A “double-edged sword” effect of consumer expertise on tourism loyalty

Abstract

PurposeAs globalization promotes mobility and tourism around the world, the substitution effect of outbound tourism on domestic tourism becomes increasingly apparent. Knowing how to increase customers' loyalty toward domestic tourism is an urgent and critical question for policymakers and tourism managers, especially from the perspective of customer segmentation. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty. This paper also provides comprehensive research for understanding differences between married and unmarried consumers in responses to the impact of expertise on loyalty.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a survey of 384 individuals. We use Partial least squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation model, and statistical comparison to test research hypotheses.FindingsResults suggest that consumer expertise has a “double-edged sword” effect on domestic tourism loyalty. On one hand, it increases the perceived benefit of domestic tourism and reduces consumers' motivation to switch to outbound tourism, resulting in a higher level of domestic tourism loyalty. On the other hand, consumer expertise improves consumers' switching ability and switching opportunity to travel abroad, leading to a lower level of domestic tourism loyalty. Furthermore, this paper documents that married and unmarried customers present heterogeneous attitudes in the decision process. We found that married customers are less sensitive to the impact of consumer expertise on the perceived benefit and the impact of consumer expertise on switch ability. However, married customers are more sensitive to both the impact of perceived usefulness on the switch motivation, and the impact of switch motivation, switch opportunity and switch ability on domestic tourism loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsOur findings enrich the literature on consumer expertise and loyalty. Future studies may consider examining similar relationships by utilizing multiple research methods as well as testing the research findings and mechanisms in different contexts.Practical implicationsThis research provides practical guidance for cultivating and maintaining domestic tourism loyalty, such as consumer segmentation in terms of tourism knowledge and information.Originality/valueThis paper examines the relationship between consumer expertise and loyalty in the context of tourism and uncovers the mechanism behind it. More importantly, to our knowledge, this paper is the first to identify consumers' marital status as a key factor that influences the process of how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty.