Investigating the antecedents of ecotourism and destination loyalty among Vietnamese tourists: An expectation–confirmation perspective

Abstract

What makes tourists revisit a particular destination? Contemporary researchers have approached this problem through the lenses of various operant conditioning models. The current study explores the dimensions of ecotourism and destination loyalty anchoring on the expectation-confirmation theory. The findings confirm that factors such as destination image, tourist satisfaction and tourist experience significantly predict destination and ecotourism loyalty. The investigation first employs a confirmative factor analysis (CFA) model with a marker to inspect correlations among the latent variables. After the constructs are validated through the CFA procedure, a series of hierarchical regressions are introduced to test the hypotheses formulated. The empirical observations approve of all direct and indirect pathways in the structural equation model. For the purpose of the study, 522 Vietnamese tourists who travelled to the Czech Republic for tourism were recruited. The examination has profound marketing implications for ecotourism businesses and DMOs to improve their delivery models.