The role of travel experience in the structural relationships among tourists’ perceived image,satisfaction,and behavioral intentions

Abstract

The theoretical relationships among tourists’ perceived destination image, satisfaction, and future behavioral intentions are very important for the tourism industry and have been studied by many scholars. This paper examines how these relationships differ for tourists with different travel experiences by studying 514 Mainland Chinese outbound travelers to Macau. The conceptual model incorporates the exogenous formative concept of perceived image and the endogenous reflective concept of visitor satisfaction as well as the visitors’ behavioral intentions. This study not only verifies the conceptual schema in three assumed relationships but also confirms that the importance of perceived image for satisfaction is higher for first-time visitors than it is for returning visitors. The confirmative measure model reveals that the dimension of ‘leisure activities’ contributes the most to the overall destination image. Finally, suggestions for tourism development organizations are provided based on the findings of this study.