Although tourists’ movements are formed in terms of space, those behaviors are facilitated or hindered by the perceived psychological distance.
Psychological distance, the subjective recognition of the distance, is perceived by the individual''s subjective experiences, while it is influenced by society, culture, politics, and religion.
The life of Muslims, one of the largest religious groups, is closely related with Islamic teachings. While the religion is considered the value of life and is intimately associated with the formation of culture, it influences their travels as a whole, including decision making on travel destinations.
Attracting Muslims may be a viable alternative for developing the quality of Korean tourism. The Korean central and local governments have been keen on inducing Muslim tourists to their destinations to deviate heavy dependence on Chinese and Japanese tourists.
While the number of Muslims visiting Korea has been increasing over the years with tourists from Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia, as the majority, to further increase the number of inbound Muslim tourists, destination marketers should explore and study all facets of Islamic attributes to satisfy them.
To do so, mitigating psychological distance is an essential issue by enabling Muslims to perceive Korea as a safe and convenient destination to travel.
The Perceived psychological distance may differ greatly among individuals according to their direct experiences, such as actual visit and indirect experiences, for example, via media.
In accordance with findings in previous studies regarding the effect of indirect experience on minimizing psychological distance, the rapid increase of inbound Muslims tourists induced by K-culture over last few years may play a critical role in alleviating psychological distance.
Therefore, research on the relationship between psychological distance and K-culture is expected to be a crucial cornerstone for understanding unrevealed phenomena associated with psychological distance.
This study attempts to investigate the structural relationships among destination attachment- engagement- loyalty- psychological distance, which affect decision making and information processing, and the moderating effect of K-culture in the context of those relationships.
To accomplish the study’s purposes, this study surveyed local Muslims living in 7 countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei). 21 hypotheses were developed and tested using a sample of 555 respondents.
The followings are the results of the analysis.
Among the components of psychological distance, ‘cultural distance’ has a negative(-) effect on ‘destination attachment'' and ‘engagement''. And, ‘social distance'' has a negative(-) effect on ‘destination attachment'' but no significant influence on ‘engagement''. Also, the results indicate that ‘spatial distance'' has no significant influence on ‘destination attachment'' and ''engagement''.
There is a positive significant effect of ‘destination attachment'' on ‘engagement'' and loyalty. Also, ''engagement'' was found to positively affects ‘loyalty''.
These results show that the ‘cultural distance'' is the most critical factor that has the significant effect on ‘destination attachment'' and ‘engagement'' which are the antecedents of loyalty towards Korean tourism.
This study examined the moderating effect of K-culture on the relationship between psychological distance and destination attachment and between psychological distance and engagement.
Among the components of K-culture (K-food, K-entertainment), ‘K-food preference'' has a positive (+) moderating effect on the relationship between social distance and destination attachment and between social distance and engagement. Also, ‘K-food preference'' has a positive (+) moderating effect on the relationship between spatial distance and destination attachment. Similarly, ‘K-entertainment preference'' has a positive (+) moderating effect on the relationship between spatial distance and destination attachment.
In sum, the results regarding the moderating effect of the degree of preference for K-culture imply that the exposure to K-culture has a positive effect on mitigating spatial and social distance by providing the sense of familiarity and homogeneity, while showing no significant effect on alleviating cultural distance, which requires a deep understanding about and identity-based attachment to Korea.
That is, overcoming psychological distance may be accomplished dynamically in interrelated way, being stimulated by the individual’s experiences.
The following are implications, based on the findings of this study.The theoretical contribution of this study is to examine the psychological distance comprehensively by dividing it into cultural distance, social distance, and spatial distance. Furthermore, this study found that the interrelationship between the components of psychological distance decreased by external factors, such as K-culture.(Dynamic Distance Theory of Experience)
The findings of this study provide guidelines for better understanding of ‘Muslim Tourism’, based on which destination marketers can develop more appropriate plans and customized marketing strategies to attract more Muslim to Korea.
The following are practical implications provided by this study. First, it is important to operate a ‘Korean Cultural Center’ where local Muslims are able to directly experience/learn Korean culture, such as cooking, life style, socio-culture, politics etc. It would lead Muslims to overcome the cultural distance through building strong understanding to Korea.
Second, considering the result of this study showing that the K-food preference has a moderating effect on the relationship between spatial distance and destination attachment, holding K-food festivals and K-food promotions will greatly help Muslims, especially Middle East Muslims such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates etc. to perceive Korea as not very far to travel.
Thirdly, to let Muslims perceive Korea as a safe and convenient travel destination, producing Muslim customized promotional materials (advertisement, handbook, promotional video etc.) are needed, which show that Korea welcomes them and Korean tourism packages meet their Islamic teachings and customs.