Title: Investigating the effect of place quality and word-of-mouth communication on intention to revisit the city of military service

Authors: Mohsen Akbari; Milad Hooshmand Chaijani; Mohammad Reza Taleb Derakhshan

Addresses: Department of Management, University of Guilan, Rasht 43653-41998, Iran ' Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht 43653-41998, Iran ' Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht 43653-41998, Iran

Abstract: Word-of-mouth (WoM) communication, one of the most effective and cost-efficient advertising styles, has been adopted by many tourism agencies. A pleasant experience that a person receives during his or her stay in a place leads to his or her trust and satisfaction that will cause a positive or negative attitude towards the city that the place is located, as a result. Every person conveys his or her positive or negative attitude to the people he or she likes (e.g., family members, friends, etc.). This research investigates these issues among 390 military personnel in Tehran through structural equation modelling (SEM) with Smart PLS2. The results show that service quality has an effect on trust and satisfaction from barrack and the city it is located. In addition, the necessity of paying attention to military service men as human capital in internal tourism, through revisiting and WoM communication, is proved.

Keywords: service quality; human capital; internal tourism; trust; satisfaction; word of mouth; WOM; place quality; intention to revisit; military service; Iran; structural equation modelling; SEM; revisiting intentions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2015.072114

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2015 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.207 - 221

Received: 06 Mar 2015
Accepted: 31 Mar 2015

Published online: 30 Sep 2015 *

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