fre-
quency of past relevant behavior (Opperman 1999; Sonmez
and Graefe 1998; Quellette and Wood 1998). Woodside and
Lysonski (1989) demonstrate that previous destination travel
experiences are positively related to the inclusion of that des-
tination in a consumer’s consideration set versus other men-
tal categories of travel destinations. However, perceptions
can be formed from external sources, and these preconceived
notions are largely unavoidable and may present a limitation
to this study.
Nearly half of all celebrity endorsement studies use stu-
dent samples (Amos, Holmes, and Strutton 2008). The use
of student samples is a persistent custom in research on
advertisement attitudes, and these studies tend to produce
larger effects than those involving nonstudent samples
(Brown and Stayman 1992). Therefore, the current study
employs a field study approach and minimizes the number
of student participants to provide greater confidence in con-
clusions regarding the generalizability of the postulated
relationships. This study focused on people over the age of
20 who were financially independent in an effort to
Van der Veen and Song 5

represent potential mainland Chinese tourists as faithfully as Table 1.  Demographic Characteristics of the Sample.
possible. The destination was Hong Kong, and the target
Item Valid n Study (%) HKTB 2006 (%)
respondents were residents of Guangzhou. The Hong Kong
Tourism Board gives marketing priority to Guangzhou Gender
because it produces the largest number of overnight visitor  Male 361 51.1 43
arrivals to Hong Kong and is a large target market for short-  Female 345 48.9 57
break visitors to the territory (Huang and Hsu 2005). Marital status
The questionnaire used a 7-point semantic differential  Married 391 55.4 70
scale format to measure the manifest variables. The respon-  Other 315 44.6 30
dents rated the celebrity endorser in terms of attractiveness Age
and believability in response to the questions “Would you  20–25 316 44.8 21
 26–35 243 34.4 37
say [name of celebrity] is . . .?” using the following scales:
 36–45 121 17.1 24
attractive–unattractive, classy–not classy, handsome/beautiful–
 46–55 22 3.1 11
ugly, or elegant–plain; and “How believable do you judge
 56–65 4 0.6 5
him or her to be?” using the scales: expert–not an expert,
 >66 – – 2
experienced–inexperienced, knowledgeable–unknowledge- Occupation
able, qualified–unqualified, skilled–unskilled, honest–  Working 533 75.5 75
dishonest, and trustworthy–untrustworthy (Ohanian 1990,  Housewife 36 5.1 10
1991; Pornpitakpan 2003; Van der Veen and Song 2010). To  Student 89 12.2 7
measure attitude toward the destination, the respondents  Retired 2 0.3 6
were asked “How would you describe your overall attitude  Other 49 6.9 2
toward Hong Kong?” rated on a 7-point scale anchored by Education
good–bad, dislike–like, pleasant–unpleasant, positive–negative,   No education 13 1.8 1
and favorable–unfavorable (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989). The  Primary 3 0.4 3
10 items used to measure attitude toward the advertisement   High school 135 19.1 33
included both cognitive and affective components. The com-  College 530 75.1 60
ponents were merged together because of their strong inter-  Postgraduate 25 3.5 5
relationship, which eventually determines the predisposition Monthly income (RMB)
for visiting a destination (Gartner 1993).  <1000 67 9.5  
Five items measured the cognitive component:  1001–3000 338 47.9  
unpersuasive–persuasive, uninformative–informative, unbe-  3001–6000 180 25.5  
lievable–believable, ineffective–effective, and unconvincing–  6001–9000 29 4.1  
convincing (Burton and Lichtenstein 1988). Five items  >9001 10 1.4  
measured the affective component, with endpoints labeled   No regular income 82  
bad–good, unappealing–appealing, unattractive–attractive, Note: HKTB = Hong Kong Tourism Board.
unpleasant–pleasant, and unlikable–likable (Janiszewski
1988). Visit intention was measured by the question “How
likely is it that you will visit Hong Kong in the next 12 weekend, and interviewers approached shoppers. A local
months?” with the following scales: probable–improbable, research company was contracted to distribute the question-
likely–unlikely, and possible–impossible (Lam and Hsu naires. Out of the 1,473 people who were approached, 336
2006; Yi 1990). rejected (23%) and 93 did not meet the selection criteria
To ensure a high level of clarity, researchers suggest (6.3%), yielding 1,044 questionnaires that were collected
translating questionnaires using the double-translation and used for the study. The quota sampling method, although
method (De Mooij 1997; McGorry 2000). Following this not as rigorous as probability sampling, was chosen as the
approach, the questionnaire was first translated into the tar- most cost-effective means of obtaining a representative sam-
get language (Mandarin Chinese) before being translated ple of potential visitors to Hong Kong. The quotas were set
back into the original language (English). Six interpreters according to demographic characteristics of the visitor pro-
fluent in both languages, and holding postgraduate degrees, file published by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (Table 1).
translated the questionnaire using this method. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 2. In terms of
data distribution, Kline (2005) recommends cutoff values of
3 for skewness and 8 for kurtosis. The univariate skewness
Results ranged from 0.728 to 2.356 and the univariate kurtosis ranged
The survey was conducted on Saturday, November 25, 2007, from −0.481 to 5.764. Mardia’s coefficient was 1.74; thus,
at five shopping locations in Guangzhou from early morning there was no extreme violation of the normal distribution and
to late evening. Many residents visit these locations over the the data were appropriate for analysis.

