The five influencing factors of tourist loyalty: A meta-analysis

Background The factors influencing tourist loyalty are widely highlighted in the literature. However, we find that the relationship between some influencing factors and loyalty is still inconsistent, and we don’t yet know the strength and magnitude of the relationships. To address this issue, this study examined a meta-analysis of the five factors (satisfaction, motivation, perceived value, perceived quality, and experience quality) influencing tourist loyalty and its sub-dimensions. Methods The samples included articles from major academic databases, including Web of Science, Wiley Online, EBSCO, SAGE, Taylor and Francis, and Elsevier. Studies written in Chinese were retrieved from CNKI.com. We used the following keywords for retrieval: loyalty, behavioral intention, recommendation intention, word-of-mouth, revisit intentions, intention to revisit, willingness to recommend, and similar related terms. Conceptual and empirical studies published between January 1989 and September 2021 were extracted. To test whether there was publication bias, we used Fail-Safe-Number (FSN) to verify the stability of the results. The homogeneity test of the selected statistical model was based on the Q test and I². The results were obtained by combining multiple single effect values into the combined effect value. Results We developed 21 hypotheses and proposed a theoretical framework and analyzed 114650 accumulated sample sizes from 242 independent empirical studies. Among the 21 hypotheses proposed in this paper, the remaining 20 hypotheses have been proved except for hypothesis H6. Conclusions The findings showed that the five factors had varying degrees of positive and significant relationships with tourist loyalty and its sub-dimensions. In the descending order of effects, the five factors are degree of satisfaction, quality of experience, perceived value, perceived quality and motivation. We discussed the significance of the meta-analysis, theoretical and practical implications for destination marketing.