From Enchantment to Action: How Tourists’ Experiences Drive Revisit Intention

Abstract

Considering the increasing trends of traveller’s visiting various destinations, it is critical to investigate the role of customer experience and experience quality in promoting revisiting destination to boost the business particularly for beach cities. Therefore, the present study examines the role of customer experience (CE) in explaining the revisit intention (RI) of tourists to re-visit the destination and attempts to assess the effect of experience quality (EQ), perceived value (PV), and customer satisfaction (CSAT) as mediators. The inter-relationships, which are based on strong theoretical underpinning of Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory and Extended Theory of Planned Behavior, are investigated using a multi-dimensional and hierarchical approach, resulting in a model fit. This study employed a survey-based design by collecting responses from 634 respondents who has recently visited destinations for leisure. PLS-SEM was employed to assess the model fit and path coefficients. The study found that CX significantly influences the behavioral intention of customers to re-visit the destination which was recently visited. Further, the research does not find significant mediation between EQ and CSAT to RI. However, a PV significantly mediates between CE and behavioral intention. This study adds value to service marketing theory in numerous ways. First, it reveals the effect of CE on RI; second, it establishes that all mediators play a significant role in improving the effect of customer experience over revisit destination. Considering the significant findings, this research also supports managers in designing and implementing market-oriented strategies to enhance CE from the destination, thereby positively affecting RI of the destination.