A Theoretical Framework to Explain the Impact of Destination Personality, Self-Congruity, and Tourists’ Emotional Experience on Behavioral Intention

Abstract

The aim of this conceptual article is to propose a comprehensive model that explains the impact of different relational variables on tourists’ behavioral intention (i.e., revisit intention and recommendation intention) and the relationship between those relational variables. Based on the existing studies and findings, the proposed model is strongly related with destination personality, self-congruity as well as tourists’ emotional experience and behavioral intention. Particularly, self-congruity performed as a potential mediator between destination personality and behavioral intention; meanwhile, the model incorporated tourists’ emotional experience as a potential moderator between self-congruity and behavioral intention. This conceptual article makes significant contributions to tourism literature by proposing an integrated model. It serves as a reference for tourism marketing practitioners who can derive insights into the potential economic advantages such as tourists’ loyalty and tourists’ behavioral benefits in the form of revisit intention and recommendation intention which can result from the effective implementation of marketing strategies.