Visitors' loyalty to religious tourism destinations: Considering place attachment, emotional experience and religious affiliation

This study investigates the influence of visitors' place attachment and emotional experience on destination loyalty. Furthermore, religious affiliation was examined as a moderator within the model. Survey data from Attur Feast attendees (n = 812) were analysed using a series of multiple regression analyses to test proposed hypotheses. Visitors' emotional experiences were found to mediate the effect of place attachment dimensions (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on loyalty. Additionally, visitors' religious affiliation was found to moderate place attachment and emotional experience effects on destination loyalty. Furthermore, visitors' religious affiliation moderates only the indirect effect of place dependence on destination loyalty via emotional experience and this effect was strongest for Christian visitors compared to Hindu or Muslim visitors. In sum, we found that perceived emotional experiences mediate the relationship between place attachment and destination loyalty. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are offered.