Predicting tourists' behavioural intentions at the destination level

Abstract

Using structural equation modelling, the formative model was tested on a sample of 703 tourists who visited six coastal destinations in Montenegro. It relies on the complex relationships between five constructs – perceived quality of a destination's offerings, tourist satisfaction, perceived equity, perceived benefits and behavioural intentions – simultaneously incorporating the emotional and rational self-regulatory mechanisms. The empirical results supported the hypothesised relationships. The group of eight tourist destination attributes affects perceived quality of a destination's offerings that positively and directly relate to perceived benefits, behavioural intentions and tourist satisfaction, whereas satisfaction is also determined by equity perceptions. Additionally, perceived quality of a destination's offerings also relates indirectly to tourist behavioural intentions, through perceived benefits and tourist satisfaction, while satisfaction also mediates the interaction between perceived equity and tourist intended behaviour. These research results contribute to a deeper understanding of which behavioural processes, and with what strength, lead to the increase in tourist loyalty at the destination level, and ultimately provide better insights into the predictors of behavioural intentions.

Keywords:

• quality
• satisfaction
• equity
• benefits
• behavioural intentions
• formative indicators