Abstract
While place attachment has been a hot research topic in tourism, place meanings generally have received less attention from researchers. By bridging environmental psychology to the context of tourism, this research employs schema theory to explore how the home environment influences place meanings perceived in foreign destinations by tourists belonging to the same cultural group, i.e., Chinese and Macau outbound tourists in Europe. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the findings show that there is much overlap in both groups' place meanings regarding Europe as they are culturally Chinese. Nonetheless, the Portuguese symbolic settings of their home environment are profoundly integrated in the Macau interviewees' autobiographical memories and self-identity, which turns them into "vicarious insiders" of Portugal prior to their actual visits, thus rendering Portugal a specifically meaningful destination. This study makes theoretical contributions to the tourism place literature and provides practical implications regarding meaning marketing for destination management organizations.

Abstract
Vicarious experiences in tourism possess significant marketing implications. While numerous studies have explored how various forms of vicarious experiences can impact an individual, the role of different time spans as a key factor determining the extent of said impact has been neglected in prior research. To address this gap, the present study thus bridges environmental psychology with the context of tourism and applies the theory of mental representations. An experiment (n = 359) was designed to examine differences in select mental representation dimensions (cognitive, affective, conative, and sensorial) among male and female Chinese college students who have zero/medium/maximum durations of constant vicarious experiences related to European destinations in their home environment. The results indicate that the medium duration of constant vicarious experiences leads to the most positive changes in cognitive and conative dimensions, while the longest constant vicarious experiences produce desirable affective dimension outcomes. Moreover, male college students seem to be more susceptible to the influences of such constant vicarious experiences.

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract
This study intends to understand whether hotels should choose to surprise through a discount or a surprise gift. The experiment consisted in identifying whether there were differences in satisfaction and delight, according to the associated treatment (no surprise, surprise discount, or gift). With this purpose, a fictional hotel website was created for participants to simulate a reservation. Through the analysis of the experiment, the impact of surprise on customer satisfaction was confirmed. It was also found that, in the hospitality industry, a gift has a higher impact on satisfaction than a discount. When analyzing the guest delight, the results differ from what is stipulated in the literature (which points to the significant impact of surprise in this measure). It was concluded that between the two promotion tools, only the gift can significantly increase customer delight. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding the concept of surprise according to different industries. It also points to the importance of identifying the best methods to surprise customers, as different methods may lead to different results. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.