With the rise of rural tourism and the popularity of mobile terminals,online information is a significant resource for consumers;therefore,electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)plays a very important role in our life. Against this background, this paper studies the influence of eWOM in a relational virtual community on the rural tourism behavior of urban residents.Xi'an city residents were used as respondents and three places(i.e.,Yuan Village in Xi'an's suburbs,Maweiyi Village in Xingping City, and Fuling tea town in Jingyang County)were chosen as rural tourism destinations.In this paper,the credibility of eWOM is introduced as the intermediary variable to build a structural equation model for urban-rural tourism eWOM.WeChat is an example of a relational virtual community,which is used by millions of people in China.According to WeChat's characteristics, we set up four dimensions (i.e., information-sender's expertise, tie strength between sender and receiver, eWOM's visual cues, and biased eWOM) to research the influence of eWOM in a relational virtual community on the rural tourism behavior of urban residents. The data used in this paper were obtained from a questionnaire survey,which was performed in Yuan Village in the Xi'an suburbs,Maweiyi Village in Xingping City, and Fuling tea town in Jingyang County. By processing and analyzing data, we built a structural equation model for urban-rural tourism eWOM.The results show that the fit of the structural equation model is within a reasonable scope, which shows that the structural equation model for urban-rural tourism eWOM is tenable and scientific. The three dependent variables, i.e., information-sender's expertise, eWOM's visual cues, and biased eWOM, affect the rural tourism behavior intentions of urban residents and the credibility of eWOM is simultaneously introduced as a partial intermediary variable. In addition, the credibility of eWOM takes a completely intermediary role between the influence of eWOM and the tie strength between sender and receiver.In other words,the more familiar the relationship between the sender and the receiver of eWOM, the higher the credibility of eWOM;therefore, the greater the influence of eWOM in relational virtual community on the rural tourism behavior of urban residents. Finally, eWOM's visual cues promote urban rural tourism behavioral intentions positively and significantly.That is,the more intuitive the eWOM,the more potential tourists are inspired with the desire to travel.Thus,the power of pictures and small videos is clearly enormous and far stronger than that for a simple text description.Consumers cannot ignore the potential impact of powerful visual information,which has strong implications for them.%基于乡村旅游热潮的兴起和移动终端的普及,研究关系型虚拟社区的电子口碑对城市居民乡村旅游行为的影响.文章以西安市城市居民为调查对象,以西安周边的泾阳县茯茶小镇、兴平市马嵬驿、礼泉县袁家村的乡村旅游地为案例调查地,以"口碑信任度"为中介变量,基于关系型虚拟社区的特点,从发送者专业性、关系密切程度、视觉线索、口碑偏向性等4个方面着手,研究以微信为代表的关系型社交媒体的电子口碑对乡村旅游者行为的影响及其影响途径.通过问卷调查和人员访谈获取一手资料,运用SPSS 20.0和AMOS 20.0软件分析数据,构建了城市居民乡村旅游的电子口碑结构方程模型,研究发现:(1)关系型虚拟社区电子口碑的4个前因变量(发送者的专业性、关系密切程度、电子口碑的视觉线索、电子口碑的偏向性)均以信任为中介变量,进而影响城市居民的乡村旅游行为意向;(2)口碑信任度在关系密切程度与电子口碑的影响力之间起完全中介作用;(3)关系型虚拟社区电子口碑的视觉线索直接正向影响城市居民的乡村旅游行为意向,电子口碑越形象越直观,越能提高旅游者的旅游意向.
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