How Previous Visits Shape Trip Quality, Perceived Value, Satisfaction, and Future Behavioral Intentions: The Case of Forest-Based Ecotourism in Sri Lanka

Abstract

A better understanding on relationships between future behavioural intentions and its antecedents allow ecotourism operators to manipulate their ecotourism products to optimize customer satisfaction, and improve marketing efforts. Although the relationship between previous visits and future behavioural intentions have been previously studied, less attention has been given on understanding the process of how previous visits interact with other key determinants of behavioural intentions such as trip quality, perceived value, and satisfaction to form future behavioural intentions. This study proposes a model to examine the role of previous visits in predicting future behavioural intentions to participate in ecotourism, and the relationship between previous visits and future behavioural intentions is modelled in a quality-satisfaction domain. Results suggest previous visits, trip quality, satisfaction and perceived value as important predictors of ecotourists’ intention to revisit and recommend the destination, as well as their propensity to engage in ecotourism in the future. Trip quality was the most important determinant of future ecotourism behavioural intentions. Implications of the study are discussed in the perspective of ecotourism marketing.