Pet attachment, experiential satisfaction and experiential loyalty in medical tourism for pets

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the relationships between the dimensions of pet attachment, experiential satisfaction and the dimensions of experiential loyalty. The data used in this study were based on a convenience sample of 425 owners who had an act of travel of bringing their pets from their home country to France for medical treatment in one of the largest and most diverse small animal referral hospitals in France, indicating that the proposed model fitted the data. The results indicate (a) positive effects of pet identity, pet dependence, pet social bonding and experiential involvement on experiential satisfaction; and (b) a positive effect of experiential satisfaction on experiential commitment, experiential trust and experiential word-of-mouth, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• France
• pet attachment
• experiential satisfaction
• experiential loyalty
• owners

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hung-Che Wu

Hung-Che Wu is an Independent Researcher. He received his PhD in marketing from Lincoln University and published his works in various reputed international journals of tourism, hospitality, leisure, sports, events, marketing, planning, economics and finance, business, agriculture and, food services. His research interests include green marketing, experiential marketing, hospitality management, service quality, customer satisfaction and consumer behaviour.

Ya-Yuan Chang

Ya-Yuan Chang is an Assistant Professor at the department of Hospitality Management in Ming Chuan University, Taiwan. She received her PhD in business administration from National Chung Hsing University. She has published her works in various reputed international journals that focus on tourism, hospitality, leisure, sports, food, planning, business and communication. Her research interests focus on service quality management, marketing management and consumer behaviour.