The Impact Of Source Credibility On Tourists’ Experience Satisfaction

Building emotional destination attachment is a key tourism destination branding issue in today’s tourism market. In customer behavior literature, decision-making of tourism behavior relates choice preference, while destination brand is the process and results of tourists’decision-making. The current study aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model for destination branding that borrows the concepts of brand credibility, brand image, brand attachment, and satisfaction. Based on above concepts, the study begins two attempts. First, the study aims to incorporate the existing concepts of branding with destination source credibility, destination attachment, destination image, and destination satisfaction, building a theoretical model about the relationship of them. Second, the study focus on destination source credibility as the key antecedent of destination satisfaction through a mechanism of the mediation effects of destination attachment and destination image. With the sample data of these hypothesis relationship and theoretical model is from Zhangjiajie international forestry park, that according to build SEM model and SW-AMOS to test destination source credibility influence positively to tourist satisfaction through destination image. The research findings showed that the overall goodness-of-fit couldn’t be perfect, and the path from destination source credibility to tourist satisfaction was not significant at the 0.05 level, so the theoretic model should be revised. After deleted the path,,the new results showed goodness-of-fit about revised model was good, and it was positive influence form destination source credibility to destination satisfaction, and destination image mediating. In addition, the mediating role of destination attachment is also significant between destination image and tourist satisfaction. According to the findings, destination managers and marketers can focus on the promotion of destination source credibility as an efficient tool to provide options for tourism destinations. The study results also suggest that the authorities of both destinations, as well as other destination managers, to promote better destination image and to design better destination strategies to attract tourists at home and abroad as a result of their destination satisfaction.