Desarrollo de un modelo estructural para la medición de la satisfacción en el turismo cultural

Resumo

Cultural tourism is a very significant and important sector for tourism, and the national and international economy. Recent studies have shown that tourists are increasingly interested in travel experiences or activities related to culture, art, history and monuments of the past. It is this type of tourist, who is culturally motivated, although it is minor, that we want to attract to our historical cities, due to their spending capacity and less environmental impact. In return, this type of visitor is an experienced traveler who demands quality service that is consuming the experience during their stay at the visited destination. The aim of this research was to build a structural model that explains the formation of the satisfaction and loyalty of the tourist with a cultural motivation. This model can help us to understand the factors that promote and support their improvement in the future. The characteristics of cultural tourism in the cities of Seville (Spain) and York (UK) were studied. Both cities are characterized with major broad historical and cultural heritage and cultural tourism destinations receptors within their respective countries. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology was adopted and we make the model estimation using the technique Partial Least Square (PLS). We analyzed the validity of the measurement model and the structural model. Also, a multi comparison was conducted, which analyzed whether the structural model estimated for the data set of the entire sample is valid for each of the two separate destinations, or if there were significant differences between them. Among the direct or indirect antecedents of satisfaction, we can cite Motivation, Authenticity, Perceived Value, Quality of Service, Quality of Experience or Emotions. Among the consequences of Satisfaction, we can cite the recommendations of destination to other people and intentions to revisit the destination, both are known as Loyalty tourists. While the academic literature has traditionally recognized the role and importance of cognitive variables such as Quality of Service and Perceived Value in the formation of the Satisfaction and Loyalty of tourists, our work highlights the role and importance of affective variables such as Authenticity, Quality of experience and Emotions, or more specifically the Pleasure dimension. The results of our study show that affective variables have an equal or greater role than traditional cognitive variables in the formation of the Satisfaction and Loyalty of tourists with a cultural motivation.