The Influential Roles of Past Experience, Affective Attitude, and Destination Culture on Thai Tourists’ Likelihoods of Revisitation and Recommendation

Abstract

Drawing upon tourism contribution, tourists’ visitations are the backbone of the country’s economic growth and development. This study thus aims to test a structural model for examining the relationship between tourists’ affection, cultural perceptions, their revisit, and recommendation intentions through the mediating role of past travel experience. To test our hypotheses, 547 questionnaires from Thai tourists were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that all hypotheses are substantially confirmed and statistically significant except for the affective attitude aspect which is not found to influence tourists’ revisit and recommendation intentions. Notwithstanding, we found that the tourist experience catalyzes revisit and recommendation intentions. However, tourists’ affection perception only nurtures their travel experience, but not for revisitation and recommendation. As such, this study sheds a new laser light on how tourists’ perceptions can influence future economic growth. The recommendations and suggestions on these findings are explained and can be an avenue for future research. Implications for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and the Asian business context are also presented.