The impact of destination involvement on travelers\u27 revisit intentions

Dramatic change occurred in the emphasis of travelers\u27 purchase types. While the traditional emphasis on sales maintains its status, repeat purchasing or repeat travel demonstrates great potentials in terms of its size and economic contribution. However, the repeat travel market, particularly the international market, has been understudied. Theoretically, this study was built upon the theories of consumer decision processes and the purchase-consumption feedback loop particularly in consumer behavior, leisure, and tourism studies. It was found that travelers\u27 decision processes do not cease once the trip in a destination is completed, instead their experiences with the destination will have an impact on their decisions on future visitation and the post-evaluation of the destination mediates between their present visit experiences and their revisits intentions. The structure of destination involvement was applied to explain the complicated process of travel experience as a relationship between a traveler and a destination. The causal relationship of destination involvement and repeat visit intentions was assessed via the mediation of satisfaction in the context of long-haul pleasure travel. The validity of the causal relationship provides a reliable theoretical foundation for the destination marketers to segment the potential repeat travel market and predict the travelers\u27 revisit potentials based on their destination involvement profiles during their current or recent visits in the destination. Given the key destination involvement variables, the destination marketers will be able to categorize the travelers, detect their influential facets in their involvement profile, and predict their revisit intentions. Therefore, the results of this study should be of interest to researchers engaging in involvement studies and investigation of travelers\u27 decision processes, and to practitioners who want to know more about the repeat travel market