Understanding the influence of user-generated content on tourist loyalty behavior in a cultural World Heritage Site

Han XU, Ting On Lewis CHEUNG, Jon LOVETT, Xialei DUAN, Qing PEI, Dan LIANG

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The emergence of social media has revolutionized tourists’ decision-making processes and behaviours. This study focuses on the effect of user-generated content (UGC) on tourist loyalty behaviour by examining structural relationships between destination image, satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth (WOM) publicity. Data were collected from domestic tourists to Gulangyu, a World Heritage Site in China. The findings of this study reveal that UGC indirectly affects tourist loyalty behaviour by influencing destination image and satisfaction. Moreover, the results demonstrate that factual UGC and emotional UGC positively affect tourists’ perceived value of the destination, with emotional UGC having a greater influence. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)173-187
JournalTourism Recreation Research
Volume48
Issue number2
Early online date22 Apr 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Citation

Xu, H., Cheung, L. T. O., Lovett, J., Duan, X., Pei, Q., & Liang, D. (2023). Understanding the influence of user-generated content on tourist loyalty behavior in a cultural World Heritage Site. Tourism Recreation Research, 48(2), 173-187. doi: 10.1080/02508281.2021.1913022

Keywords

  • User-generated content
  • Social media
  • Tourist loyalty behaviour
  • Destination image
  • Tourist satisfaction

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