Antecedents of loyalty toward rural hospitality enterprises: The moderating effect of the customer's previous experience

This paper aims to identify the consumer behavior variables and the moderating effect of customers’ previous experience that generate greater customer loyalty toward rural hospitality enterprises. A model is proposed that encompasses the moderating effect of customer experience on the relationships between: the functional and affective perceived value of the firm's offer; the firm's reputation; and customer satisfaction – and the effect of these variables on loyalty-driven behaviors (recommendation and repurchase intentions). The work finds that functional and affective perceived value influence reputation and satisfaction, and that this effect is moderated by the customer's experience. When they have prior experience of the firm, affective perceived value takes precedence over functional perceived value. However, functional perceived value constitutes the most valued element when customers are using the services of the firm for the first time. Reputation and satisfaction are also found to contribute to the generation of better recommendation and repurchase intentions.     

Linking Website Interactivity to Consumer Behavioral Intention in an Online Travel Community: The Mediating Role of Utilitarian Value and Online Trust

Although prior studies have shown that perceived website interactivity plays an important role in positive behavioral intentions of online customers, the underlying psychological mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of utilitarian value and online trust in relationship between perceived website interactivity and repurchase intention in an online travel community. Data were collected from 227 customers who had purchased travel-related products on any online travel website within the past 12 months. The empirical results supported all study hypotheses. As predicted, utilitarian value and online trust fully mediate the relationship between perceived website interactivity and repurchase intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

An examination of the effects of motivation on visitors' loyalty: case study of the Golestan Palace,Tehran

This study investigates a causal relationship between three motivational dimensions, three evaluative constructs (perceived value, experience quality and satisfaction) and destination loyalty. A total of 389 respondents completed a survey conducted at a main World Heritage Site - Golestan Palace- in Tehran. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, the results show that the effect of motivation on loyalty occurs by its certain dimension(s), through mediating evaluative variables. That is, the quality of experience has a direct effect on perceived value and perceived value has a direct effect on satisfaction and an indirect effect on loyalty. Satisfaction also has a direct effect on loyalty. The findings are expected to help heritage managers understand heritage visitors and adopt effective marketing strategies for target segments.     

Authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants

The literature on ethnic theme restaurants has already shown that patrons of such restaurants often wish to experience authentic ethnic culture, and customer satisfaction correlates with authenticity. This study examines the relationship between importance and performance of perceptions of authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants, and attempts to verify the influence of authentic dining experiences on repurchase intention in ethnic theme restaurants. After designing questionnaire content and sampling, this study obtained 538 samples. The analytical results show that authentic dining experiences effectively indicate customer repurchase intention. This study thus concludes that to attract more customers, ethnic theme restaurants should improve their service, settings, and food to provide customers a more authentic dining experience.     

A holistic view of the service experience at coffee franchises: A cross-cultural study

Service quality alone is no longer a sustainable advantage in today's competitive hospitality industry, and marketers are paying more attention to strategically managing the customer's experience. The purpose of this study is to examine the customer service experience from a holistic standpoint, and further consider how different components of the customer service experience influence perceived value, attitudes, and loyalty at coffee franchises. Further, this study conducts a comparative analysis to find the similarities and differences that exist cross-culturally between Americans and Koreans. This study develops a self-administered questionnaire for data collection: we adopt a convenience sampling method and collected data at two Starbucks franchises and two Coffee Bean franchises in both Seoul, South Korea, and Miami, US. Further, the study implements structural equational modeling to analyze the data. Overall, the results support the study hypotheses, and indicate that nationality has a moderating effect on the relation between the latent variables.     

Self-congruity and flow as antecedents of attitude and loyalty towards a theme park brand

Brand loyalty is believed to be a sustainable advantage for theme parks. Since theme parks represent a man-made environment purposefully built for specialized market segments, studying factors that lead to brand loyalty for theme park products is of strategic importance. These factors have yet to be identified in the current literature, however. Recognizing the potential influence of self-congruity and flow in the theme park consumption experience, and thus its influence on loyalty, the current study investigated the effect of these constructs on visitor attitude and loyalty towards a theme park brand. The results revealed that both self-congruity and flow are the antecedents of visitor attitude and brand loyalty. The theoretical contributions of this study, as well as managerial implications concerning image projection, branding strategy, and park experience design, are discussed.     

Tourist experience quality and loyalty to an island destination: the moderating impact of destination image

This study aims to explore the relationships among tourist experience quality, perceived value, perceived price reasonableness, tourist satisfaction with tour experience, and loyalty to an island destination by considering the moderating effect of destination image. The survey was distributed in person at an international airport. The findings revealed that tourists’ involvement with tours is the core of perceived value and price reasonableness, which increases tourists’ satisfaction. Perceived value is a stronger mediator between involvement and satisfaction than perceived price reasonableness. The moderating effect of island image is also uncovered. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed based on the findings.     

