Exploring the Tourists Intentions to Revisit Hunza Valley

Abstract

The tourism industry has grown rapidly and has become one of the world's quickest growing economic sectors. This study aims to examine antecedents of revisit intention to Hunza Valley. Aesthetic experience is vital in nature-based tourism and strengthens to visitor behavior, yet there is less empirical research on aesthetic experiences. Tourist’s motivation, destination personality, destination aesthetics, and cognitive perception are used as independent variables, destination familiarity as a moderator and attitude towards destination as a mediator to assess visitor propensity to return. The survey gathered data from 554 tourists who explored Hunza at least once. The research is quantitative in nature. The proposed framework is assessed using the Smart PLS software. To test hypotheses, structural modelling and bootstrapping approaches are applied. The study determines that destination personality, destination aesthetics, and tourist motivation have a substantial positive impact on tourist’s attitude towards destination. On the other hand, cognitive perception has a negative impact on tourist’s attitude. Destination familiarity does not moderate the relationship between attitudes and revisit intention. Destination aesthetics, destination personality and motivation have a substantial positive effect on revisit intention. However, cognitive perception has a negative impact on revisit intention. Attitude towards destination mediates the relationship between destination aesthetics, tourist motivation, destination personality and revisit intention. Attitude towards destination does not mediate the relationship between cognitive perceptions and revisit intention. This research will help Destination Management Organizations to analyze repeat visitation patterns. The results support previous theories. This study adds to the body of research literature by evaluating Hunza Valley as tourist’s destination.