The influence of visitors’ gazing of others’ behavior, appearance, and hospitableness on their engagement and their behavioral intentions.

Abstract

ARTICLE INFO Abstract In tourism and hospitality experiences, visitors are an indispensable and important component and, through "gazing," they can indirectly interact with each other. This research aims to investigate how visitors" gazing of others" behavior, appearance, and hospitableness during a tourism experience would influence their engagement in the experience. Also, the impact of visitors" engagement on their memorable experience, satisfaction, and intention to revisit was investigated. Data was collected randomly by using a questionnaire from 373 visitors participating in this study. Findings of structural equation modeling analyses indicated that gazing others" behavior, appearance, and hospitableness increases visitors" engagement. Visitors" engagement increases their memorable experience and satisfaction. Visitors" satisfaction and memorable experience mediated the relationship between visitors" engagement their intention to revisit. Theoretically, this study offers new insights by highlighting the concept of visitors gazing. Practical suggestions were provided for mangers to increase their visitors" intention to revisit by designing experiences that are memorable and ensure visitors" satisfaction.