Understanding the influence of user-generated content on tourist loyalty behavior in a cultural World Heritage Site

The emergence of social media has revolutionized tourists’ decision-making processes and behaviours. This study focuses on the effect of user-generated content (UGC) on tourist loyalty behaviour by examining structural relationships between destination image, satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth (WOM) publicity. Data were collected from domestic tourists to Gulangyu, a World Heritage Site in China. The findings of this study reveal that UGC indirectly affects tourist loyalty behaviour by influencing destination image and satisfaction. Moreover, the results demonstrate that factual UGC and emotional UGC positively affect tourists’ perceived value of the destination, with emotional UGC having a greater influence.