Investigating the effects of tourist engagement on satisfaction and loyalty

ABSTRACT

This paper examine the concept of tourist engagement modeled as a second-order composite in the context of a heritage destination in Malaysia. In doing so, this study investigates the direct and indirect effects of tourist engagement through satisfaction on destination loyalty. Data was collected from tourists visiting Kinabalu National Park, Sabah, Malaysia. To investigate tourist engagement, this study employs confirmatory composite analysis in combination with the latest version of partial least squares- path modeling (PLS-PM) known as consistent partial least squares. The findings strongly support to model tourist engagement as a second-order composite and show a strong positive effect for tourist engagement on satisfaction and tourists’ destination loyalty. Moreover, a strong indirect effect of tourist engagement on loyalty through satisfaction is revealed. This study has a number of practical implications for local authorities to sustain tourism development in the Kinabalu National Park.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist engagement
• satisfaction
• loyalty
• composite construct
• confirmatory composite analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7138-0280

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to extend their appreciation to the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for the grant entitled Small Heritage Tourism Destination: An Explanatory Model of Small Heritage Tourism Experience [grant number 203.PCOMM.6711579] that makes this paper possible.