Airline travellers' ethnocentric tendencies and their impact on travellers' behaviours: Extending consumer ethnocentrism to airline services

Abstract

Recent political and economic conflicts have revealed the critical role of ethnocentrism in the travel and tourism industry; however, its investigation into airline services remains scarce. Therefore, this study aims to develop an integrated scale to capture airline travellers' ethnocentric tendencies that fit with the characteristics of airline services and overcome the criticisms of existing scales related to their overemphasis on the socioeconomic perspective of ethnocentrism, and investigate its impact on travellers' behaviors towards national and foreign airlines. Data were gathered using questionnaires and were analyzed using EFA, CFA, and SEM. Results revealed that the developed multi-dimensional scale has adequate reliability, validity, and predictability. It also confirmed the significant influence of travellers' ethnocentric tendencies on their perceptions of service quality, perceived value, and loyalty. However, these effects were more prominent in travellers' behaviors towards national airlines compared to foreign airlines. The study concludes with implications for airline marketers.