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6 Journal of Travel Research XX(X)

Table 2.  Descriptive Statistics. Table 3.  Results Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 706).

Mean Standard Deviation COV% Standard Average

Factor Composite Variance
Attractiveness Factor/Item Loading t-Values Reliability Extracted
 Elegant 2.26 1.51 66.77
 Classy 2.06 1.37 66.55 Attitude toward the advertisement 0.95 0.64
 Attractive 1.92 1.26 65.63  Convincing 0.86 28.56  
 Handsome/beautiful 1.87 1.15 61.71  Like 0.86 28.37  
Believability  Good 0.84 27.59  
 Knowledgeable 2.72 1.92 70.48  Attractive 0.84 27.48  
 Honest 2.46 1.59 64.43  Appealing 0.84 27.35  
 Effective 0.79 24.69  
 Trustworthy 2.45 1.59 64.86
 Pleasant 0.78 24.61  
 Expert 2.42 1.60 65.95
 Informative 0.74 22.50  
 Qualified 2.38 1.65 69.37
 Persuasive 0.73 22.14  
 Skilled 2.16 1.41 65.28
 Believable 0.73 22.06  
 Experienced 2.14 1.47 68.69 Visit intentions 0.90 0.75
Attitude toward Hong Kong  Likely 0.92 30.19  
 Pleasant 2.03 1.34 65.91  Probable 0.89 28.65  
 Positive 1.92 1.19 61.77  Possible 0.78 23.94  
 Like 1.81 1.16 63.92 Believability 0.90 0.56
 Good 1.75 1.05 59.77  Qualified 0.83 26.17  
 Favorable 1.74 1.18 67.82  Honest 0.77 23.45  
Attitude toward the advertisement  Experienced 0.76 22.98  
 Informative 3.10 1.86 59.94  Trustworthy 0.74 22.30  
 Persuasive 2.86 1.69 59.13  Skilled 0.73 21.85  
 Convincing 2.75 1.62 58.84  Knowledgeable 0.72 21.43  
 Effective 2.73 1.61 59.05  Expert 0.68 19.99  
 Appealing 2.56 1.58 61.88 Attitude toward Hong Kong 0.88 0.59
 Like 2.56 1.58 61.76  Favorable 0.79 23.94  
 Believable 2.55 1.66 65.10  Good 0.79 23.92  
 Attractive 2.55 1.57 61.69  Like 0.78 23.57  
 Pleasant 2.42 1.47 60.66  Positive 0.76 22.94  
 Good 2.40 1.43 59.38  Pleasant 0.73 21.43  
Attractiveness 0.81 0.52
Visit intentions
 Attractive 0.80 23.77  
 Probable 2.72 2.11 77.61
 Handsome/ 0.78 22.71  
 Likely 2.70 2.05 75.96
Beautiful
 Possible 2.21 1.71 77.47  Classy 0.70 19.69  
Note: The scale ranges from 1 (positive) to 7 (negative).  Elegant 0.57 15.14  

Note: χ2 = 1273.47, df = 367, p < 0.01, comparative fit index = 0.98,

normed fit index = 0.97, root mean square error of approximation = 0.059.

