Effects of Pilot Professionalism and In-Flight Narration Quality on Tourist Storytelling Intentions: An SOR-Based Study of Helicopter Tourism Experiences

Résumé

Helicopter tourism is a type of experiential tourism in which pilots act as safety measures and guides. Although it is increasingly becoming popular, little research has been conducted to determine the role of pilot professionalism and in-flight narration on the tourist experience and storytelling behaviour. The proposed study is based on the Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) framework by examining the effects of the pilot professionalism and quality of narration (stimuli) on the emotions and unforgettable tourism experiences (organism), and their consequence on the storytelling intentions and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) (response). A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used to collect the data in the sample of 384 helicopter tourists using onsite post-flight questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the validity of the measurement model and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the structural relationships. The findings reveal that pilot professionalism and narration quality are significant in terms of promoting tourist emotions, MTEs, and storytelling intentions. Moreover, the mediator role of the emotions and MTEs was verified, and noise sensitivity, previous experience of flying, and trust in the operator were found to be important moderators. The study has some theoretical contributions, such as generalizing the SOR model to aviation tourism, empirically confirming the new scales of pilot professionalism and narration, and the mediating effect of emotions and MTEs. In practice, the results offer practical suggestions to operators, destination marketers, and regulators such as better pilot training, standardized narration procedures, and passenger comfort. In general, this study illustrates that helicopter tourism must be perceived as an aerial sightseeing experience, but it is also a narrative experience that is driven by pilots as its core, with the latter being key in influencing safety, emotions, memories, and advocacy behaviours.