Archaeological tourism: looking for visitor loyalty drivers

ABSTRACT

Revisit intention has become a focus of attention for archaeological sites management. Identifying visitors’ loyalty drivers to any tourism attraction is crucial but it is even more necessary for these non-renewable resources. This study was designed to analyse the role of service experience, new service bonds and perceived value in visitors’ revisit intention generation process. The main contribution of the research is that perceived value is, for the first time, conceptualised as a dimension that comprehends knowledge value, relational value and perceived relationship investment. Four hundred-seventy visitors to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon (Peru) were surveyed. Results indicate that perceived value has the strongest impact on visitors’ loyalty, followed by the indirect effect of new service bonds mediated by perceived value. Moreover, the linkage between new service bonds and perceived value was determined as the most significant of all the relationships analysed.

KEYWORDS:

• Service experience
• new service bonds
• perceived value
• behavioural loyalty
• archaeological site

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maria Francisca Blasco López, PhD in Marketing, is an Associate Professor and Vice-Dean of Commerce and Tourism School at Complutense University.

Nuria Recuero Virto, Post Doctoral Researcher at Complutense University of Madrid, with a special grant of Santander Bank. Before this position, she was awarded a Predoctoral Scholarship (2010–2014). She was finalist of FITUR’s awards for best doctoral thesis (2013).

Joaquin Aldas-Manzano, Professor in Marketing, Universitat de València, his field of specialisation is Quantitative Methods of Research in Marketing.

Jesús García-Madariaga is currently Associate Professor in Management and Marketing at Complutense University and chair of the University Research team ‘Markco2’. He earned his PhD in Marketing.

ORCID

M. Francisca Blasco López http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6660-3571

Nuria Recuero Virto http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5346-9502