Exploring the role of destination familiarity on flow experience

Abstract

People can obtain a variety of information that will familiarize them with a destination. This research aims to explore the link between destination familiarity and flow experience. For this purpose, the data were collected from Turkish people who had a vacation during the summer of 2022. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect 208 data between November 2022 to February 2023. The survey included three parts. The first part includes 16 items for 4 dimensions of flow experience. The second part includes five familiarity items. The last part covers demographic (e.g. age) and travel characteristics (e.g. travel partner) of participants. The items in the questionnaire were scored from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). The SPSS was preferred for the descriptive statistics. About %70 of respondents were female. Regarding age, close to half of participants (%45.7) were 25 years old or below. In terms of travel companions, the majority of the participants (%49) traveled with family members. The PLS-SEM was conducted for the analysis. The results show that destination familiarity significantly impacts flow experience. In other words, the causal relationship between destination familiarity and flow experience was proved. This research broadens practitioners’ perspectives in developing marketing strategies. For example, online marketing tools should include cultural aspects of daily life at the destination. The current research has some limitations. First, future studies should consider using the number of previous visits as a moderator variable. Also, other studies could include the influence of destination type (resort, island etc.) on connection between familiarity and flow.