The factor structure was then subjected to confirmatory

factor analysis, using the LISREL 8.80 software package
(Scientific Software International, Inc., Lincolnwood, IL). In
terms of model fit, Hair et al. (2006) suggest reporting the
Chi-square value and the associated degrees of freedom, the
comparative fit index (CFI), and the root mean square error
of approximation (RMSEA), since together they provide suf-
ficient information to evaluate the model fit. The normed fit
index (NFI) of Bentler and Bonett (1980) has shown good
overall performance in simulation studies and is reported
here (Chou and Bentler 1995; Kaplan 2000). The minimum
threshold of acceptability for both the NFI and the CFI is
0.90 (Chau 1997). Hu and Bentler (1999) recommend that an
RMSEA value of 0.06 or less indicates a good fit between
the hypothesized model and the observed data.
After removing the control group from the data set and
using the listwise deletion option, a sample size of 706 was
retained and used for confirmatory factor analysis. The fit
indices for the measurement model are χ2 = 1273.47, df =
367, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.97, NFI = 0.96, and RMSEA = 0.059.
The majority of the alternative fit indices illustrate an accept-
able fit and all factor loadings are significant (see Table 3).
Further modifications to improve model fit were not con-
ducted, because data-driven model modifications tend to
capitalize on chance and features of the sample, making it
less likely that the model will be generalizable to other sam-
ples (Golob 2003; MacCallum, Rosnowski, and Necowitz
1992; Silvia and MacCallum 1988).

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Van der Veen and Song 7
Table 4.  Correlation Matrix of the Latent Variables.
Attractiveness
Believability 0.64 (0.41)
Attitude toward Hong Kong 0.48 (0.23)
Attitude toward the advertisement 0.45 (0.20)
Visit intentions 0.18 (0.03)
Note: All correlations are significant at the p <0.01 level, with squared correlations in parentheses.
Attractiveness
.03
Attitude toward the
.35
.66
Believability .05
Figure 2.  Structural model for celebrity destination endorsement.
The composite reliability values are all 0.70 or higher,
which suggests strong reliability (Bagozzi and Yi 1988). The
average variance extracted reached the minimum threshold
of 50% and was higher than the square of the correlation
estimates. The correlation matrix of the latent variables indi-
cated that the derived constructs were consistent with the
theoretically derived dimensions and were sufficiently dis-
tinct (see Table 4). The program default settings in estimat-
ing the model were used and the moment matrix is available
on request.
The results for the structural model test with the same data
set (n = 706) indicate an acceptable fit (χ2 = 1274.08, df =
369, p < 0.01, χ2/df = 3.45, CFI = 0.98, NFI = 0.97,
RMSEA = 0.059, 90% confidence interval for RMSEA =
0.055 – 0.062). Allocating a large sample size to a structural
test can inflate the chi-square values for statistical signifi-
cance, erroneously implying a poor data-to-model fit
(Schumacker and Lomax 2004). Chi-square estimates tend to
be sensitive to small model discrepancies when sample sizes
are larger than 200 or when the model contains a large num-
ber of variables (Bagozzi and Yi 1988; Bollen and Long
1993). Cudeck and Henley (1991) argue that virtually all
proposed models are rejected with large samples, although
large samples are desirable to minimize sampling bias. To
remedy this issue, Hair et al. (2006) suggest setting the sam-
ple size to 200 in the LISREL command line. This procedure
yielded a nonsignificant chi-square (χ2 = 359.63, df = 369,
Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on March 5, 2016
Attitude toward Attitude toward the
Believability Hong Kong Advertisement
 
