Sustainable Tourism and Tourist Destination Loyalty Model with the Integration of Safety Indicators in the COVID-19 Period

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and current security issues bring new aspects to the area of destination loyalty, which need to be incorporated into this model and comprehensively evaluated. The purpose of this study is to assess the significance of the model of tourist destination loyalty in combination with the safety indicators during the pandemic period among consumers in Slovakia. The research sample consists of 383 consumers from Slovakia, and data were collected during the COVID-19 period. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the sufficient validity and reliability of the model consisting of the indicators Safety, Cultural image, Environmental image, Socioeconomic image, Tourist satisfaction, and Destination loyalty. The research also assessed the significance of differences among the above indicators in terms of the categories Frequency of Travel, Length of Stay, Income, and Form of Tourism using ANOVA analysis. Large-scale differences have not been found, which indicates the model’s stability. PLS Path Modelling assessed the relationships between the individual categories of the indicators. The strongest relationship was found between Tourist satisfaction and Destination loyalty. The element Value for Money was added to the model, and it had a significant positive relation to Tourist satisfaction. The indicator Safety is also of significant importance to the model as was shown in several cases. Based on the results, it could be stated that the indicator Safety is an important element in the Socioeconomic image indicator.