The effect of place attachment on visitors’ revisit intentions: evidence from Batam

Abstract

The tourism sector is considered a vital economic driver in several countries. Consequently, tourism authorities focus much attention on the factors that could give them a competitive advantage especially in attracting repeat visitations to certain tourist destinations. The current study explores the path, environment → place attachment → revisit intention using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. The study obtained 455 responses from visitors to Batam Island in Indonesia using the convenience sampling method. This led to the formulation of hypotheses using the structural equation modeling (SEM). Novel findings are revealed. Atmosphere environment has a high positive correlation with place dependence while low positive correlation with place identity, place dependence, and place social bonding. Furthermore, the cultural environment is unimportant and insignificant in predicting place attachment. Interestingly, place attachment dimensions positively support revisit intentions. Place social binding is the most crucial feature of place attachment in revisit intentions. Thus, the findings obtained from documenting the importance of social interactions in tourism destinations are invaluable to tourism authorities, tourist practitioners, and tourism management in locating and extending tourist centers by reflecting on the physical and service environmental facilities that trigger social bonding-revisit effects. The findings shape new thinking to increase tourists’ repeat visits.

摘要

在一些国家, 旅游业被认为是一个重要的经济驱动力。因此, 旅游当局非常重视能够使他们具有竞争优势的因素, 特别是在吸引某些旅游目的地的重游方面。本研究采用刺激-组织-反应(S-O-R)模型, 探索环境→依恋位置→重游意愿的影响路径。该研究采用便利抽样的方法, 从印尼巴丹岛的游客中获得了455份问卷, 并且使用结构方程模型(SEM)检验了假设。研究表明, 大气环境与地方依赖呈高度正相关, 而与地方认同、地方依赖、地方社会联系呈低度正相关。此外, 文化环境在预测地点依恋方面并不显著。有趣的是, 地方依恋维度正向支持重游意愿。地点社会联系是地点依恋影响重游意愿的最重要的特征。因此, 通过记录旅游目的地社会互动的重要性所得到的研究结果, 对于旅游当局、旅游从业者和旅游管理人员反思触发社会纽带-再访效应的物质和服务环境设施, 选址和扩增旅游中心是非常宝贵的。这些发现为增加游客的重游提供了新的思路。

Keywords:

• Environment
• place attachment
• revisit intention
• Batam Island
• Indonesia

关键词:

• 环境
• 地方依恋
• 重游意愿
• 巴淡岛
• 印度尼西亚

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers and editor for their detailed and helpful comments about the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Salmi Mohd Isa is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of Academic of Graduate School of Business (GSB), Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her research examines the links between marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics, service innovation, neuromarketing and tourism marketing. For the past five years, her efforts have centred on sustainable development associated with sustainable marketing and food security. Her research is, in part, focused upon educational development and the creation of linkages between academia, industry and communities.

Hepy H. Ariyanto work at Universitas, Internasional Batam, JI Gajah Mada, Baloi Sei Ladi Batam Indonesia. Universitas Internasional Batam is a university which is located in Batam Island, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia. Hepy H. Ariyanto obtained a PhD at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 11800, Malaysia. He is interested in Tourism Marketing.

Shaian Kiumarsi is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), where he earned his PhD. His Bachelor’s degree was in computer software engineering, while he obtained Master’s in Business Administration with a speciality in service science, management and engineering (SSME). He is interested in business IT, service innovation, marketing, tourism and energy. His current research focus is on innovation and operations management. He has several journal articles and conference presentations to his record. He has 10 years of educational experience.