Examining the Antecedents of Destination Loyalty in a Forest Setting

Abstract

Loyalty has become a critical part of leisure research due to increasing competition in the field and the recognition of the importance of loyal visitors. To further develop loyalty research, this study looks at the issue of destination loyalty in a forest setting. It specifically focuses on revealing the formation of attitudinal, conative, and behavioral loyalty and the relationship between destination loyalty and related concepts that influence the strength of loyalty: service quality, satisfaction, and activity involvement. Six hypotheses were tested to represent the relationships among six factors. Forest recreationists who perceive high service quality tend to have high satisfaction and activity involvement that lead to destination loyalty. The findings also substantiated the conceptual framework of loyalty formation.

Keywords:

• activity involvement
• destination loyalty
• satisfaction
• service quality

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the U.S. Forest Service, region 6, for its financial support.

Notes

*Interval variable.

**Reverse coded.

*p < 0.001.