Evaluating the antecedents of health destination loyalty: The moderating role of destination trust and tourists’ emotions

Abstract

Although the customer experience-satisfaction nexus is a highly developed body of work in the wider literature, this link has scarcely been explored in health tourism. Accordingly, this paper aims to assess the dimensions of health services experiences leading to tourists’ satisfaction and the moderating role of trust and emotions in the link between satisfaction and destination loyalty. A PLS-SEM is employed to analyze data from a sample of 225 health tourists in Egypt. The results show that health tourism experiences dimensions significantly affect tourists’ satisfaction, which in turn positively impacts their loyalty. Additionally, destination trust and emotions moderate the connection between satisfaction and loyalty. Theoretical contributions arise for scholars and practical ramifications are presented for service providers and stakeholders in the Egyptian health tourism scene.