Pre-Visit Destination Image's Effects on Perceived Travel Service Quality: The Mediating Effects of Place Attachment

As a competition goes fiercer, more and more destination managers hope to attract first-time tourists by improving destination image. However, few researches pay attention to first-time tourists' pre-visit destination image's effects on travel service quality. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between destination image and service quality by introducing destination attachment as mediate variable. The proposed model was empirically verified through a survey of 752 first-time tourists and tested by using SEM method. The findings demonstrate that: (1) tourist's pre-visit cognitive image positively influence affective image; (2) pre-visit cognitive image's positive effect on perceived service quality is partially mediated by place dependence; (3) place identity fully mediates the positive relationship between pre-visit cognitive image and perceived service quality.