MTEs and revisit intention: The mediating role of destination attachment and sharing experiences on social media

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the role of destination attachment and sharing travel experiences on social media in the relationship between memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) and revisit intention. This study focused on Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, with limited research on predicting tourists’ intentions to revisit this destination. The self-administered questionnaire survey is applied to analyze the relationship between the variables and verify the hypotheses based on the collected 578 valid responses. The structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationships in the research model with SPSS 24.0 and SmartPLS 4.0. The results show that MTEs significantly and directly influence tourists’ intention to revisit a destination. MTEs also have a direct impact on destination attachment and sharing travel experiences on social media. Furthermore, the findings also prove that destination attachment and sharing travel experiences on social media directly affect revisit intention. It is worth noting that they act as intermediaries in the relationship between MTEs and tourists’ intentions to revisit a destination. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of tourists’ intentions to revisit and offers theoretical and practical implications.