The studyfound that different attributes of tourism destination can be perceived and evaluateddifferently depending on the context in which the judgment is made. The relevantmethodological and managerial implications are discussed for further research anddevelopment in tourism destination management. | JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, Hue University, Vol. 70, No 1 (2012) pp. 217-226 APPLICATION OF CONTEXTUAL APPROACH FOR MEASURING TOURISM DESTINATION ATTRACTIVENESS Bui Thi Tam Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Hue University Abstract. Understanding the importance of touristic attributes in contributing to attractiveness of a tourism destination is always a search not only by tourism managers and practitioners, but also by research scholars. Using a structured questionnaire survey with 418 respondents in 3 provinces of Central region, Vietnam, this study examines the use of the contextual approach for measuring tourism destinaton attractiveness by incorporating three different types of vacation experience in the specific context of immature tourism destinations. The study found that different attributes of tourism destination can be perceived and evaluated differently depending on the context in which the judgment is made. The relevant methodological and managerial implications are discussed for further research and development in tourism destination management. 1. Introduction Literature review on tourists’ behaviors releases that the ‘push and pull’ theory provides a simple and intuitive approach for explaining the motives behind tourists’ behavior. The push factors indicate that people are initially driven by internal desires or emotional factors such as the need for escape, knowledge, relaxation, prestige, adventure and so forth (Balogul and Uysal, 1996; Klenosky, 2002; Yoon and Uysal, 2005). Once tourists are pushed into deciding to travel, they are then pulled by external factors such as historical sites, natural and beautiful scenery, cultural or sporting events, etc. The push is the decision to travel and the pull explains reasons for travel. When these two groups of factors convened, the destination selection would occur and tourism would happen. The driving force of tourism is represented by the destination attractiveness. With the purpose to understand how .
