Significance of relationships between destination image, Muslim tourist satisfaction and revisit intention of Middle East Muslim tourists visiting the Maldives

Abstract

While diversification of the Maldives tourism industry is integral to the economic progress, limited research has explored examining Muslim tourist behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between destination images and revisit intention, with Muslim tourist satisfaction as the mediating variable, among Middle Eastern Muslim tourists traveling to the Maldives. 300 Middle Eastern Muslim tourists visiting the Maldives was approached using questionnaire and data was analyzed using softwares such as SPSS as well as AMOS, while structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. This study shows that there is significant relationship between destination image and Muslim tourist satisfaction. There is also significant relationship between Muslim tourist satisfaction and revisit intention, however no significant relationship between destination image and revisit intention. This study gives out how Muslim tourists from the Middle East review the destination and how South Asian countries can use either to continue or develop destination image more to attract for Muslim tourists. With limited research on destination image and Muslim tourists, this research gives out novel contribution and the findings of this study reveal that there is no significant relationship between destination image and revisit intention, however, there is significant relationship between destination image to Muslim tourist satisfaction to revisit intention.