Stopover destination loyalty: The influence of perceived ambience and sensation seeking tendency

Abstract This paper examines the influence of sensation seeking and perceived ambience on attitudinal loyalty towards two traditional stopover destinations (Singapore, Hong Kong) and two emerging stopover destinations (Dubai, Abu Dhabi). A quasi-experimental design with two separate samples of participants shows that travelers’ perceived positive ambience and attitudinal destination loyalty was higher for the traditional stopover destinations than for the emerging destinations. In addition, sensation seeking tendency moderates the effect such that travelers with lower sensation seeking tendencies have higher attitudinal loyalty towards the traditional stopover destinations while the effect is mitigated for those with higher sensation seeking tendencies. This paper contributes to the recently emerging stopover destination literature, and the findings have implications for the destination marketers and stakeholders of stopover destinations.