Empirical Analysis on Influence of Authenticity Perception on Tourist Loyalty in Historical Blocks in China

Liangwei Luo, Jiao Chen, Yuqin Cheng and Kexin Cai ()
Additional contact information
Liangwei Luo: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Jiao Chen: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Yuqin Cheng: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Kexin Cai: Business and Tourism School, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: Tourist loyalty is the key to the sustainable development of tourism in urban historical blocks. This article focuses on exploring the relationship between authenticity perception and tourist loyalty in this context. With this aim, we introduce the mediating variable of tourist engagement and construct a theoretical model of authenticity perception, tourist engagement, and tourist loyalty. Hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping were performed on questionnaire data of 287 West Street tourists in Dujiangyan, China. The results of this study demonstrate that both object-related authenticity perception and existential authenticity perception have a significant positive impact on tourist loyalty behavior, with similar degrees of influence. Additionally, the study reveals that tourist engagement plays a mediating role in the relationship among object-related authenticity, existential authenticity, and tourist loyalty. From the perspective of tourist engagement, this article reveals the impact mechanism of authenticity perception on tourist loyalty in the context of historical block tourism, enriches the research on tourism authenticity, and deepens the understanding of tourist loyalty behavior. Furthermore, the results of this study also provide reference for the formulation of sustainable development policies related to tourism in historical blocks.

Keywords: tourist engagement; object-related authenticity; existential authenticity; historical blocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2799/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2799/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:2799-:d:1365243

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().