The effect of place attachment on visitors’ revisit intentions: evidence from Batam

Abstract

The tourism sector is considered a vital economic driver in several countries. Consequently, tourism authorities focus much attention on the factors that could give them a competitive advantage especially in attracting repeat visitations to certain tourist destinations. The current study explores the path, environment → place attachment → revisit intention using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. The study obtained 455 responses from visitors to Batam Island in Indonesia using the convenience sampling method. This led to the formulation of hypotheses using the structural equation modeling (SEM). Novel findings are revealed. Atmosphere environment has a high positive correlation with place dependence while low positive correlation with place identity, place dependence, and place social bonding. Furthermore, the cultural environment is unimportant and insignificant in predicting place attachment. Interestingly, place attachment dimensions positively support revisit intentions. Place social binding is the most crucial feature of place attachment in revisit intentions. Thus, the findings obtained from documenting the importance of social interactions in tourism destinations are invaluable to tourism authorities, tourist practitioners, and tourism management in locating and extending tourist centers by reflecting on the physical and service environmental facilities that trigger social bonding-revisit effects. The findings shape new thinking to increase tourists’ repeat visits.