Loyalty to holiday style: motivational determinants

Purpose - This study aims to understand the push and pull motivations of leisure tourists who stay for one or more nights on the Opatija Riviera and explores the causal connection between motivations and loyalty intention with regard to holiday style. It verifies path discrepancy based on generational and educational differences. Design/methodology/approach - The data were collected over a four-month period that included the low and high seasons of 2019. In total, 246 useable questionnaires were collected through on-site research. First, exploratory factor analysis was conducted as this was the first tourist loyalty study to be conducted in the Opatija Riviera region. Then, to test for causal significance amongst relationships and differences at the path level, the partial least square method and multigroup analysis (MGA) was undertaken. Findings - The results showed that overall satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between the two established motivations (novelty seeking and outdoor activity) and loyalty to holiday style and partially between relaxation and loyalty to holiday style. Further, MGA results indicated a significant discrepancy in the relationship between preferred holiday style with regard to educational and age difference. Originality/value - This study offers new insights regarding a relatively new type of tourist loyalty by developing a theoretical framework that assesses the relationship between loyalty intention and motivation, as well as overall satisfaction.