Title: The perceptions turned chaff at the destination – experience effect on cultural tourists' satisfaction

Authors: Jaseela Thanikkad; Suresh Kumar

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Government College, Mananthavady, Wayanad, Kerala, India ' TKM College of Arts and Science, Kollam, Kerala, India

Abstract: Cultural tourism as a branch of tourism has acquired dimensions of immense significance in the economic development of destinations, across the globe, enriched with a plethora of art-forms, folklores and rich cultural heritage. The promotion of such destinations in terms of induced perceptions and the experiences matching the expectations of tourists has been predominantly the marketers' visualisations of the means and measures of consumer satisfaction. The focus of this research is on destinations of cultural importance, in Kerala, an Indian state acclaimed to be one of the ten paradises of the world by the National Geographic Traveler. It aims to redefine pull motivators as pre-visit destination perceptions and probe how such perceived expectations and the post-visit destination experiences predict the tourists' satisfaction, which in turn reflects customer loyalty. The PLS path model results show that while destination perceptions and experiences significantly predict tourists' satisfaction, such satisfaction fails to predict loyalty.

Keywords: cultural tourism; destinations; pre-visit perception; post-visit experience; tourists' satisfaction; loyalty.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2022.122453

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2022 Vol.7 No.3, pp.215 - 234

Received: 19 Jul 2021
Accepted: 16 Nov 2021
Published online: 25 Apr 2022 *