The Symbolic Consumption of Cultural Quarters

Abstract

Cultural tourism destinations, such as cultural quarters, have become an important part of postmodern society because tourists are more interested in cultural tourism than they have been in the past. The purpose of this research is to examine tourists' cultural quarters revisit or recommendation intentions. Building on self-congruity theory, this research incorporates a "cultural contact" variable into symbolic consumption in the tourism destination brands model to examine tourists' cultural quarters revisit or recommendation intentions. In total, 400 Taiwanese tourists were recruited. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the proposed model. The results demonstrate that ideal self-congruence, brand identification, lifestyle congruence, and cultural contact influence tourists' satisfaction, which in turn affects their behavioral intentions. In addition, cultural contact positively moderates the relationship between satisfaction and intentions. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed in the context of the cultural tourism literature.