| Summary: | Place attachment has recently become a research topic of interest
as a relevant concept in understanding some tourist behaviours. It
is a relational concept based on cognitive and emotional
connections with destinations, yet it has seldom been studied as a
loyalty predictor. The objective of this research is to test the
influence that attachment exerts on satisfaction with, and loyalty to,
rural tourism destinations, through attachment´s main dimensions:
identity and destination dependence. The application of attachment
to rural tourism is considered interesting because of the particular
relationships that tourists establish with the associated
environments. In addition, this field lacks causal studies related to
marketing, to better plan, manage and commercialise these
destinations and their companies. To test the theoretical model, a
sample of data on 464 rural tourists was collected through an online survey. An analysis was carried out using a Partial Least
Squares (PLS) technique through structural equation modelling.
The results reveal that both destination identity and dependence
are significant antecedents of overall satisfaction with, and loyalty
to, rural tourism destinations, but destination dependence has a
greater influence. The model shows a good capability to explain the
endogenous constructs of overall satisfaction and loyalty.
|
|---|