Tourists’ satisfaction with and intentions toward a nature-themed festival: The contribution of destination attributes, festival events, place attachment and life satisfaction

Abstract

Given the complicated natures of the related phenomena, this study aimed to examine the correlations among destination attributes, festival events, personal values, overall festival satisfaction, place attachment and future intentions to identify the relative importance of each factor. In order to do so, this study developed and tested a theoretical model emphasizing tourists’ overall satisfaction with their trip to a festival and their future intentions toward the festival destination. Data were collected from domestic attendees of a flower festival in Da Lat City, Vietnam (n = 278) using a structured questionnaire, and were analyzed using the structural equational modeling method. The findings revealed that the confirmation of personal values was the most important contributor to overall satisfaction, in addition to the satisfaction with destination attributes and festival events. Moreover, place attachment was the most significant antecedent of future intention to recommend and intention to return to the festival destination, together with overall satisfaction and life satisfaction. Based on the findings, several practical implications for the management and marketing of the future Da Lat Flower Festivals in the domestic market were proposed. Directions for future studies were also discussed.