Visitors' loyalty to religious tourism destinations: Considering place attachment,emotional experience and religious affiliation

This study investigates the influence of visitors' place attachment and emotional experience on destination loyalty. Furthermore, religious affiliation was examined as a moderator within the model. Survey data from Attur Feast attendees (n = 812) were analysed using a series of multiple regression analyses to test proposed hypotheses. Visitors' emotional experiences were found to mediate the effect of place attachment dimensions (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on loyalty. Additionally, visitors' religious affiliation was found to moderate place attachment and emotional experience effects on destination loyalty. Furthermore, visitors' religious affiliation moderates only the indirect effect of place dependence on destination loyalty via emotional experience and this effect was strongest for Christian visitors compared to Hindu or Muslim visitors. In sum, we found that perceived emotional experiences mediate the relationship between place attachment and destination loyalty. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are offered.     

Behavioral Adaptation of Alpine Skiers to Climate Change: Examining Activity Involvement and Place Loyalty

This study employed a visitor survey to analyze the influence that changing climatic conditions have on the substitution behaviors of alpine skiers (activity, spatial, temporal). It further focuses on the role that activity involvement plays in influencing behavioral adaptations (i.e., substitution) and also the extent to which place loyalty is affected. The Modified Involvement Scale (MIS) was used to segment respondents based on high, medium, and low levels of leisure involvement with activity. Highly involved skiers were more likely to change their skiing behavior as a result of poor snow conditions than were less involved individuals. Pritchard's Psychological Commitment Index (PCI) provided evidence that less involved skiers exhibit lower levels of commitment to particular service providers than do highly involved individuals.     

Assessment on and Perception of Visitors' Environmental Impacts of Nature Tourism: A Case Study of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park,China

This paper examines trampling impacts on vegetation and soil as well as visitors' perception of these impacts in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China. Results indicate that visitor usage is proportionate to trampling impacts, with the two most used trails–Yellowstone Village Trail and Gold Whip Stream Trail–having the highest values in Soil Impact Index (SII) and highest rate of scarred trees. Vegetation and soil near 'Treasure Box for Celestial Books' are the most impacted with the Impact Vegetational Index (IVI) being 87.50% and SII being 2.27, respectively. This spot has the highest level of unacceptability. However, visitors' perceptions of the impacts on their hiking satisfaction are not always consistent with the actual physical deterioration. The unacceptability level for 'Gold Whip Crag' was much higher than 'The General Rock' despite the latter having higher IVI values than the former. It is argued that visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts could be influenced by the interaction of IVI, SII, and the size of the area impacted. Other factors such as visual sensitivity and social elements could also have an effect on visitors' judgements. Finally, this paper proposes management strategies for improving the park's visitor and environmental management.     

Mountain Places,Cultural Spaces: The Interpretation of Culturally Significant Landscapes

This paper presents an overview of how national park interpretation in New Zealand is incorporating Māori perspectives of cultural landscapes. Since the formation of the Department of Conservation in 1987, interpretive material containing information about the relationship between local iwi (Māori tribal groups) and natural areas has increased. Co-operative management strategies have been instigated by the Department to ensure that interpretation conveying Māori perspectives and cultural values for the landscape is accurate and authorised by iwi members. The paper analyses the findings from a survey that asked visitors about their experiences of the cultural interpretation at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. At this site, Department of Conservation staff aim to (1) increase visitors' understanding of the Māori relationship to the land and (2) direct appropriate visitor behaviour whilst in the area. Many survey respondents were unaware of the relationship between Māori and the area prior to their visit, despite reporting cultural activities and experiences with indigenous peoples as travel motivators. On-site interpretation contributed to raising visitors' awareness that the landscape has special significance to local iwi, thus providing a cultural dimension to the visitors' experiences at this internationally renowned natural area.     

