Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship

The perceived value of a tourist’s trip, representing a trade-off between costs and benefits of travelling to a destination, can exert a significant influence on tourists’ loyalty, which is a main concern for managers of tourist destinations. However, the mechanism between the destination value and...

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Main Authors: Haihong Wang, Yufan Yang, Wenjun He
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-05-01
Series:Behavioral Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/5/136
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author Haihong Wang
Yufan Yang
Wenjun He
author_facet Haihong Wang
Yufan Yang
Wenjun He
author_sort Haihong Wang
collection DOAJ
description The perceived value of a tourist’s trip, representing a trade-off between costs and benefits of travelling to a destination, can exert a significant influence on tourists’ loyalty, which is a main concern for managers of tourist destinations. However, the mechanism between the destination value and tourist loyalty remains unexplored, especially in the new context of relationship marketing. To advance the understanding of the mechanism, we introduced 3 variables of “tourist–destination relationship”, namely place attachment (PA), destination trust (DT) and tourist satisfaction (TS), combined with perceived value (PV) and tourist loyalty (TL), and therefore constructed the conceptual model. Taking the Hangzhou City of China as an example, the conceptual model was fitted and tested using the structural equation model (SEM). The results show that: (1) PV can directly and positively affect TS and DT respectively, while there was no significant effect of PV on PA; (2) TS and DT can directly and positively influence TL, but the effect of PA on TL has not been supported empirically; (3) PV has a significant positive effect on TL; and (4) there are internal relationship among the 3 variables measuring the tourist–destination relationship, in other words, TS can significantly affects PA, DT respectively, and DT has a significant positive effect on PA. The findings of this study provide empirical references for understanding the important role of the tourist–destination relationship.
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spelling doaj.art-d60b4d927f6d406eb253bf932d1560252023-11-23T10:05:01ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2022-05-0112513610.3390/bs12050136Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination RelationshipHaihong Wang0Yufan Yang1Wenjun He2Department of Tourism Management, School of Business, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, ChinaSchool of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, ChinaDepartment of Marketing and Tourism Management, School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaThe perceived value of a tourist’s trip, representing a trade-off between costs and benefits of travelling to a destination, can exert a significant influence on tourists’ loyalty, which is a main concern for managers of tourist destinations. However, the mechanism between the destination value and tourist loyalty remains unexplored, especially in the new context of relationship marketing. To advance the understanding of the mechanism, we introduced 3 variables of “tourist–destination relationship”, namely place attachment (PA), destination trust (DT) and tourist satisfaction (TS), combined with perceived value (PV) and tourist loyalty (TL), and therefore constructed the conceptual model. Taking the Hangzhou City of China as an example, the conceptual model was fitted and tested using the structural equation model (SEM). The results show that: (1) PV can directly and positively affect TS and DT respectively, while there was no significant effect of PV on PA; (2) TS and DT can directly and positively influence TL, but the effect of PA on TL has not been supported empirically; (3) PV has a significant positive effect on TL; and (4) there are internal relationship among the 3 variables measuring the tourist–destination relationship, in other words, TS can significantly affects PA, DT respectively, and DT has a significant positive effect on PA. The findings of this study provide empirical references for understanding the important role of the tourist–destination relationship.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/5/136perceived valuesatisfactiondestination trustplace attachmentloyalty
spellingShingle Haihong Wang
Yufan Yang
Wenjun He
Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
Behavioral Sciences
perceived value
satisfaction
destination trust
place attachment
loyalty
title Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
title_full Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
title_fullStr Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
title_full_unstemmed Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
title_short Does Value Lead to Loyalty? Exploring the Important Role of the Tourist–Destination Relationship
title_sort does value lead to loyalty exploring the important role of the tourist destination relationship
topic perceived value
satisfaction
destination trust
place attachment
loyalty
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/5/136
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AT wenjunhe doesvalueleadtoloyaltyexploringtheimportantroleofthetouristdestinationrelationship