A behaviour model for cultural tourism: loyalty to destination

Abstract

Tourism in the Spanish economy represents 11% of the GDP (INE, 2018). Its sun and beach tourism model has diversified into other products, such as cultural tourism, that has been increasing in recent years. The objective of this research is to develop a structural model that measures the behaviour of cultural tourists, to help better understand the main variables affecting their loyalty to a destination, travelling within Spain. After reviewing the scientific literature, a hypothetical-deductive method has been used that focussed on the importance of considering the customer’s experience, proposes a set of working hypotheses, contrasted by means of an analysis of the structural equations model (SEM), estimated taking the data from the Resident Tourism Survey/ FAMILITUR of the National Statistics Institute (INE). The model confirms the importance of socio-cultural variables and the experience of tourists in loyalty-building and the zero importance of the spend in this relationship. This paper analyses the new segments of tourist demand, with a view to the results obtained assisting in the design of differentiated marketing strategies to increase the repetition of the cultural tourisms visits to the same destination and, therefore customer loyalty.