Understanding Destination Choice from a Cultural Distance Perspective

National cultural distance is an important factor of tourists\u27 destination choice, yet the specific role it plays in destination decision process is not well understood. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Taking potential Chinese outbound tourists as a case, this study tries to explore the impact of perceived cultural distance on tourists\u27 international destination choice through a conditional logit model. Familiarity, geographical distance, past international travel experience and novelty-seeking tendency were examined as moderators of the relationship between perceived cultural distance and destination choice. Results show that tourist are more likely to choose culturally similar countries as destinations; geographical distance and novelty-seeking tendency have significant moderating effects on the relationship between perceived cultural distance and destination choice. The research results are expected to provide insights for understanding tourists\u27 destination choice from a cultural distance perspective, and further shed some light on global destination marketing