Abstract
Individuals feel connected to places for various reasons: family life, religious significance, social meaning or storytelling. A prevalent view in the place attachment scholarship is that place bonds evolve in tandem with the amount of time spent in a place. However, visiting a travel destination for a few days can also engender attachment based on the cultural importance of the place, its recreational benefits and/or the quality of the social interaction experienced there. Importantly, recent studies have found evidence for place attachment developed not only by repeat tourists, but also first-time visitors. Existing research, though, has not yet explored the nature of the destination attachment developed in a short versus a prolonged period of time. Hence, the present study fills this knowledge gap by comparing the antecedents of destination attachment of first time versus repeat tourists in a Spanish travel destination, namely: sensory appeal and affective experience. Data was collected via a face-to-face survey of 513 international tourists. To test the hypothesized relationships partial least square equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used and the MICOM procedure for estimating the moderating effect of the previous experience variable was applied. The results reveal a stronger association between sensory appeal and destination attachment in the case of first timers, while the positive emotional experience has a greater impact on the attachment of repeat tourists. Furthermore, place dependence contributes more to the formation of destination attachment for repeat tourists in comparison to first time visitors for whom place identity is more significant.
Presenters
Daniela BuzovaLecturer, Marketing, University of Valencia, Spain Silvia Sanz Blas
Associate Professor, Marketing in the Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Spain
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Changing Dimensions of Contemporary Tourism
KEYWORDS
Place attachment, Sensory appeal, Affect, Destination, Previous experience
