Causal model of relationship between destination image, tourist loyalty, visit intention : the mediating role of satisfaction and word of mouth.

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Attar institute

Abstract

Abstract
In today's era, tourism has expanded more and has become a more powerful industry in the world, which strongly affects the economy of a country. It is also associated with several other departments such as advertising, sales, product contracts, sponsorships and business organizations. This study aimed to investigate the effect of destination image on tourist loyalty and visit intention: testing a multiple mediation approach. This research was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of method and correlational nature. The statistical population of this research is made up of all the tourists who refer to the religious, cultural and historical city of Mashhad during the research period. According to the table of Karjesi and Morgan, the sample size is 384 people. And due to the uncertainty of society-statistics, the sampling method used in this research is non-probability. The data collection method in this research is the standardized questionnaire of Jalilund et al. (2012) to measure the variable of destination image and electronic word-of-mouth advertising, Aliman et al. (2014) to measure the variable of tourist satisfaction, Chiu et al. (2016) for to measure the variable of tourist loyalty and Su et al. (2017) to measure the variable of intention to visit. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics methods (mean, frequency percentage) using SPSS version 19 software and inferential statistics (structural equation method) using PLS software. The results showed that the image of the destination has a positive and significant effect on the satisfaction, loyalty, intention to visit and electronic word-of-mouth advertising of the historical, cultural and religious places of Mashhad city. Also, the results show the mediating role of tourists' satisfaction in the relationship between the image of the destination and the intention to visit historical, recreational and religious places in Mashhad.

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