0.43 (0.18)  
0.68 (0.46) 0.42 (0.18)  
0.17 (0.03) 0.26 (0.07) 0.25 (0.06)
Advertisement
.17
.23 Visit Intentions
.19
Attitude toward
Hong Kong
p = 0.63, χ2/df = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.00), which indicates a
good model fit.
The structural equation model results are illustrated in
Figure 2, and hypotheses 1 and 4 were not supported. The
structural path estimate between attractiveness and attitude
toward the advertisement had a maximum likelihood esti-
mate of 0.03 and a t-value of 0.62. The results also showed a
nonsignificant relationship between believability and atti-
tude toward Hong Kong (γ = 0.05/t-value = 0.73). The
remaining hypotheses were supported. The results indicated
that believability had a statistically significant and positive
impact on the respondents’ attitudes toward the advertise-
ment (γ = 0.66/t-value = 13.48). Attitude toward Hong Kong
was positively affected by attractiveness (γ = 0.35/t-value =
6.17). Likewise, attitude toward the advertisement had a pos-
itive and statistically significant impact on attitude toward
Hong Kong (β = 0.23/t-value = 4.32). The two attitude fac-
tors, attitude toward the advertisement (β = 0.17/t-value =
3.78) and attitude toward Hong Kong (β = 0.19/t-value =
4.24), both evidenced a statistically significant impact on
visit intentions.
The structural equation model results indicate that main-
land Chinese respondents who had a positive attitude toward
both the advertisement and Hong Kong intend to visit Hong
Kong in the next 12 months. Given that five out of the seven
estimates were consistent with the hypotheses, the results
generally supported the theoretical model, although the path
8 Journal of Travel Research XX(X)
Table 5.  Latent Mean Differences across Groups.
Attitude toward the Advertisement Attitude toward Hong Kong
  M SE M SE
Britney 0.81 0.13 * 0.03
David 0.16 0.14 NS −0.32
Maggie −0.48 0.11 * −0.29
Andy −0.61 0.12 * −0.46
Note: Control group is constant. M = Mean Difference; SE = Standard Error; NS = Nonsignificant.
*p < 0.01.
between attractiveness and attitude toward the advertisement
and believability and attitude toward Hong Kong were not
supported. The squared multiple correlations were acceptable
for attitude toward Hong Kong (28%) and attitude toward the
advertisement (47%), but only moderate for visit intentions
(9%). In terms of mediation results, neither attractiveness (γ =
0.05/t-value = 0.78) nor believability (γ = 0.07 /t-value =
−1.05) had a statistically significant direct effect on visit inten-
tions. The majority of the paths and their directions showed
significant indirect effects, which was a reasonable indication
of mediation effects (Baron and Kenny 1986). Hair et al.
(2006) suggest that when a structural model provides a reason-
able fit the presence of mediating constructs is supported.
The purpose of the contrast study was to provide clues on
the extent to which celebrity-endorsed advertisements dif-
fered from nonendorsed advertisements and explore the dif-
ferences in terms of destination match-up between native
and nonnative celebrity-endorsed advertisements. The mul-
tigroup modeling function in LISREL was used to test for
variance across the groups. The missing values for each
group were imputed using the expectation maximization
algorithm. The four groups, Andy Lau (n = 206), David
Beckham (n = 204), Britney Spears (n = 205), and Maggie
Cheung (n = 211), were respectively compared to the con-
trol group (n = 218) on the three exogenous dimensions:
attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward Hong
Kong, and visit intentions. The respondents in the control
group were shown the same advertisement without a celeb-
rity endorser. The global fit indices indicate a reasonable fit
(χ2 = 1829.03, df = 780, p < 0.01; CFI = 0.96; NFI = 0.93;
RMSEA = 0.08). Taking into account the multigroup model,
the alternative fit indices are adequate, while the RMSEA
value of 0.8 can be considered mediocre (MacCallum,
Browne, and Sugawara 1996).
For the purposes of our study, group effects are of interest
because they indicate whether celebrities have any effect on
the three dimensions of interest. When compared to the con-
trol group, celebrity-endorsed advertisements performed
generally better and effects were in the proposed direction
(see Table 5). The majority of the latent mean scores were
minus, which indicates a score closer to one which is posi-
tive. Even though the mean vectors of independent variable
Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on March 5, 2016
Visit Intentions
M SE  
0.09 NS −0.07 .19 NS
0.09 * −0.28 .20 NS
0.08 * −0.20 .19 NS
0.08 * −0.31 .20 NS
scores were in the hypothesized direction, none of the values
for visit intentions were significantly different from the con-
trol group. The latent means for attitude toward the adver-
tisement for the Andy Lau (–0.61) and Maggie Cheung
(–0.48) groups were significantly lower than the control
group, indicating that they performed better. However, the
group for David Beckham (0.16) and Britney Spears (0.81)
achieved higher mean scores, with the latter group signifi-
cantly higher (i.e., performed worse than the control group).
With regard to attitude toward Hong Kong, all treatment
groups performed significantly better than the control group,
except the Britney Spears (0.03) group.
For both attitude dimensions, the native celebrity groups
indicated significantly lower latent mean scores than the
control group. Such an occurrence is extremely unlikely due
to sampling error alone (Bray and Maxwell 1985). These
results correspond with previous studies in that celebrity-
endorsed advertisements generate positive responses (Atkin
and Block 1983; Tom et al. 1992; Tripp, Jensen, and Carlson
1994). The Britney Spears group evidenced higher mean
scores than the control group for both attitude constructs. It
is likely that the poor performance was due to negative tab-
loid news coverage surrounding her personal life and career
during the course of the study. Although her presence in the
advertisement negatively affected its performance, this result
clearly demonstrates that her apparent endorsement had a
certain impact.
To measure the association between a celebrity endorser
and the advertised destination, a match-up dimension was
included in the structured means analysis with the following
indicators: related, representative, combined, relative, effec-
tive, and consistent. The results are presented in Tables 6
and 7.
The Britney Spears group reported a significantly higher
latent mean score on attractiveness than the other endors-
ers. Therefore, she was perceived to be significantly less
attractive than the other three celebrities. However, there
were no statistically significant differences in perceived
attractiveness among the other three celebrities. Both David
Beckham and Britney Spears groups reported significantly
higher mean scores on believability than the Andy Lau
(1.19/2.18) or Maggie Cheung (0.84/1.82) groups. This
Van der Veen and Song 9