Make a loyal visitor: a study of leisure experience at Farglory corporate museum in Taiwan

Modern museum operation has evolved from simply providing the public with cultural and historical information to becoming a part of the tourism and leisure industry that provides “edutainment.” In response to intense competition and challenges, museums now place a strong focus on customer experience to elevate their appeal. Targeting newly established corporate museums, this study investigates the relationship between customer leisure motivation, leisure experience, and customer loyalty intention by using a structural equation modelling method. The results show that leisure experience mediates the effect of leisure motivation on loyalty intention. In other words, customer leisure motivation can lead to customer loyalty intention through leisure experience. The results further reveal that act experience dimension provided by corporate museums had significant effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The relationship between white-water rafting experience formation and customer reaction: a flow theory perspective

White-water rafting is an exciting form of water adventure that not only satisfies the need of tourists to interact with nature, but also represents an invigorating recreational experience, thereby explaining why it has become a popular adventure tourism activity in Taiwan. Although a few studies have analyzed multiple tourist tourism experiences, there is still a lack of research adopting the flow experience perspective to understand tourist motivations when participating in rafting activities. Therefore, this study adopts the concept of flow experience to examine the relationships among experience antecedents, flow experience and result variables. The statistical results show that tourist rafting skill, level of challenge of rafting activity and playfulness significantly and positively influence tourist flow experience that, in turn, promotes a positive mood and satisfaction. Moreover, tourist satisfaction significantly and positively influences tourist loyalty. Finally, the research findings and theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Do Loyalty Groups Differ in the Role of Trust in Online Tourism Shopping? A Process Perspective

Today, Internet use is becoming increasingly prevalent, and people all over the world are shopping online with increasing frequency. While much of the current literature tends to focus on the dependent variable of loyalty on online tourism shopping, this study draws heavily on the moderating role of loyalty. In particular, this study aims to examine the relationships among perceived security, website properties, navigational functionality, trust, and satisfaction, as well as to use a process theory to investigate the differences in these constructs between low- and high-loyalty groups. The results of this study reveal that perceived security, website properties, and navigational functionality significantly and positively affected trust. In addition, loyalty was found to reinforce the relationships among perceived security, website properties, navigational functionality, and trust.     

Examining relationships among perceived benefit,tourist experience and satisfaction: the context of intelligent sharing bicycle

Intelligent sharing bicycle has been a new fashion in China and appeals to more and more tourists. To better understand the experience of tourists traveling on sharing bicycle, this study explored the influence of perceived benefit of sharing bicycle on different perceived experiences, including escape, entertainment, esthetic and educational experiences. The relationships between these experiences and perceived satisfaction were also tested. An effective questionnaire survey was conducted for 296 tourists in Chengdu, China. The results of the study show that perceived benefit significantly relates to all the four dimensions of experience. However, only entertainment and esthetic experience seem to affect tourist satisfaction in this context. The relationship among educational experience, escape experience and tourist satisfaction are insignificant. Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed for further research.     

Welcoming host,cozy house? The impact of service attitude on sensory experience

Shared accommodations (e.g., Airbnb) are growing rapidly with ever-increasing attention given to the features of the home decoration style and a homely atmosphere. Similar to an old saying, “Love me, Love my dog”, it has been established that the perception of hosts’ service quality is integrated with customers’ evaluations of house amenities. However, little is known about the influence of service attitude (how it is perceived by guests) on customers’ sensory experience, which is key to their loyalty and satisfaction. Through a pilot study analyzing guest houses’ online reviews, two experiments as well as a survey, service attitude (i.e., enthusiasm and hospitality) was found to be positively associated with customers’ sensory experience. In this process, home-like feelings acted as the mediator, sincerity served as a moderator, and only sincere enthusiasm and hospitality helped promote the home-like feeling for customers. This study sheds light on the customer sensory experience management of shared accommodations from the embodied cognition perspective.     

Understanding culinary tourist motivation,experience, satisfaction,and loyalty using a structural approach

Research on culinary tourism lacks an empirical examination of the relationship between motivation, experience, satisfaction, and loyalty. Drawing on the extant literature, this paper examines the relationships between antecedents and outcomes of culinary tourist participation in cooking classes using a structural equation modelling approach. Based on a convenience sample of 300 international tourists at cooking schools in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the structural model confirmed direct and indirect interrelationships among four main constructs of the study. It was found that culinary tourists’ motivation positively influences both the culinary experience and satisfaction; and that the culinary tourist experience is positively associated with both culinary tourist satisfaction and loyalty, suggesting that the more tourists are motivated to participate in cooking classes, the more experiential value and satisfaction are perceived. Moreover, the more experiences encountered at the cooking class, the more satisfied and loyal the tourists become. Understanding the key motivators and elements of satisfaction in cooking classes can contribute to the achieving of sustainable destination loyalty. The findings are relevant to Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) as part of developing sustainable strategies that are in line with specific culinary needs and experiences of cooking class participants.     

