Spa hotels: Factors promoting wellness travelers' postpurchase behavior

Abstract

Our purpose in this study was to provide a clear understanding of spa hotel customers' behavioral intention formation by examining the intricate relationships among quality, emotion (pleasure and arousal), satisfaction, and desire, and their effect on behavioral intention. Participants were 300 customers who had visited a spa hotel and used spa services in South Korea at least once within the past 3 years. Results showed the criticality of 3 spa quality dimensions (tangibility, assurance, and empathy) in eliciting pleasure. In addition, pleasure significantly contributed to improving satisfaction and desire, both of which led to behavioral intention. Results also showed that pleasure, satisfaction, and desire played a crucial mediating role in the theoretical framework. Finally, we successfully built a theoretical framework that efficiently links spa quality -> emotion -> satisfaction/desire -> behavioral intention in a sequential manner.