Film-induced senior tourism and destination loyalty

The senior tourist niche is distinct from other tourist cohorts in terms of expenditure, service preference, and other destination appeals. This is a unique segment, requiring destination management/marketing organisations’ attention to film-induced tourism in particular. However, the intersection between film tourism and the nostalgic desires of seniors has seldom been explored. Surveying 366 film-induced senior tourists to Croatia, the dimensional nature of the film tourism experiencescape was uncovered. A structural modeling procedure further showed that the film tourism experiencescape strongly predicted cognitive loyalty, which significantly influenced affective loyalty. Destination loyalty stage theory fitted well with senior film tourism destinations. This study has academic implications relating to the experiencescape concept and loyalty theory, and can help film destination marketers to understand seniors’ psychological mechanisms in experiencing film-related destinations and developing destination loyalty.