The Influence of Psychological Distance to Cultural Assimilation on Tourism Destination

Objectives: While traveling, all tourists become aware of distance of various dimensions towards a destination. This study is to examine how tourist’s psychological distance influences cultural assimilation in the tourism destination. Methods/Statistical analysis: To reveal its influence of psychological distance to cultural assimilation, this study conducted an empirical investigation. First, based on literatures, this study hypothesizes that psychological factors (i.e., geographic distance, linguistic distance, economic distance, politic distance) influence cultural assimilation factors (i.e., cultural similarities, acculturation intention, local cultural adaptation). Second, data were collected during November 2015 via on-line research site. Finally, SPSS 23 and AMOS 23were used for statistical analyses. Findings: This study attempted to verify the relationship of psychological distance and cultural assimilation through a SEM, and the several study results were found. First and most importantly, the study results found out the cause-and-effect in the relationship between the psychological distance that tourists feel and the level of their cultural assimilation. It was also found that the psychological distance that the tourists feel has been found to serve as the positive factor toward the cultural experience that the tourists feel at the destination. To be specific, both geographic and economic distances have a direct positive effect on cultural similarity awareness. The linguistic and political distances were found to be the influence factors of acculturation intention. Finally, cultural similarity has a strong positive effect on acculturation intention. Improvements/Applications: The study empirically proved the causal effect relationship between psychological distance and cultural assimilation. However, the sample population only includes Koreans travelling abroad. Therefore, future research is recommended.