TOURISTS’ WORD-OF-MOUTH: THE ROLE OF SERVICE QUALITY, AFFECT AND SATISFACTION

Abstract

This study aims at filling the gap in applying stimulus - organism - response to explain tourists' word-of-mouth. Accordingly, service quality is hypothesized as a stimulus that generates not only tourists' cognitive but also affective responses. In turn, cognitive and affective responses will have influence on tourists' word-of-mouth. To test the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modeling is applied on a sample of 460 domestic tourists. The results indicate that construct measurements are reliable and valid. Furthermore, most of proposed hypotheses are supported by data. Thus, this study has significant contributions in both academic and practical perspectives.

Keywords: word-of-mouth, service quality, positive and negative affect, satisfaction.