Examining the mediating role of festival visitors’ satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions

Abstract

Although tourism studies have shown that improved service quality will contribute to increased visitor satisfaction, and both of them influence visitors’ future behavioral intentions, there is still a lack of guidance in the tourism marketing literature in understanding the interrelationships among service quality, visitor satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Findings on the mediating role of visitor satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions are mixed, and thus it needs further investigation. This study adopted Cole and Scott’s1 touristexperience model, which portrays a sequential pattern among performance quality/attribute-level service quality, experience quality/transactionlevel satisfaction, overall satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. The model was tested using data collected from 413 visitors to a rural heritage festival. Structural equation modeling analysis procedures were applied and the mediating role of transaction-level satisfaction and global-level satisfaction was confirmed. In addition, experience quality was found to have a direct impact on visitors’ future behavioral intentions. The practical implications for festival organizers and limitations of the study were discussed.