The destination attachment cycle. The case of academic tourism

ABSTRACT

Tourist satisfaction is a crucial issue for managers of tourism destinations. Scholars have analysed the motivations for academic tourism, but there is a lack of research on the emotional bonds with the destination. This study confirms the existence of a cycle with different stages of attachment and detachment with regard to destination, based on four phases: enchantment, coexistence, fatigue and nostalgia. These phases are analysed in relation to the cultural values of tourists and the time spent at the destination. A mixed-methods approach is used based on primary data collected by means of a focus group and a survey of 200 foreign students in Barcelona to validate the aforesaid phases. The results confirm this destination attachment cycle and show that when academic tourists come from a culturally similar society to the destination, this positively influences the stages of enchantment, coexistence and nostalgia, but not fatigue.

KEYWORDS:

• Guest impact
• cultural exchange
• expectation and satisfaction
• academic tourism
• Barcelona

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 According to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (2019) ‘Incoming international students are considered to be those who have their regular residence outside of Spain and are either enrolled ordinarily at a face-to-face university, or are part of some mobility programme with a destination at an SUE university’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona, Associate professor at the Business Department at the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain. Member of the Business Research Group and researcher at the Investigation Project (I+D) New mobilities and socio-residential reconfiguration in the post crisis context. She completed her PhD. in 2002 and her research is related to the analysis of the evolution and dynamics of tourism activity and its driving force, i.e., tourism impacts on economic, social, cultural and urban structures of the territory. Published papers in Journal of Heritage Tourism, International Journal of Cultural Policy, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Tourism Planning and Development, Current Issues in Tourism, Tourism Geographies, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Cities, British Food Journal among others.

Ester Noguer-Juncà

Ester Noguer-Juncà, Lecturer and researcher at the Department of Economics, University of Girona. She is a researcher of the Multidisciplinary Research Group on Gender and Social Inequalities (IGESI). Her main lines of research are the sociocultural impacts of tourism and the gender equality in hospitality industry. She also analyses issues in relation with the tourist phenomenon in rural areas, specifically the connection between local food and territorial identity and producers' entrepreneurship.

Lluís Coromina

Lluís Coromina, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Girona. He completed his PhD in 2006. His research is related with cross-cultural comparison, quantitative research methodology and tourism behaviour. He also publishes in related fields such as sociology or political science. He is reviewer of international journals, and his publications appear in Tourism Management, Current Issues in Tourism among others.