The role of positive psychology in tourists’ behavioural intentions

Abstract

Tourists’ well-being is significant in tourism marketing as it influences behavioural intentions. Using the top-down and bottom-up theories of well-being, this study examined how travellers’ goals, memorable tourism experiences and traveller well-being influences behavioural intentions. Goals and well-being were operationalized into hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions. Data was collected from 430 recent travellers to investigate the relationship between goals, memorable tourism experiences, well-being and behavioural intentions. The results showed that goals were significantly related to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and that memorable tourism experiences mediated this relationship. The findings also showed that hedonic well-being has a significant effect on revisit intention and positive word-of-mouth, whilst eudaimonic well-being did not have a significant effect on behavioural intentions. This research makes theoretical contributions to the literature on destination loyalty and enriches the positive psychology literature. Discussion of the study findings and implications for academics and practitioners conclude the paper.