Impact of government policy and environment quality on visitor loyalty to Taiwan music festivals: Moderating effects of revisit reason and occupation type

Tourists' repeat patronage is a prerequisite for sustainable festivals. Past studies have examined tourist cognition, affection, and conation to festivals. Government involvement in festivals has increased during the past decade; however, few studies have examined how government policy and environment quality influence visitor loyalty to festivals. Using sample data collected from 931 visitors during spring music festivals held in Southern Taiwan, this study used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent variables to examine these influences. The results suggest that government policy positively influences perceived environment quality, visitor satisfaction, and loyalty to festivals. Furthermore, the results from a multigroup SEM approach reveal that tourists' revisit reason (revisit festival versus other) and occupation type (student versus nonstudent) moderate the relationships between government policy and festival loyalty. Implications on festival planning and government policymaking are discussed.     

Response to "The One-Way Mirror"

The variable, place attachment, has recently been used by investigators to assist in understanding visitor responses to fee programs on public lands. This paper examines the relationship between place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence), attitudes toward paying fees, and visitor preferences for spending fee revenue within the context of social judgment theory. It was hypothesized that both place dependence and place identity would moderate the relationship between recreationists' attitudes toward the site's fee program and visitor support for spending revenue generated by the fee program in the areas of facilities and service development, environmental protection, and environmental education. Data were collected at Mono Basin Scenic Area over the summer of 1998. Results indicated that only place identity was a statistically significant moderator, such that it magnified the relationship between recreationists' attitudes toward the fee program and spending support. As place identity increased and recreationists' attitudes toward the fee program became more positive, support for spending fee revenue also increased. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Visualizing theme park visitors’ emotions using social media analytics and geospatial analytics

Despite the popular use of social media analytics to scrutinize customer emotions, less scholarly efforts have been invested in visualizing theme park visitors' emotions. Employing the convergence of social media analytics and geospatial analytics, this paper visualized cohesive places where Disneyland visitors express distinct types of emotion in social media messages. Among 226,946 collected tweets, this study used 19,809 tweets containing one or more emotion words listed in Russell's Circumplex Model of Affect. Text mining analysis and GIS-based exploratory spatial data analysis showed that tweets reflecting each quadrant of emotions have considerable spatial variations and different topics related to visitor emotions. The research approach enabled displaying particular spots in theme park zones and areas of riding attractions where emotions of each quadrant are significantly clustered. This study highlights methodological implications of visualizing spatial patterns of visitors' emotions and provides practitioners with a useful guide to develop routes evoking pleasant emotions.     

Leveraging human-robot interaction in hospitality services: Incorporating the role of perceived value,empathy, and information sharing into visitors’ intentions to use social robots

Social robots have become pervasive in the tourism and hospitality service environments. The empirical understanding of the drivers of visitors' intentions to use robots in such services has become an urgent necessity for their sustainable deployment. Certainly, using social androids within hospitality services requires organisations' attentive commitment to value creation and fulfilling service quality expectations. In this paper, via structural equation modelling (SEM) and semi-structured interviews with managers, we conceptualise and empirically test visitors' intentions to use social robots in hospitality services. With data collected in Singapore's hospitality settings, we found visitors' intentions to use social robots stem from the effects of technology acceptance variables, service quality dimensions leading to perceived value, and two further dimensions from human robot interaction (HRI): empathy and information sharing. Analysis of these dimensions' importance provides a deeper understanding of novel opportunities managers may take advantage of to position social robot-delivered services in tourism and hospitality strategies.     

How does brand loyalty interact with tourism destination? Exploring the effect of brand loyalty on place attachment

The research examines to what extent emotional place attachment is impacted by people's feelings towards international companies associated with the place, and what mechanism and conditions drive such effects. The research draws on the feelings-as-information perspective and empirically tests the relationships in three international multi-method studies. The results demonstrate that brand loyalty plays a key role in place affective image and emotional place attachment. The study theorizes and empirically shows the importance of affect, authenticity, and cultural distance in such relationships. Critically, it enriches understanding of brand–place relationships and identify key boundary conditions. Tourism marketers need to appropriately manage perceptions of local brands' authenticity and consider cultural distance when designing destination campaigns in their efforts to strengthen place attachment.     

Keeping your audience: Presenting a visitor engagement scale

Understanding visitors' level of engagement with tourist attractions is vital for successful heritage management and marketing. This paper develops a scale to measure visitors' level of engagement with tourist attractions. It also establishes a relationship between the drivers of engagement and level of engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 625 visitors at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, UK. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Whilst prior knowledge, recreational motivation and omnivore-univore cultural capital positively affect visitors' level of engagement, there is no significant relationship between reflective motivation and level of engagement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitor engagement in tourist attractions and a series of managerial implications are proposed.     

