When Central Asian Prefers Langkawi Island: Understanding Luxury Travel Motivations and Behaviour

Abstract

This study investigates luxury tourists’ outbound travel motivation and how it influences their tourism destination selection, satisfaction, and future revisit intention. Two hundred and fifty-six (256) respondents participated in this study. The online survey link was shared using social media platforms where the snowball technique spread the questionnaire links to the respondents that fit the study's inclusion. Partial-Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test and confirm the study model and hypotheses. Combining two theoretical underpinnings, Maslow’s theory of motivation and push and pull motivations theory, this study’s findings depict two major antecedents of luxury-driven experiences: social value and destination uniqueness. The results demonstrate that luxury tourists’ push and pull travel motivation predictors emerged as significant antecedents for their destination satisfaction and willingness to return. Furthermore, the mediating effect confirms that satisfaction plays a significant mediating role in the pull motivation and revisit intention inter-relationship. The findings of this study provide empirical support for understanding the psychological aspects of luxury travellers while offering insights for destination managers to develop niche marketing strategies for attracting luxury tourists. The present research also provides luxury tourism destination managers with a clear comprehension of the underlying mechanism of the luxury tourists’ loyalty generation process.