Determinants of destination loyalty of international tourists at cultural heritage sites in Malaysia

Cultural heritage tourism is one of the contributors to the tourism industry because it can assist in improving tourist arrivals. Cultural heritage tourism refers to tourists visiting cultural heritage sites and it is important to focus on the loyalty of tourists to these sites for sustainable growth. Destination loyalty has been conceptualized in many different ways and the most common are based on revisit intention and
recommendations to others. This study explored destination loyalty as behavioural, attitudinal and experiential dimensions, and examined the determinants of destination loyalty of international tourists at cultural heritage sites. This study also explored the mediating effect of satisfaction and the moderating effect of tourist characteristics. A two-stage area sampling that consisted of a cluster and systematic sampling approaches were adopted for this study. From the 500 international tourists at Penang and Melaka, Malaysia, that were approached, 483 responses were obtained which yielded a response rate of 96.6%. SmartPLS 3 .27 was used for the partial least squares
structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and analysis. The results of this study indicated that destination image, perceived authenticity, tourist interactions and tourist emotions had a significant positive influence on destination loyalty, and satisfaction was found to exert a mediating effect on structural relationships. However, tourist characteristics did not have a moderating effect on satisfaction and destination loyalty
relationship. This study provides information on the determinants of destination loyalty and has theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. This study extends the cultural heritage tourism literature by incorporating destination image, destination familiarity, perceived authenticity, tourist interactions, tourist emotions and satisfaction in a destination loyalty framework. Furthermore, this study provides
useful information for destination managers to devise marketing plans and activities relevant to developing the loyalty of tourists