Environmental Interpretation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: An Assessment of Programme Effectiveness

This study sought to determine how visitor environmental interpretation programmes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could be assessed to determine their effectiveness in educating visitors about the reef environment and conservation issues. A self-administered visitor questionnaire was designed to identify changes in visitor knowledge and understanding of the reef's basic ecology, human impacts, health and tourism. The study used an independent sample design in which visitors aboard a large reef-trip vessel were surveyed over one week before exposure to the operation's interpretive programme. A second set of visitors was then surveyed following completion of the interpretive programme. The survey identified significant changes in visitors' self-reported knowledge of the reef environment as a result of the trip. Additionally, visitors' self-reported knowledge and understanding of basic reef ecology and human impacts on the reef environment differed significantly in relation to the number of interpretive activities in which they participated. These findings suggest that (1) reef-based visitor interpretation programmes can effectively change visitor understanding of key reef topics and issues, and (2) methods of evaluating reef-based interpretive programmes can be undertaken through self-administered questionnaires.     

Social involvement and park citizenship as moderators for quality-of-life in a national park

This paper contributes to the advancement of quality-of-life research in tourism by examining complex relationships involving direct, mediated, moderated and moderated mediation relationships among the antecedents to quality-of-life. Using a sample of 222 repeat visitors in an Australian national park, the findings indicate positive significant effects of (1) place satisfaction on quality-of-life; (2) place satisfaction on place attachment; (3) place attachment on quality-of-life; (4) park citizenship on place attachment. The findings further support that (5) place attachment mediates the relationship between place satisfaction and quality-of-life; (6) social involvement moderates the relationship between place satisfaction and place attachment; (7) park citizenship moderates the relationship between place satisfaction and place attachment; (8) social involvement moderates the relationship between place attachment and quality-of-life; (9) social involvement moderates the indirect effect of place satisfaction on quality-of-life. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Park managers, for example, need to promote on-site marketing and post-visit communication/interpretation, encouraging repeat visits and behavioural change. Message delivery needs to promote a sense of belonging to the park with personal meaning, creating place distinctiveness. Personal actions to promote include signing petitions supporting the park's biodiversity, and other resources, and volunteering to participate in meetings and other direct actions.     

VISITORS' INTENTION TO VISIT WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SUZHOU,CHINA

This article attempts to study Chinese visitors' intention to visit world cultural heritage sites in the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), with the additional constructs of past experience and cultural tour involvement. The survey data were collected by a self‐administrated questionnaire in Suzhou, which is one of the cities with world cultural heritage sites in China. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the research model and hypotheses. The result shows that perceived control, past experience, and cultural tour involvement, but not attitude and subjective norms, are valid predictor constructs for visitors' intention to visit a world cultural heritage site within the next 12 months. The findings have implications for predicting heritage tourism.     

The relationship between place attachment and tourist loyalty: A meta-analysis

Though place attachment has been recognized as a key factor to promote the loyalty of tourists and contribute to the sustainable development of destinations, there is still insufficient evidence to prove the positive impact of local attachment on tourist loyalty. This study mainly focuses on quantifying the effects of place attachment on tourist loyalty and examines the underlying factors that may explain the inconsistent phenomena among previous empirical studies. We systematically screen previous related studies, and 56 independent studies are finally included. A comprehensive framework on place attachment and tourist loyalty is summarized and 22 different hypotheses are put forward from these 56 studies. The results obtained by the meta-analysis method reveal that: first, place attachment and its dimensions are positively related to tourist loyalty, which includes tourist behavior loyalty, attitude loyalty and composite loyalty. Second, the moderating effect of gender on the association of place dependence and revisit intention has been confirmed, while the moderating role of tourist cultural background and place attachment measurement scales is insignificant. Third, place identity has the strongest influence on tourist loyalty among other place attachment dimensions. Finally, the theoretical implication for tourism researchers and practical suggestions for destination managers are provided based on meta-analysis.     

