The relevance of motivation, authenticity and destination imageto explain future behavioural intention in a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site

Abstract

This paper falls within the scope of heritage tourism studies, focusingparticularly on one UNESCO World Heritage Site. It seeks to contributeto tourism literature by achieving a better understanding of whichcognitive and affective factors are behind tourists’decisions to travel tothese sites, their experiences during their visit and behaviouralintention after the visit. A self-administered questionnaire focusing onthe variables included in the proposed research model was given totourists. A composite-based structural equation modelling approachwas employed for the analysis. Thefindings revealed a significant andhigh correlation between travel attitude and perceived authenticity,travel motivations and destination image, and authenticity anddestination image, but it goes beyond those relations by analyzingthem in an integrated manner and at different stages of the visit tocomprehend tourist behavioural intention after the visit. Besides thetheoretical advancements with this study, the practical and managerialimplications must be emphasized particularly for entities responsible fordestination marketing that may be able to use the outcome of ourresearch to work on proper promotion strategies.