Table 6.  Latent Mean Differences for Attractiveness, examined increases the confidence in proposed impacts and
Believability, and Match-up. offers the opportunity for the assessment of other mediator or
Attractiveness Believability Match-up moderator variables. However, not all hypotheses were sup-
ported. The path from attractiveness to attitude toward the
  M SE M SE M SE advertisement was not statistically significant. We examined
Andy (constant) certain studies that were similarly unable to detect any sig-
Britney 1.03 0.12* 2.18 0.11* 2.88 0.13* nificant effect of the endorser’s attractiveness to try to
David 0.10 0.10NS 1.19 0.11* 1.99 0.14* explain this result (Caballero and Solomon 1984; Lord and
Maggie 0.16 0.10NS 0.35 0.07* 0.37 0.08* Putrevu 2009). It seems that products employed in such stud-
Britney (constant) ies were not directly related to the user’s attractiveness,
Andy −1.03 0.12* −2.18 0.11* −2.88 0.13* which may explain their findings. Kamins (1990) argues that
David −0.93 0.12* −0.99 0.13* −0.88 0.17* attractive celebrities are more effective endorsers of products
Maggie −0.87 0.11* −1.82 0.11* −2.51 0.13* that are used to enhance one’s own attractiveness. Thus,
David (Constant) celebrity attractiveness has a minimal impact on the evalua-
Andy −0.10 0.10NS −1.19 0.11* −1.99 0.14* tion of products and advertisements when the product is not
Britney 0.93 0.12* 0.99 0.13* 0.88 0.17* related to the user’s physical attractiveness (Baker and
Maggie 0.06 0.10NS −0.84 0.11* −1.62 0.15* Churchill 1977; Kahle and Homer 1985). This may explain
Maggie (constant) why the current study found a nonsignificant relationship
Andy −0.16 0.10NS −0.35 0.07* −0.37 0.08* between the two constructs: a destination or celebrity
Britney 0.87 0.11* 1.82 0.11* 2.51 0.13* endorser would not directly enhance a tourist’s physical
David −0.06 0.11NS 0.84 0.11* 1.62 0.15* attractiveness. The perceived attractiveness of the celebrity
Note: M = Mean Difference; SE = Standard Error; NS = Nonsignificant.
has a significant impact on attitude toward Hong Kong,
*p < 0.01. which concurs with the findings of previous studies (Baker
and Churchill 1977). If celebrities are able to generate posi-
tive feelings in consumers, then it is likely that this will lead
to a favorable response toward the brand being endorsed
indicates that the two native celebrity endorsers (Andy Lau (Atkin and Block 1983; Till, Priluck, and Stanley 2008). The
and Maggie Cheung), when compared to the two nonna- proposed relationship between believability to attitude
tives, were perceived to be more believable because of an toward Hong Kong was rejected. It appears that the celebrity-
increased expertise regarding Hong Kong. The same result endorsed destination advertisement did not have a signifi-
was present in the match-up dimension. The two native cant impact on respondents’ existing attitudes toward Hong
celebrity endorsers were perceived to be more associated Kong.
with Hong Kong than the two nonnatives. In a similar vein, The current study empirically confirms the positive
the results showed that the native celebrity endorsers sig- impact believability has on attitude toward the advertise-
nificantly outperformed the two nonnative celebrity endors- ment, and this result is consistent with previous studies (Han
ers at influencing the attitude dimensions. As previously and Ki 2010; Magnini, Honeycutt, and Cross 2008). From
indicated, the celebrity endorser did not influence visit the mediation results and model fit, it can be assumed that
intentions any more positively than the control group, and attitude is one of the transporters of information for the sub-
no statistically significant differences were found between jective evaluation of behavioral intentions, and may thus be
the treatment groups. For these data, Britney Spears was the a necessary condition in celebrity endorsement frameworks.
least appropriate celebrity endorser for Hong Kong, as the However, there appears to be a gap between the relative
participants assigned to that group reported significantly explanatory power of attitude dimensions and visit inten-
higher mean values on the majority of dimensions, whereas tions. The contrast results show similar findings in that
Andy Lau was the most appropriate celebrity endorser in celebrity endorsement may not necessarily be better than its
terms of his perceived believability and match-up to Hong absence in influencing people’s visit intentions. This finding
Kong. Taken together, the results illustrate that when tar- concurs with Sanbonmatsu and Kardes (1988), who found
geting Chinese tourists, native celebrity endorsers are more that respondents’ willingness to purchase did not differ
appropriate spokespeople for Hong Kong than nonnatives. between those exposed to an advertisement with a celebrity
and those exposed to an advertisement featuring no celebrity.
This outcome is probably because behavioral intentions
Discussion
require consumers to exhibit a higher level of commitment
The results from the current study confirm that prior effects than attitude formation (Peterson and Jolibert 1995). Tourists
regarding a travel destination are applicable and useful for are relatively unsure of their intentions to visit a destination
prediction extending beyond a student population and labo- when asked some months beforehand for various reasons
ratory setting to a Chinese adult consumer population. (Sirakaya, McLellan, and Uysal 1996). The proposed model
Broadening the context in which a conceptual framework is helps destination marketers predict tourists’ attitudes toward