Exploring a theme park's tourism carrying capacity: A demand-side analysis

To better understand a theme park's tourism carrying capacity (TCC), this paper proposes a conceptual framework that classifies the determinants of theme park TCC across three levels: fundamental determinants, mediating determinants, and direct determinants. The authors empirically tested a portion of the framework from the demand side by surveying 1356 visitors at a theme park in China. PLS path modeling, one-way ANOVA, linear regression, and multi-group moderation tests were used to analyze the impacts of attendance from a visitor perspective, day perspective, and visitor perspective at different attendance levels. Results indicate that theme park attendance either directly and/or indirectly affects visitors' experience, satisfaction, and behavioral intention. Theme park attendance also moderates the effects of visitors' experience on visitor satisfaction and behavioral intention, all of which determine a theme park's TCC. Corresponding management practices are recommended based on these results.     

Destination attachment: Effects on customer satisfaction and cognitive,affective and conative loyalty

Tourists may develop attachment to a destination because of its ability in fulfilling specific goals or activity needs and/or because of its symbolic meaning and thus, attachment could be an important measure of tourist satisfaction and loyalty. Despite its significance, only limited research has been conducted to determine the likely influences of emotional associations or meanings tourists attach to the places they visit on their satisfaction and future behavior. This study therefore explores the role of attachment in predicting satisfactory holiday experiences and destination loyalty. Results of the structural equation modeling show that positive emotional and cognitive bonds with a place could indeed affect an individual's critical assessment of a destination and his/her loyalty to the place. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Extending and adapting the concept of quality management for museums and cultural heritage attractions: A comparative study of southern European cultural heritage managers' perceptions

Quality in cultural heritage attractions is mainly approached from the visitors' satisfaction perspective, and the literature does not contain a clear definition of quality in the management of cultural heritage sites open to the public. The present study aims to reframe this trend. By way of theoretical contribution, we propose a definition of quality in cultural heritage attractions management based on dimensions such as the capacity of preserving the cultural assets, the ability to communicate effectively their significance, the quality of commodification for visitor use, and the ability to boost intercultural competence and promote intercultural dialogue. Based on the above, an empirical, qualitative study was conducted on the cultural heritage managers' current perceptions of quality. The results suggest that a profound asymmetry exists among practitioners' opinions and practices, and four types of cultural heritage managers were defined with regard to their perception of quality: Reactionary, Reticent, Pragmatic, Enthusiastic.     

Recovery,risk and resilience: Post-disaster tourism experiences in Kaikōura,New Zealand

Tourists are essential to a destination's social and economic recovery following disaster, reducing future risk and enhancing resilience. Drawing on the results of visitor surveys in Kaikōura, New Zealand, we analyse visitors' experiences and their consideration of natural hazard risk and response abilities in relation to a damaging earthquake in the region in 2016. Despite widespread national media and significant disruption, findings suggest the disaster had very little impact on visitors' perceptions and experiences and did not translate into greater preparedness. Instead, tourists reported only limited knowledge about what to do or where to go in the event of a natural hazard event. Results suggest tourists' resilience – and Kaikōura's resilience as a whole – would be enhanced by improving knowledge sharing and awareness building. Furthermore, by considering tourists as part of a linked social-ecological system, targeted interventions to improve understanding of natural hazards can support long-term recovery trajectories and minimize future losses.     

Why Do First-Time and Repeat Visitors Patronize a Destination?

Most studies of tourists' destination choices have either focused on how to attract more tourists or on developing stable relationships with existing ones. Therefore, the fit of a conceptual model incorporating relational (destination attachment) and transactional (destination image) antecedents to patronizing intentions (revisit, recommend, and resist change) was tested on a sample of first-time visitors and on a sample of repeat visitors to a hot spring destination in Taiwan. The findings indicated that first-time visitors' intentions to patronize the destination were mainly affected by destination image and that repeat visitors' intentions to patronize the destination were primarily affected by destination attachment. These findings highlight the importance of destination attachment and destination image in predicting tourists' patronizing intentions and future behavior, and reveal that researchers have overlooked that the antecedents of tourists' patronizing intentions differ depending on the type of relationship they have with the destination. As a result, this study provides compelling evidence for the need to clearly situate studies of destination choice in the transactional-relational continuum and questions the generalizability of previously published work that neglects to do so.