The impact of airport experience on international tourists’ revisit intention : a South African case

Abstract

Travel destinations have become more dependent on repeat commercial activities and at the center of all this trade are airports that have evolved into full service centres. Therefore, to investigate the influence that airport experience would have on travellers’ intention to revisit a destination a conceptual framework was developed. The study was quantitative in nature in which data was collected through intercepts at the OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa. 503 willing international travellers participated and the collected surveys were processed in order to generate insights. To analyse the data, structural equation modelling was adopted. The main finding of the study established that conative destination image was the most influential factor in determining travellers’ intention to revisit a destination. Implications emerging from the findings were presented and suggestions for further research were proposed.