Abstract
The concepts of destination image and tourists’ loyalty are sufficiently discussed in the literature; however, due to the multi-dimensional character of these two concepts, the existing studies fail to shed light on the multifaceted linkage between destination image and loyalty. This research displays an innovative way of measuring tourists’ loyalty by creating a composite loyalty index that represents both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. The index allows for a distinction between different levels of tourists loyalty to be made in order to establish the impact of both cognitive and affective destination image dimensions on loyalty. The findings reveal that the better the image, the higher the composite loyalty. Specifically, destination’s affective image is more influential on tourists’ loyalty than destination’s cognitive image.
Highlights
Over the past decades, many small and medium sized towns believed to have found a “savior” in the form of tourism development as a major source of economic benefits, along with improved local communities’ quality of life (Dumont et al, 2010)
There are insufficient studies that adequately address the relationship between destination loyalty and other tourism-related constructs such as destination image (Assaker et al, 2011; Chang et al, 2015; Chen & Phou 2013; Chi & Qu, 2008; Lee et al, 2007; Ramseook-Munhurrun et al, 2015) despite its well-recognized influence on visitors’ preferences as it is widely acknowledged in the tourism literature that travellers make their decisions based on the mental images they have of places (Cronch, 2011; Leisen, 2001; Stepchenkova & Eales, 2011)
By cross-tabulating the recommendation and revisit dimensions the following table was produced: The revisit and recommendation dimensions scores were added for each individual, which resulted in a destination loyalty index ranging from 0 to 2
Summary
Many small and medium sized towns believed to have found a “savior” in the form of tourism development as a major source of economic benefits, along with improved local communities’ quality of life (Dumont et al, 2010). There are insufficient studies that adequately address the relationship between destination loyalty and other tourism-related constructs such as destination image (Assaker et al, 2011; Chang et al, 2015; Chen & Phou 2013; Chi & Qu, 2008; Lee et al, 2007; Ramseook-Munhurrun et al, 2015) despite its well-recognized influence on visitors’ preferences as it is widely acknowledged in the tourism literature that travellers make their decisions based on the mental images they have of places (Cronch, 2011; Leisen, 2001; Stepchenkova & Eales, 2011). The paper has the following objectives: 1) to compare and contrast the different types and nuances of tourist loyalty, 2) to design and implement a composite loyalty index consisting of both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty and 3) to explore the nature of the relationship between cognitive and affective destination image dimensions and visitors’ composite loyalty
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