Linking the dots among destination images, place attachment, and revisit intentions: A study among British and Russian tourists. (June 2017) - Stylos, Nikolaos
Abstract: Limited evidence suggests that the incorporation of both image components (cognitive, affective, and conative) and holistic image is meaningful for predicting tourists' revisit intentions. Extending this line of research, the present study aims to unravel the relative influence that each component of image has directly and indirectly, via holistic image, on revisit intentions. In doing so, we incorporate two national samples (British and Russians) of diverse tourist profile and significantly different levels of visitation frequency to investigate place attachment as a moderator. Evidence from 1362 British and 1164 Russian tourists indicated that all image components have a positive indirect effect on revisit intention via holistic image, while conative has also a direct one. As expected, the image components rank differently for British and Russian tourists. The indirect effects of destination images on revisit intention, except conative, are conditional and, interestingly, most of these are stronger for tourists with low PA. Graphical abstract: Highlights: All three image components and holistic image are crucial for predicting tourist revisit intention. The relative importance of image components differs between British and Russian tourists. Holistic image mediates the effect of image components on revisit intention. Place attachment moderates the effects of images on revisit intention.