The Mediating Effect of Place Attachment on the Relationship between Festival Satisfaction and Loyalty to the Festival Hosting Destination

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that drive festival visitor loyalty to host destinations. Our analysis focused on the role of place attachment as a mediator of the relationship between visitors’ positive evaluation of their festival experience and their loyalty to the host destination. Using structural equation modeling, we found that satisfied visitors at a festival develop a moderate level of emotional attachment to the festival host destination and ultimately become loyal to that destination. Not all dimensions of place attachment and festival satisfaction, however, were statistically significant, nor were they of equal valence in their prediction of the destination loyalty dimensions. Based on these findings, both theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed.