Investigating the Factors Affecting the Loyalty of Urban Destination

Today, tourism is one of the most important and effective economic issues and is one of the prominent factors of communication, social and cultural in the world. The competition that tourist destinations are currently facing has created a need to understand the process by which these destinations generate satisfaction and loyalty. The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the role of factors affecting the loyalty of tourists in Ramsar tourist destination. The present study was applied, descriptive and correlation based on structural equation modeling based on partial least squares method. Population (participants) of the study consisted of Iranian tourists visiting Ramsar city tourism destination. The sample size was 400 people. Sampling method was simple random. Data were collected through a questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through content validity and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha (0.889). A confirmatory factor analysis was used to ensure the reliability of the measurement models. Data analysis was performed using SPSS24 and SmartPLS2 software packages. The results showed that all hypotheses were confirmed and determined that marketing innovation, the attractiveness of urban activities, destination image, tourism destination characteristics and perceived quality through intermediary variables such as perceived value and satisfaction played a significant role in Loyalty to the city of Ramsar. According to the analysis, the results and suggestions were presented.