Determinants of working holiday makers' destination loyalty: Uncovering the role of perceived authenticity

Regardless of the steady growth of working holidays for the past few decades (Tsai & Collins, 2017), workingholiday makers' destination loyalty formation has been little explored. Filling this void, this study was aimed at examining the working-holiday travelers' loyalty generation process by developing a conceptual framework encompassing working-holiday tourism attributes, place identification, place dependence, and perceived authenticity. The results of the structural analysis indicate that the attributes dimensions of working-holidays positively influence place identification and place dependence which in turn trigger destination loyalty. In addition, both place identification and place dependence act as important mediators. Moreover, invariance testing reveals that the place identification- destination loyalty relationship is significantly influenced by perceived authenticity. Our findings help destination practitioners better understand working-holiday travelers' behaviors and develop effective loyalty enhancement strategies.