Antecedents and consequences of place attachment: A comparison of Chinese and Western urban tourists in Hangzhou, China

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this paper is to understand the antecedents of place attachment and the causal relationship between place attachment and destination loyalty after controlling for a set of factors including perceived destination attractiveness, activity involvement, tourist satisfaction and motivation among urban tourists. Using tourist survey data collected in Hangzhou, China, a historical city, we estimate two structural equation models—one for Western tourists and one for domestic tourists. The results suggest that although place attachment is a significant antecedent of destination loyalty, its impact is smaller than that of tourist satisfaction. Moreover, activity involvement, satisfaction, perceived attractiveness, and motivation are statistically significant in shaping tourists' place attachment. Differences in the model estimates for the Western and domestic subsamples can be attributed to cultural differences.