Destination brand equity and tourist's revisit intention towards health tourism: an empirical study

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between destination brand equity and tourist's revisit intention towards health tourism destinations. The study also examines the mediating effect of destination brand association between destination-based brand equity and travellers' revisit intention for health tourism destinations.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument is used to examine the relationships in the proposed model using the co-variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The collected primary data from two hundred forty-six respondents (n = 246) are analysed to test the relationship amongst exogenous, mediating, moderating and endogenous constructs articulated in the proposed structural model.FindingsEmpirical findings reveal that destination brand equity influences the revisit intention of a traveller for health tourism via destination brand association. The perceived trust, reliability and soft issues of a traveller moderate the relationship between destination brand equity and destination brand association. Enduring travel involvement also proves a significant moderation effect on the relationship between destination brand association and the revisit intention of a traveller for a health tourism destination.Practical implicationsThis paper is an initial attempt to develop and empirically examine a conceptual model of the intention of a traveller to revisit a health tourism destination in a dynamic process of information search using the data collected from current travellers after medical tourism-related trips. Results suggest that stakeholders must focus on hedonic and utilitarian factors of the destination that are recognised by travellers to encourage revisit for medical tourism.Originality/valueAlthough there have been numerous studies on health tourism. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is a pioneer in the healthcare tourism literature that links destination brand equity, brand association and revisit intention of a traveller for health tourism. These findings extend the knowledge of how healthcare tourism that is embedded with destination brand equity and destination brand association. The study findings potentially benefit the marketers for gaining competitive advantages through considering the experience of a traveller.

The Moderator Role of Culture in the Relationship between Destination Brand Equity and Travel Intention

“…Depending on the research findings, it has been determined that destination awareness and destination loyalty dimensions have a strong effect on travel intention. This finding is in parallel with the results of other studies present in the literature (Rahman et al, 2021;Kumail et al, 2022).…”

“…Destination brand equity has a critical role for the destination selection process and learning how to encourage the tourists to visit specific areas is highly essential for the tourism industry. Within this context, in recent years, tourism scientists have become more aware of the importance of destination branding and an increasing number of tourism researchers have adopted the brand equity theory in their studies (Dedeoğlu, Niekerk, Weinland & Celuch 2019; Zhang et al, 2020;Rahman et al, 2021;Uslu & Ergün, 2021). This study investigates the relational link between the effect of destination brand equity dimensions on travel intention and the moderator role of nationality by means of the application of structural equation model.…”

Tourist Satisfaction, Willingness to Revisit and Recommend, and Mountain Kangyang Tourism Spots Sustainability: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

“…Mostafa, Siamak, Ahmad and et al (2021) investigated the mediating role of tourist satisfaction in the relationship between memorable tourism experiences and behavioral intentions in heritage tourism [39]. Rahman, Sabbir, Surajit and et al (2021) aimed to investigate tourist willingness to conduct a medical tourism revisiting and suggested that stakeholders should focus on the hedonic/emotional and utilitarian/functional, and economic factors of the destination [40]. Some researchers, such as Seokho, Yoon, Ji-Hwan, and Jookyung (2021), investigated how the multidimensional components of AR experiential value (i.e., visual appeal, entertainment, enjoyment, and escapism) affect supportive behavior through AR satisfaction [41].…”

“…In terms of medical tourism, rural tourism, adventure tourism, and sports tourism, functional value and/or contextual value positively impact emotional, economic, and cognitive value [34,35,40,42]. The correlation among the above keywords was usually found in the product market [46].…”

An Integrated Model of Destination Advocacy and Its Direct and Mediating Effects on Destination Revisit Intention

“…Their results revealed that these place make a consumer surplus worth 1.24-3.64 USD per tourist in a year and, thus yield a gross recreational value 0.06-0.84 million USD per year in this region. The scholars, Rahman et al (2021), examined the destination's brand equity and tourists' revisit intention toward health tourism. Their analysis indicated that destination brand equity affects a traveler's revisit intention for medical tourists through destination brand association, and that a traveler's perceived trust, reliability, and soft concerns moderate the link between destination brand equity and destination brand association, as well as a significant moderation impact on the link between destination brand association and intention to revisitof a traveler to a health tourism destination.…”