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10 Journal of Travel Research XX(X)

Table 7.  Latent Mean Differences for Attitude toward the Advertisement, Attitude toward Hong Kong, and Visit Intentions.

Attitude toward the Attitude toward Hong

Advertisement Kong Visit Intentions
  M SE M SE M SE
Andy (constant)
Britney 1.43 0.13* 0.49 0.09* 0.25 0.13NS
David 0.78 0.14* 0.13 0.08NS 0.02 0.14NS
Maggie 0.13 0.10NS 0.17 0.08** 0.12 0.08NS
Britney (constant)
Andy −1.43 0.13* −0.49 0.19* −0.25 0.19NS
David −0.65 0.15* −0.35 0.19* −0.23 0.19NS
Maggie −1.30 0.12* −0.32 0.18* −0.13 0.18NS
David (constant)
Andy −0.78 0.14* −0.13 0.08NS −0.02 0.20NS
Britney 0.65 0.15* 0.35 0.09* 0.23 0.19NS
Maggie −0.64 0.13* 0.03 0.09NS 0.10 0.19NS
Maggie (constant)
Andy −0.13 0.10NS −0.17 0.08** −0.12 0.19NS
Britney 1.30 0.12* 0.32 0.09* 0.13 0.18NS
David 0.64 0.13* 0.03 0.09NS −0.10 0.19NS

Note: M = Mean Difference; SE = Standard Error; NS = Nonsignificant.

*p < 0.01; **p < 0.05.

