Title: Exploring the ties between tourist engagement, emotional responses and loyalty: a case of yoga tourism

Authors: Kirti Pahuja

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Shillong, 793018, India

Abstract: This article aims to investigate the effect of visitor engagement on their emotions and the effect of emotions on their loyalty intentions. The paper also examines the mediating effect of visitors'/tourists' emotions on the relationship between visitor engagement and loyalty intentions. The study is conducted in the context of yoga tourism. The sample of the study entails 386 tourists, visiting a popular yoga tourism destination in India. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling have been used as the multivariate analysis techniques for analysing the data. Findings indicate that higher levels of visitor engagement significantly influence tourists' emotions which in turn affect their loyalty towards the destination. Additionally, the tourists' specific emotions fully mediate the relationship between visitor engagement and loyalty intentions. By highlighting the uniqueness of engagement-emotions relationship in yoga tourism, this study offers important theoretical and managerial insights in the area of tourism management.

Keywords: visitor engagement; tourist emotions; loyalty intentions; yoga tourism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2021.117656

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2021 Vol.24 No.4, pp.519 - 540

Received: 13 Apr 2019
Accepted: 25 Jul 2019

Published online: 20 Sep 2021 *

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