Understanding the Role of the Shopping Experience in Explaining Tourists' Perceived Value and Behavioral Intention in African Markets

Abstract

Although the tourism shopping experience is growing in volume and importance, there is a lacuna about how the experiential facets of tourism shopping shape tourists' attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, this study aims to provide a broader understanding of this, by exploring the structural relationships between tourism shopping experiences, tourism shopping value, affective attachment, and behavioral intention. Data were sourced from 500 international tourists who had shopping experiences in Ghana. Results showed that experiential facets of in-and-out of store ambience, product, and store policy, all significantly inform hedonic and utilitarian shopping values. Both utilitarian and hedonic values positively influenced affective attachment and behavioral intention. The results of this study have academic and practical implications, as they shed light on understanding the cognition-affect-behavior relationships in a tourism shopping context.