Journal of Resources and Ecology >
Relationships between Tourist Experiential Value and Ice-Snow Tourism Loyalty in Zhangjiakou City, and the Moderating Effects of Travel Companions
Received date: 2021-10-15
Accepted date: 2021-12-30
Online published: 2022-06-07
Supported by
The National Social Science Foundation of China(20BJY199)
The successful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics has provided a new opportunity for the popularization of ice-snow sports and making improvements in the efficiency of ice-snow tourism in China. Taking Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province as the research object and using questionnaire analysis and the structural equation model (SEM), this paper examined several hypotheses of the relationship between tourist experiential value and tourist loyalty in the context of ice-snow tourism, and a mediation analysis was conducted to explore the moderating role of travel companions. The results show that: (1) The functional value, emotional value and social value have significant positive effects on tourist loyalty; (2) Tourist satisfaction is a partial mediator between functional value, emotional value, social value and tourist loyalty, and a full mediator between cognitive value and tourist loyalty; and (3) Travel companions play a significant moderating role in the influence of emotional value on tourist loyalty. Based on these findings, several suggestions are put forward for the high-quality development of ice-snow tourism in China, including developing ice-snow family tourism products, building an ice-snow brand with winter Olympics characteristics, constructing the ice-snow industrial system, and cultivating ice-snow culture.
WANG Juan , SUN Yuhao . Relationships between Tourist Experiential Value and Ice-Snow Tourism Loyalty in Zhangjiakou City, and the Moderating Effects of Travel Companions[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2022 , 13(4) : 646 -654 . DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2022.04.010
Table 1 Dimensions of tourist experiential value in the current studies |
Type | Dimension | Scholar |
---|---|---|
Introspective | Physical presence, situational involvement, competence | Takatalo et al., 2008 |
Relational | Extrinsic value versus intrinsic value, self-oriented value versus other-oriented value | Holbrook, 2006; |
Perceptions of playfulness, aesthetics, customer return on investment and service excellence | Mathwick et al., 2001 | |
Hierarchical | Cognitive value, emotional value, social value | Ma and Zhang, 2017; |
Functional value, hedonic value, and symbolic value | Na et al., 2019 |
Table 2 Dimensions of tourist experiential value |
Dimension | Definition |
---|---|
Functional value | Tourists are subjectively satisfied with the scenic spots, accommodation, catering, entertainment, transportation and shopping environment of the tourism destination |
Emotional value | Tourists’ subjective perception of mood and emotional changes in the process of their tourism experience. This includes relaxation, escape and restoration |
Social value | The satisfaction of tourists’ subjective perception when communicating with other personnel |
Cognitive value | Tourists gain pleasure in the process of tourism. This includes knowledge enhancement and novelty |
Table 3 Ice-snow tourist experiential value scale |
Dimension | Code | Measurement items |
---|---|---|
Functional value | FV1 | The service and facilities of the ski resort are generally satisfactory |
FV2 | The ski resort is rich in ice-snow tourism resources with distinctive characteristics | |
FV3 | The ice-snow landscape is beautiful and has ornamental value | |
FV4 | The ski resort has perfect safety facilities and special medical personnel | |
FV5 | The ski resort provides professional technical guidance, and the guidance is good | |
Emotional value | EV1 | I gained relief in this ice-snow tourism experience |
EV2 | I temporarily released my pressure in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
EV3 | I feel free in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
EV4 | I am pleasant in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
Social value | SV1 | The service staff are warm and friendly and their service attitude is good |
SV2 | I made new friends in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
SV3 | I will upload the photos of the ice-snow tourism experience to social media | |
SV4 | I will share my experience with my friends and colleagues | |
Cognitive value | CV1 | I acquired knowledge about ice-snow tourism |
CV2 | I experienced the local folk customs in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
CV3 | I skillfully used ski equipment and ski resort infrastructure in this ice-snow tourism experience | |
CV4 | I improved my skills in a certain ice-snow tourism sport |
Table 4 Measurement items of tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty |
Dimension | Code | Measurement items |
---|---|---|
Satisfaction | M1 | In general, I really enjoyed my time in this ice-snow tourism experience |
M2 | In general, I think this ice-snow tourism experience is worthwhile | |
M3 | In general, I really liked these ice-snow tourism activities | |
Loyalty | Z1 | I would like to come to this destination again for ice-snow tourism activities |
Z2 | I would like to recommend this place to my relatives and friends | |
Z3 | I will come back to this destination again soon |
Table 5 Confirmatory factor analysis results |
Fitting index | χ2/DF | RMSEA | GFI | AGFI | CFI | IFI | TLI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acceptable range | <3 | <0.08 | >0.9 | >0.9 | >0.9 | >0.9 | >0.9 |
Experiential value | 1.274 | 0.035 | 0.933 | 0.910 | 0.986 | 0.986 | 0.983 |
Satisfaction and loyalty | 1.819 | 0.060 | 0.979 | 0.946 | 0.992 | 0.992 | 0.985 |
Fig. 1 Final structural equation model |
Table 6 Analysis of final structural equations model |
Regression equation path | Standardized coefficients | P-value | Result |
---|---|---|---|
A1: Functional value → Loyalty | 0.240 | < 0.01 | Support |
A2: Emotional value → Loyalty | 0.199 | < 0.01 | Support |
A3: Social value → Loyalty | 0.191 | < 0.001 | Support |
A4: Cognitive value → Loyalty | — | — | Invalid |
B1: Functional value → Satisfaction | 0.520 | < 0.001 | Support |
B2: Emotional value → Satisfaction | 0.365 | < 0.001 | Support |
B3: Social value → Satisfaction | 0.222 | < 0.01 | Support |
B4: Cognitive value → Satisfaction | 0.247 | < 0.001 | Support |
Note: The correlation is significant when the P-value is less than 0.05. — means invalid. |
Table 7 Results of mediating effect |
Effect path | Total effect value | Direct effect value | Indirect effect value | BootLLCI | BootULCI | Percentile |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Functional value → Loyalty | 0.632 | 0.427 | 0.205 | 0.148 | 0.305 | 36.28% |
Emotional value → Loyalty | 0.703 | 0.358 | 0.345 | 0.141 | 0.285 | 36.96% |
Social value → Loyalty | 0.621 | 0.315 | 0.306 | 0.096 | 0.206 | 37.02% |
Cognitive value → Loyalty | 0.527 | — | 0.527 | -0.013 | 0.063 | 100% |
Note: — means invalid. |
Table 8 Analysis of moderating effect |
Moderating relationship | Regression coefficient | P value | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Functional value → Loyalty | -0.056 | 0.337 | Invalid |
Emotional value → Loyalty | 0.142 | < 0.001 | Support |
Social value → Loyalty | -0.088 | 0.127 | Invalid |
Cognitive value → Loyalty | -0.011 | 0.858 | Invalid |
Note: The correlation is significant when the P-value is less than 0.05. — means invalid. |
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