The Relationship of Tourists’ Loyalty with Individuals’ Normative Beliefs and Tourism Experience of Ecotourism

Abstract

In this study, the effect of normative beliefs and tourists' experience of travelling to different places on their loyalty to the destination is investigated. In this regard, 150 questionnaires were randomly collected from tourists who had travelled to Ardabil in a 20-day period in the summer of 2016. First, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on variables. The results of regression test indicated that there is a significant correlation between tourists' previous experience and their normative beliefs and loyalty to the destination. The correlation between these variables is respectively equal to 0.24 and 0.25. Furthermore, the variables of normative beliefs and tourists' previous experience can predict the changes of tourists' loyalty to the destination at a rate of 0.20 and 0.21, respectively. These results can help tourism activists to attempt to create mutual feeling and change tourists' normative beliefs when offering services. Moreover, further study to separate the type of norms and their different effect can help to improve services and tourists' experience.