TY - JOUR
T1 - Determinants of Visitors’ Loyalty to Religious Sacred Event Places
T2 - A Multigroup Measurement Invariance Model
AU - Kamath, Vasanth
AU - Ribeiro, Manuel Alector
AU - Woosnam, Kyle Maurice
AU - Mallya, Jyothi
AU - Kamath, Giridhar
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is partially financed by Portuguese Funds provided by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal) through project UIDB/04020/2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Places hosting religious sacred events provide opportunities for visitors to find spiritual growth and also afford glimpses into the local culture, community, and hosting religious group. This study looks at tourists’ intended behavioral loyalty to a religious sacred event place as determined through motivations, shared beliefs, and emotional solidarity with other visitors, and memorable religious experiences. Data were collected from 985 visitors (556 domestic and 429 international) during the 2019 Kumbh Mela, held in Prayagraj, India. Contrary to previous studies, results indicated that emotional solidarity did not significantly influence attendees’ intended behavioral loyalty (among domestic visitors). Furthermore, in employing an invariance structural test for paths mentioned in the model, results revealed that the effects of shared beliefs, motivations, emotional solidarity, and memorable religious experiences differed among domestic and international visitors. Study implications and limitations are provided at the close of the paper, giving way to future research opportunities.
AB - Places hosting religious sacred events provide opportunities for visitors to find spiritual growth and also afford glimpses into the local culture, community, and hosting religious group. This study looks at tourists’ intended behavioral loyalty to a religious sacred event place as determined through motivations, shared beliefs, and emotional solidarity with other visitors, and memorable religious experiences. Data were collected from 985 visitors (556 domestic and 429 international) during the 2019 Kumbh Mela, held in Prayagraj, India. Contrary to previous studies, results indicated that emotional solidarity did not significantly influence attendees’ intended behavioral loyalty (among domestic visitors). Furthermore, in employing an invariance structural test for paths mentioned in the model, results revealed that the effects of shared beliefs, motivations, emotional solidarity, and memorable religious experiences differed among domestic and international visitors. Study implications and limitations are provided at the close of the paper, giving way to future research opportunities.
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U2 - 10.1177/00472875211057600
DO - 10.1177/00472875211057600
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119453128
SN - 0047-2875
VL - 62
SP - 176
EP - 196
JO - Journal of Travel Research
JF - Journal of Travel Research
IS - 1
ER -