Examining the relationship between customer-perceived value of night-time tourism and destination attachment among Generation Z tourists in China

ABSTRACT

Night-time tourism leverages unique tourism opportunities posed by the night and stages the host destination at night as a core tourism attraction. The present study investigates the relationship between customer-perceived value about night-time tourism and destination attachment among Generation Z tourists. An online survey administered among Chinese Generation Z consumers who had participated in night-time tourism activities within the last one year generated 286 valid responses. The partial least squares based structural equation modelling approach was applied to test the research hypotheses. The results show that emotional value, epistemic value, green value, and perceived safety each positively affect destination attachment. Whereas the influence of functional value, economic value, and social value on destination attachment is not significant. The value dimensions considered in this study play a major role in predicting destination attachment in the night-time tourism context. The implications for researchers, destination marketing organisations, and policy makers are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Night-time tourism
• Generation Z
• destination attachment
• customer-perceived value
• epistemic value
• safety value

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yangyang Jiang

Yangyang Jiang, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research focuses on services marketing, customer experience, and sustainable development. Her research work has appeared in Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Tourism Recreation Research, Tourism Analysis, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research among others. Dr. Jiang serves on the Editorial Advisory/Review Board of leading academic journals and is an ad-hoc reviewer for several highly-ranked journals and reputable academic conferences.

Fangzhe Hong

Fangzhe Hong is a postgraduate research student in Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His research interests include consumption value and destination marketing.