Antecedents to religious festival visitors loyalty: the role of memorable experiences, religious faith, emotion and satisfaction

Abstract

This work provides a perspective into how visitors on-site memorable religious experience and their religious faith influence positive emotional and overall satisfaction with events and their behavioral loyalty. To test the model, a survey was used to collect data from visitors who attended this event during the 2018 Paryaya festival in Udupi Sri Krishna Temple held in Udupi, India. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model based on a sample of 744 festival attendees. Results indicated that religious faith predicts overall satisfaction, positive emotion, and loyalty. Positive emotion positively influences overall satisfaction but failed to predict loyalty behavior. The effect of overall satisfaction on loyalty was significant. This study sheds light on the process whereby the visitor's loyalty to religious events places is shaped by overall satisfaction and positive emotions experienced on-site, as well as memorable religious experience and religious faith. Implications for both theory and practice exist.