The Application of Evaluative Congruity Theory in Destination Loyalty

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanism of loyalty formation in a tourist destination context and to learn through what paths loyalty is influenced by its exogenous determinants. Toward this purpose, this study provides an illustrative example of how a research model of destination loyalty may be extended based on evaluative congruity theory that helps obtain insights into marketing. Although the significant influence of satisfaction on loyalty is not new and has been already confirmed in the previous literature, only a few research studies have tried to explore the mediating effects between satisfaction and loyalty. More specifically, the empirical results of this study indicate that post-visit image is an important consequence of overall satisfaction and a critical antecedent of destination loyalty. This study concludes that it would be fruitful for researchers to focus on the development of image formation to better understand customer loyalty decisions.