Journal of Tourism and Development

Journal of Tourism and Development

Identifying and Analyzing Factors Affecting Tourists' Loyalty to Tourism Destinations with a Sociological Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammad Khajeh 1
Sedigheh Aminian 1
Gholamreza Khoshfar 2
Shahrzad Bazrafshan 1
1 Department of Sociology, Az.C., Islamic Azad University, Azadshahr, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty, Golestan University
10.22034/jtd.2025.530684.3095
Abstract
Introduction and Objective: Today, tourism, as an effective and influential industry on societies, has attracted the attention of policymakers and planners. The aim of this research was to identify and analyze the factors affecting tourists' loyalty to tourism destinations with a sociological approach. Research Method: This research was conducted in a descriptive and mixed exploratory manner. In the qualitative part, in order to identify the factors, interviews were conducted with 10 academic experts in the field of tourism and sociology who were selected using the bullet sampling method. The statistical population in the quantitative part included 7,000 tourists in the city of Bandar Turkman, and the statistical sample included 364 people who were selected using simple random sampling. Findings: The results of the qualitative section showed that these factors include (reference groups, tourist social class, tourist family, tourist satisfaction, social security, destination personality, trust in the destination, tourist perceived value, quality of tourist experience, quality of host community behavior, destination customs and traditions, diversity of natural attractions, destination identity, local foods, and appropriate road transportation) and the results of the quantitative section showed that all factors have a positive and significant effect on tourist loyalty to the tourism destination. Discussion and Conclusion: Tourist loyalty to tourism destinations is an important issue that can explain the success or failure of destinations in attracting tourists.
Keywords
Tourist Loyalty
Tourist Destination
Sociological Approach
 
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