The effect of invisible exports of tourism goods and services on culture dissemination; the moderating role of destination image

In informational societies of globalization era, culture is an important and disturbing aspect for all the governments. The cultural enrichment of a society, and in the case of adopting a prospective approach,thedissemination of national culture in the other societies, makes it resistant to invasion of alien cultures some of which are destructive. As investigated in this study, one instrument for disseminating a culture is invisible export. To a narrative, invisible export is the services and goods that are purchased by foreign tourists. Although invisible export positively affects economic balance, it may have some cultural outcomes that are surely to preserve the customs and traditions of a society and export them to the others. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and is survey in terms of method aimed at examining the effect of invisible export on culture dissemination considering the moderation of tourism destination image. It was accomplished by gathering data from 172 tourists of 20 foreign countries by conducting convenience sampling method through visiting the official tours in their seating hotel in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan. The survey instrument was a questionnaire designed in the two versions of English and Arabic in which the 5-point Likert-type scale was used. The face and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by university professors and professional practitioners, and its construct validity was investigated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis. The questionnaire's reliability was also investigated by Cronbach's alpha coefficients. After that, gathered data was analyzed by conducting statistical techniques such as structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis and some descriptive statistics were used to complement the analyses carried out around the research variables. In general, the direct hypotheses and construct validity were evaluated by LISREL software, and moderation hypothesis and reliability were evaluated by SPSS. Additionally, the descriptive statistics such as standard deviations and means of the variables were all reported by SPSS. Discussion and The modified and accepted structural model indicated that the variable of invisible export alone explains over 50% of variation of the culture dissemination variable (R2@ 53.3). This result relating to the first hypothesis was consistent with all the studies and rational arguments presented in second section of the paper. Amongst the components of this variable, the effect of natural attractions on culture dissemination was not statistically significant. The effect of cultural-societal component was the strongest and the effect of souvenir and handicrafts was in the second order in terms of intensity confirming the theoretical explanation was made for hypotheses development. The second hypothesis relating to moderation of tourism destination image on the relationship between invisible export and culture dissemination was also confirmed indicating that the moderator variable could ameliorate this effect up to 25%. This result was consistent with the findings of Bigne et al. (2001) and Hsu et al. (2006). In general, research results indicated that invisible export of tourism goods and services expands the culture of destination country, and tourism destination image strengthens this effect The findings mentioned above, confirms the need for more attention to issues such as culture dissemination, cultural tourism, and souvenir and handicrafts. The most important action for attracting the foreign tourists is to improve their image of tourism and ancillary services in I.R. Iran. To do so, first, it is needed to separate the tourism issue from political relations, and secondly, to declare the cultural tourism attractions to the whole world with appropriate overseas advertising. Furthermore, we propose to design the content of these advertisements in accordance with the components of perceived tourism destination image i.e. awareness of destination, destination image, destination quality, and loyalty to destination. By doing so, the effect of invisible export on culture dissemination is increased by moderating these sub-variables and culture-oriented advertisement as an independent variable affects the culture dissemination. The next proposal is derived from the intensity of the effect of invisible export components on culture dissemination. Since the most important component is the cultural-societal factor, the relevant authorities should rely more on cultural-societal affairs, cultural tourism, and cultural advertisements. In this regard, they can utilize the Iranian cultural symbols as well as to communicate with tourism institutions in other countries especially those who export historical-cultural tourists. Additionally, they should plan to create needed facilities for setting up special tours such as sports, sanitary, scientific, medical etc.Souvenir and handicrafts is another important component of invisible export. What is certain is that the souvenir and handicrafts is more neglected than the cultural, religious, and historical symbols for foreign tourists. To address this negligence, the relevant authorities should resurrect the small handicrafts with emphasis on producing the souvenirs that are tailored to national and cultural values of the ancient Iran. In summary, the paper concluded according to the results of hypotheses testing and offered some applied implications for managers and practitioners.