Fonte: Revista Encontros Científicos - Tourism & Management Studies; Vol 11, No 1 (2015); 70-76
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Resumo: Place attachment has recently become a research topic of interestas a relevant concept in understanding some tourist behaviours. Itis a relational concept based on cognitive and emotionalconnections with destinations, yet it has seldom been studied as aloyalty predictor. The objective of this research is to test theinfluence that attachment exerts on satisfaction with, and loyalty to,rural tourism destinations, through destinations’ main dimensions:identity and destination dependence. The application of attachmentto rural tourism is considered interesting because of the particularrelationships that tourists establish with the associatedenvironments. In addition, this field lacks causal studies related tomarketing, to better plan, manage and commercialise thesedestinations and their companies. To test the theoretical model, asample of data on 464 rural tourists was collected through an onlinesurvey. An analysis was carried out using a partial leastsquares technique through structural equation modelling. Theresults reveal that both destination identity and dependence aresignificant antecedents of overall satisfaction with, and loyalty to,rural tourism destinations, but destination dependence has agreater influence. The model shows a good capability to explain theendogenous constructs of overall satisfaction and loyalty.