Examining the impact of experiential value on emotions,self-connective attachment,and brand loyalty in Korean family restaurants

ABSTRACT

This study examines how experiential value as perceived by customers of Korean family restaurants influences consumption emotions, self-connective attachment to the restaurant brand, and, ultimately, brand loyalty. Having conducted a comprehensive literature review, the study proposes and estimates a model that specifies the interrelationships among four dimensions of experiential value (i.e., atmosphere, escapism, customer return on investment, and service excellence), and latent variables of positive and negative emotions, self-connective attachment, and brand loyalty. Analysis with structural equation modeling was conducted with data collected from customers of family restaurants in South Korea. The results show that dimensions of experiential value influence either positive or negative emotions. The emotion variables, together with self-connective attachment, also mediate the relationships between perceived value of dining experience and brand loyalty.     

The Relationships Between Casino Quality,Image, Value,and Loyalty

This research builds on the idea that casino customers’ subjective, global judgments of service quality are shaped by experience of its specific attributes, and examines how casino customers form their evaluative attitudes toward the casino experience in the Macau context. Using the data collected from 525 Macau casino customers, we first identify four casino quality dimensions; namely, supporting facilities, staff service, diversity, and equitableness. We then test and validate a proposed model for the structural relationships between casino image (as a consequence of the four quality dimensions), value, and loyalty. In particular, value is shown to be a mediator of the relationship between image and loyalty from the perspective of casino customers. The results of our study can show Macau casino operators what constitutes customers’ casino experiences and aid them in enhancing their image, perceived value, and customer loyalty toward casinos.     

Understanding repurchase intention of Airbnb consumers: perceived authenticity,electronic word-of-mouth,and price sensitivity

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to extend the research on consumer repurchase intention, perceived value, and perceived risk into the realm of the peer-to-peer economy, specifically in the context of Airbnb. A total of 395 surveys were collected in Canada and the United States. The results showed that perceived risk negatively impacts Airbnb consumers’ perceived value and repurchase intention while perceived value positively enhances their repurchase intention. Interestingly, price sensitivity was found not to reduce customers’ perceived risk but can improve their perceived value and positively influences them to repurchase the Airbnb products. Perceived authenticity was found to have a significant effect in reducing Airbnb consumers’ perceived risk and positively influencing their perceived value. Electronic word-of-mouth has a positive effect on repurchase intention as well as perceived value whereas it negatively affects perceived risk. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and future study directions are offered.     

网红短视频传播对消费者旅游态度的影响——以丁真走红现象为例

短视频网红宣传对旅游地知名度的提升起到重要作用。文章综合信源吸引力模型、信源可靠性理论和心流理论,探究短视频传播的网红特质对受众观看短视频时的专注度、快乐度、身临其境感和心流体验的作用,以及对受众想要去短视频宣传地的旅游态度的影响。通过问卷调研,收集558份有效样本,并构建了网红个人魅力影响受众心流体验和旅游态度的结构方程模型,进行路径分析和中介效应检验。研究发现:网红包括吸引力、可信度和受欢迎度在内的个人特质显著影响受众观看短视频的快乐度、专注度和身临其境感,促使受众产生心流体验,继而影响受众对网红相关地区的旅游态度。该研究对于借力短视频、网红经济等数字媒介环境下的新兴传播形式开发旅游资源,提升旅游知名度具有一定实践参考价值。     

How does authenticity enhance flow experience through perceived value and involvement: the moderating roles of innovation and cultural identity

This study provided a new multiple mediation-moderation model to explore how authenticity may enhance the flow experience through the function of perceived value and involvement. Data from 605 tourists were collected, and the results indicate that cognition (i.e. perceived value) and behavior (i.e. involvement) of tourists is an important mechanism linking the relationship between authenticity and flow experience. Moreover, this study also finds that innovation and culture are two critical moderators, which offers evidence that the flow experience will be enhanced when the tourists have a higher level of innovation and cultural identity.     

Examining the Effect of Tour Guide Performance,Tourist Trust,Tourist Satisfaction,and Flow Experience on Tourists' Shopping Behavior

This study contributes to a model describing the effect of tour guide performance on tourist shopping behavior by examining the mediating effects of perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of flow experience. Our analysis confirms that tour guide performance has positive effects on perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction. However, only perceived benevolence trust and tourist satisfaction mediate the relationships between tour guide performance and tourist shopping behavior. Nevertheless, tour guide performance, as evaluated through perceived credibility trust and tourist satisfaction, has the strongest effect on tourist shopping behavior when compared to other routes in the model. In addition, the moderating effect of flow experience is confirmed in the perceived benevolence trust and tourist shopping behavior relationship, but it does not have any effects on other links. In light of our findings, managerial implications are discussed as well.     

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.