Investigating the Attractiveness of an Emerging Long-Haul Destination: Implications for Loyalty

Although several studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between destination attractiveness and loyalty, most published researchhas focused on travellers from geographically close markets and on mature destinations. This study adopts a demand-side perspective toinvestigate these concepts for an emerging long-haul destination (South Africa). A survey was conducted among a sample of Italian touriststo explore the determinants of destination attractiveness and to investigate the effect of destination attractiveness on tourists’ loyalty. Moreover,this study considers the moderating role of previous travel experience on the relationship between attractiveness and loyalty. Theoreticaland practical implications are discussed.