Impact of Perceived Social Apathy on Tourists' Behavioral Intentions

• Published in: Leisure studies Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 628 - 644
• Main Authors: Karoubi, Mehdi, Ferdowsi, Sajad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 03.09.2021
• Subjects: behavioural Intentions; mental Image; satisfaction; Social Apathy; tourism
• ISSN: 0261-4367; 1466-4496
• DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2021.1888308

Tourism, as a supplier of leisure needs of people, has economic benefits to host communities. Therefore, how host communities treat tourists can affect the satisfaction of tourists from the destination, which in turn reduces or increases the economic benefits of tourism. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explain the impact of perceived social apathy on tourists' behavioural intentions with mediation of mental image and satisfaction of tourists. The statistical population is the travelled international tourists to Tehran in the summer of 2019. In this study, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Partial Least Square (PLS) approach was used to evaluate the research model and test the hypotheses. The results showed that social apathy as perceived by tourists had a negative and significant effect on their behavioural intentions, satisfaction, and mental image. In fact, tourists' satisfaction had a positive and significant effect on their behavioural intentions. Moreover, their mental image had a positive and significant effect on both their behavioural intentions and satisfaction. In addition to the above findings, the results revealed that perceived societal apathy, besides the direct effect, had an indirect impact on tourists' behavioural intentions through both mediator variables of tourist satisfaction and tourist mental image.