Edu-tourists’ loyalty to university town: field evidence from North Cyprus

ABSTRACT

Focusing on educational tourism (Edu-tourism) in Northern Cyprus, this study analysed the effects from different university-related variables such as university-related antecedent, town-related Information, town-related offerings, and town-related facility on Edu-tourists’ (international students) town loyalty through university reputation, student town reputation, student town satisfaction and the effect of switching cost on student town satisfaction. Knowing that Edu-tourism has become an alternative form of tourism, especially in island states. In total, a sample size of 250 international students at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) was surveyed. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. The results revealed that town reputation, influenced by university reputation and student town satisfaction plays a crucial role in students’ town loyalty.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• student loyalty
• switching cost
• edutourism
• northern cyprus

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Habib Alipour

Habib Alipour, Ph.D., is Professor of Tourism Policy and Planning at the Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. His research interests include tourism planning, institutional analysis, sustainable tourism, policy analysis, and critical tourism research. He is the topic editor of ”Sustainability”. He has published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Tourism Management and the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research.

Hossein G. T. Olya

Hossein G. T. Olya, Ph.D., is Professor of Tourism and head of Marketing and Cultural/Creative Industries (Interim) at Sheffield University Management School, UK. His current research interests include innovative methodology in tourism, consumer behaviour analysis, environmental impact assessment, and complexity theory application. He has published articles in several journals such as International Journal of HospitalityManagement and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and Tourism Management.

Moh’d Juma Abdalla

Moh’d Juma Abdalla, is Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. His current research interests focused on tourism, hospitality, tourism informal economy, marketing and research methods.

Elham Hesaraki

Elham Hesaraki, is Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. Her research interests include tourism planning, pilgrimage tourism, and special interest tourism. Presently, she is working on the environmental impact of pilgrimage tourism.