Place identity plays an important role in differentiating tourist destination and obtaining more competitive advantages over other destinations. In this sense, the purpose of this study is to draw place identity factors which were perceived by visitor...
Place identity plays an important role in differentiating tourist destination and obtaining more competitive advantages over other destinations. In this sense, the purpose of this study is to draw place identity factors which were perceived by visitors to Insa-dong and examine the relationship between place identity and multi-dimensional loyalty in the context of the Insa-dong cultural district. To this end, an onsite survey was conducted to tourists who visited the Insa-dong cultural district during weekdays and weekends from November 14 to 20, 2011. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to delineate the underlying dimensions of place identity and structural equation modeling approach was implemented to examine the relationships among place identity, and cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty. The results of explanatory factor analysis revealed that Insa-dong identity was delineated into two dimensions: cultural identity and traditional identity. The results of structural equation modeling approach also showed that two Insa-dong identity factors (cultural, traditional) had an effect on cognitive loyalty. Specifically, cultural identity had a strong effect on cognitive loyalty as compare to traditional identity. Furthermore, it was found that cognitive loyalty had positively significant impact on affective loyalty which in turn, influenced on conative loyalty, whereas there were indirect relationships among two identity, affective loyalty, and conative loyalty. Based on the findings, academic and practical implications were provided to maintain Insa-dong identity.