Journal of Tourism and Development

Journal of Tourism and Development

Typology of nostalgic attractions experienced among tourists of ecolodges (Case Study: Gonabad city ecolodges)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hamdollah Sojasi Geidari 1
Marzieh Mousavipour 2
Hamideh Molaei 3
1 Associate Professor of Geography Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2 M.A. student of Department of Tourism Management, Mashhad Binaloud Institute of Higher Education, Mashhad, Iran.
3 Ph.D. student of Geography & Rural Planning, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
10.22034/jtd.2025.475127.2960
Abstract
In the field of tourism services, ecolodges have great potential to create a nostalgic and memorable atmosphere. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to identify the most important nostalgic attractions of ecolodges based on the analysis of tourists' lived experiences and to identify the factors influencing tourists' loyalty to these ecolodges in Gonabad County. This study is methodologically based on the pragmatism paradigm and adopts a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative). The statistical population in the qualitative section includes 16 tourists through in-depth interviews, while in the quantitative section, it consists of 200 tourists from 8 ecolodges in Gonabad County. Data collection methods involve qualitative and in-depth semi-structured interviews within the framework of descriptive phenomenology by Colaizzi in the qualitative section, and a researcher-designed questionnaire in the quantitative section. In the qualitative dimension, the descriptive phenomenological method by Colaizzi was employed, and in the quantitative methods, statistical analyses such as Kendall's correlation test and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. The findings indicate eleven extracted factors derived from tourists' perceived nostalgic experiences of ecolodges, which are significantly correlated with three parameters influencing tourists' loyalty, including recommending visits to others, selecting the locations for future revisits, and choosing the desired location as the first travel destination during leisure time. These findings highlight the significant role of these factors in tourists' loyalty and returnability.
Keywords
Attraction Analysis
Nostalgic Tourism
Tourism Experience
Ecolodges
Gonabad County
 
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