China’s Outbound Tourism: Investigating Word-of-Mouth and its Effect on Perceived Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty

This study offers an integrated approach to examine Chinese tourists’ perceived values when traveling abroad and attempts to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence of causal relationships between word-of-mouth (WoM), perceived value, and loyalty towards the destination. Drawing from the social interactions perspective, the study investigates ways to increase perceived value, tourist satisfaction and ultimately, loyalty. Five dimensions of perceived value are identified: quality, emotional, social, price, and experiential. The results indicate that WoM praise plays an important role in travelers’ satisfaction and loyalty formation. In addition, perceived value plays a mediating role between WoM, tourist satisfaction, and loyalty.