Eco-spiritual experience quality and tourist loyalty: a serial mediation model in Indonesian eco-spiritual destinations

Abstract

This study investigates the behavioural mechanisms underlying tourists’ revisit intention within eco-spiritual tourism, focusing on the mediating roles of eco-spiritual image and destination attachment. A sequential mixed-methods approach was employed, starting with qualitative focus groups to develop a multidimensional eco-spiritual experience quality (ESEQ) scale, followed by a quantitative survey of 427 domestic visitors to the sacred eco-spiritual sites in Gunung Kawi, Indonesia. using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypothesised relationships and mediation paths. Contrary to conventional expectations, ESEQ had no direct effect on behavioural intention. Instead, eco-spiritual image and destination attachment acted as key psychological mechanisms. The model revealed a significant serial mediation pathway in which ESEQ influenced behavioural intention through eco-spiritual image and destination attachment. Among four ESEQ dimensions: eco-mysticism enlightenment, sacred hospitality, eco-spiritual serenity, and holistic spiritual accessibility. Eco-spiritual image emerged as the strongest predictor of destination attachment and loyalty. The findings challenge traditional assumptions about experience-loyalty and underscore the role of emotional-spiritual resonance in shaping behavioural outcomes. For destination managers, fostering experiences that are symbolic, introspective, and spiritually congruent is crucial to cultivating visitor loyalty.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 3 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.