Gaming and non-gaming memorable tourism experiences: How do they influence young and mature tourists’ behavioural intentions?

Abstract

Many gaming tourist destinations are now tending to provide more non-gaming activities to evolve their image for diversifying their tourism market. When tourists visit a gaming tourist destination, they can obtain memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) from both gaming and non-gaming activities. However, previous studies on MTEs have only focused on all memorable experiences as a whole. This study aims to construct a research model that links gaming MTEs and non-gaming MTEs with the destination image, overall satisfaction, and behavioural intentions to understand how gaming MTEs and non-gaming MTEs work together to influence tourists' behaviours. The results of this study indicate that non-gaming MTEs have a stronger impact than gaming MTEs on the destination image, both gaming and non-gaming MTEs influence tourists' revisit intention, but gaming MTEs have no significant influence on overall satisfaction and word-of-mouth. This study then applies multi-group analysis to compare the results from two age groups. The results indicate that gaming MTEs do not influence the young group's perception of the destination image. This study helps gaming destinations to establish marketing strategies by providing non-gaming MTEs to build a positive destination image and word-of-mouth publicity. It also recommends that casino operators enhance their gaming MTEs to attract repeat visitors.