Social Exchange and Destination Loyalty: The Case of Thessaloniki International Fair and the Concept of Honored Countries

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the factors that contribute to the formation of destination loyalty of trade fair exhibitors, through the perspective of social exchange theory. The study was conducted on the exhibitors of the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (T.I.F.) from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) who visited the city within the framework of the Honored Country concept. Results showed that the concept of the Honored Country is closely related to destination loyalty, while the relationship between satisfaction with trade fair participation (TFS) and destination loyalty (DL) was noted. Moreover, the relationship between social exchange theory - trust (T) and visitors’ satisfaction (VS) - and destination loyalty (DL) was also noted.