the advertisement and destination—and to a lesser extent Conclusion

their visit intentions—for a celebrity-endorsed print destination
advertisement.
In terms of managerial implications, various members of
a distinct market segment could be identified and compared
according to similarities of responses to the endorsement
claim. The results show that native celebrity endorsers, as
compared to nonnatives, perform better in generating a posi-
tive attitude response. This is mainly due to their positive
ratings of perceived believability and match-up with the des-
tination. This is certainly not unexpected, corresponding
with pervious research indicating that satisfactory advertis-
ing effectiveness exists when congruence between the char-
acteristics of the endorser and the endorsed brand is present
(e.g., Clark, Cornwell, and Pruitt 2009; Ding, Molchanov,
and Stork 2011; Magnini, Garcia and Honeycutt 2010; Misra
and Beatty 1990). For example, Choi, Lee, and Kim (2005)
show that domestic celebrities, when compared to celebrities
with international recognition, are more effective in deliver-
ing messages consistent with the prevalent cultural values in
a given country. This is perhaps because people are likely to
identify themselves with the domestic celebrities. In other
words, the native celebrities (Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung)
illustrate personal relevance toward the destination endorsed.
Tesser and Martin (1996) state that in order to get the best
effect a certain degree of “similarity” between the image of
the product and the image of the celebrity should be consid-
ered. The more relevant the association is, the more positive
the person’s response will be.
Providing insights into alternative ways to promoting desti-
nations is important because unlike consumer goods, tourism
marketers have limited funding (Pike, Murdy, and Lings
2011) and a restricted ability (Litvin and Mouri 2009) to
modify the destination image. Because of these limitations, it
is important that destinations highlight a distinctive feature—
a celebrity—that the market can readily identify as belong-
ing to and representing the destination (Litvin and Mouri
2009). For example, the relationship between the native-born
celebrity and destination cannot be duplicated, creating a
unique selling proposition that other destinations cannot
offer (Kwon and Vogt 2010). The potential of celebrity-
endorsed print destination advertising is that it can serve as a
differentiating tool for destinations (Pike et al. 2011) or the
celebrity can be a symbol to create awareness of the destina-
tion (Campelo, Aitken, and Gnoth 2011). The results concur
with Kwon and Vogt (2010) in that the positive affective
reactions to the celebrity-endorsed destination advertise-
ments are more likely to evaluate the destination favorably.
Results further indicate that the proposed method constitutes
a comprehensive approach for selecting a celebrity for
endorsement purposes and helps in terms of evaluating if and
how the marketing works to affect tourist behavior (Pratt
et al. 2010).
The proposed evaluative dimensions combined with the
testing method allow for comparisons between celebrity
endorsers to assist destination marketers in selecting an
appropriate celebrity endorser before a campaign is launched.

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Van der Veen and Song 11
This way, one can determine which celebrity endorser per-
forms better and in which areas. Destination marketers could
integrate these constructs into their market analysis to pre-
dict whether their potential visitors have positive or negative
attitudes towards celebrity-endorsed print destination adver-
tisements. The resulting information could then provide con-
crete and practical insights that may help in selecting an
appropriate celebrity endorser to target specific markets.
Our study featured a celebrity-endorsed print advertise-
ment that served mainly academic purposes. Given that we
only used one experimental stimulus, we must be cautious in
drawing inferences about the impact on people’s processing
set. Other forms of media (e.g., videos would allow for more
interaction) and the amount of time spent or involvement
may have a different impact on people’s responses to a cam-
paign. However, supporting our assumptions, the treatment
did influence the way participants responded to the
advertisement.
A longitudinal evaluation of a full celebrity endorsement
campaign would provide a more comprehensive view of the
impact. The possible influence of external factors on the find-
ings cannot be ruled out in the current study. Finally, the quo-
tas did not match perfectly, and the findings of the current
study cannot be generalized to respondents with different
demographic characteristics or to the population in general.
Nevertheless, our results confirm that the effects regarding
travel destinations are applicable and useful for prediction
beyond a student population and laboratory setting to the
Chinese adult consumer population. Broadening the context
in which a framework is examined increases the confidence
in the proposed impacts and offers the opportunity for assess-
ment of other mediator or moderator variables.
Our focus on celebrity endorsers and the outcome vari-
ables may be obscured by other psychological variables.
The predictive power of the celebrity endorser factors
might have been less if other variables had been included in
the study. Marketers should thus be cautious in being overly
dependent on one stimulus to influence the decision mak-
ing of tourists. It is misguided to think that appointing a
high-profile and popular celebrity endorser is the best way
to reach a certain target market. Without doubt, celebrity
endorsements can be effective, but it is necessary to ensure
that the right message is being conveyed. The framework
presented here is certainly not conclusive, and subsequent
research would benefit from testing additional relationships
in terms of level of involvement or impact on brand equity
and/or brand recall. Hence, further research is required to
examine the effects of tourist attitudes on the decision-
making process, along with other behavioral stimuli and
determinants, to evaluate celebrity-endorsed destination
campaigns
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Grant No. 1-ZVA5).
Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on March 5, 2016
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
Financial support was provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University. Grant number: 1-ZVA5.
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Author Biographies
Robert van der Veen, PhD, is a research fellow in the Australian Centre
for Asian Business in the International Graduate School of Business at
the University of South Australia. His research interests include destina-
tion marketing, celebrity endorsement and tourist satisfaction.
Haiyan Song, PhD, is chair professor of tourism in the School of
Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University. His research interests include tourism forecasting, tour-
ist satisfaction and tourism supply chain management.