Description
Consumer behaviour studies have acknowledged that consumers use rationality to solve specific purchasing problems (e.g., Howard & Sheth, 1969; Suomala, 2020). Nonetheless, scholars have begun to argue that it ignores critical facets of consumption, particularly when it comes to leisure activities, sensory pleasures, daydreams, aesthetic enjoyment, and emotional responses (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). In the hospitality and tourism industry, products are experiential (Williams, 2006) and can be classified as a total experience (Lewis & Chambers, 2000). Although academics agree that the tourism experience is inherently complex, they cannot come to a consensus regarding a common conceptualization or which specific elements most accurately convey the essence of the concept (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020). Tourism experience has been extensively conceptualized and tested using different perspectives like the experience economy paradigm with '4Es': education, entertainment, escapism, and aesthetics (e.g., Oh et al., 2007); or the brand experience approach including five dimensions: sense, feel, think, act, and relate (e.g. Rather, 2020; Tsaur, Chiu & Wang, 2007), among others. In light of the difficulty of encapsulating every aspect that guests experience while on-site (Zatori, Smith & Puczko, 2018) and the limited scope of a single measurement scale (Oh et al., 2007), this study addresses this constraint by employing two widely recognized tourism experience scales (Oh et al., 2007; Rather, 2020) to provide a deeper comprehension of the tourism experience. The impact that tourists' on-site experiences have on their perceptions and feelings toward a destination (Yordanova & Stydilis, 2019), as well as their future behavioural intentions, such as recommendations and revisit intentions, makes them an essential concept for destination marketing and management (e.g., Sharma & Nayak, 2019; Zhang, Wu & Buhalis, 2018).
Lai and Li's (2016, p. 1074) definition of destination image discloses an experiential view of consumption being "a voluntary, multisensory, primarily picture-like, qualia-arousing, conscious, and quasi-perceptual mental (i.e., private, nonspatial, and intentional) experience held by tourists about a destination". In light of this approach, the visit shapes a modified, more complex, and authentic image (Gunn, 1972; Li, Liu & Soutar, 2021), thus expanding the concept of the experiential destination image. However, it has yet to be adequately explored in the existing literature (Choi & Cai, 2022; Lee, Lee & Lee, 2014; Li et al., 2021). As far as the authors know, little work has been done to understand the experiential effects of the visit on destination image modification. Other mental events, such as tourists' recollections of the destination, can be derived from their tourism experience and image of the place (Stavrianea & Kamenidou, 2020) and impact on people's future decision-making, including in touristic contexts (Kim, Ribeiro & LI, 2022, p. 1309). Culture significantly influences how individuals perceive, interpret, and form opinions about places (Reisinger and Turner, 2002). Therefore, tourism studies should consider nationality or cultural variations to clarify how to promote a destination to specific segments of travellers. Fuelled by the abovementioned, this study examines the correlation between tourism experience, experiential destination image, tourism memory, tourists' satisfaction and loyalty. If understood as a crucial part of tourism memory formation, tourism experiences and the experiential destination image would help predict tourists' satisfaction and future behaviours. This study starts by exploring the dimensions of the tourism experience from which the subsequent relationships in the conceptual model (experiential destination image, tourist memory, satisfaction and loyalty) are investigated. A multi-group analysis will also identify the differences between domestic and international tourists.
A proportional stratified sample by season and the most representative issuing markets was implemented within Portuguese, British, French, German, Spanish, Irish, and Dutch tourists (PMETA 2.0, 2021) visiting the Algarve coastline in the south of Portugal. In total, 2709 questionnaires were validated, 1909 in the high season (between July and September 2021) and 800 in the low season (between October and June 2021). The results show that the tourist experience has five dimensions: active learning, emotional engagement, passive entertainment, immersive escape, and aesthetic appeal. Moreover, the cognitive image of the Algarve is positively impacted by the travel experiences of both domestic and foreign visitors. The effect of tourism memory on visitors' loyalty varies significantly between domestic and foreign travellers. Future research directions, constraints, and theoretical and managerial implications are explored.
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