Extending the theory of planned behavior with the quality loyalty model: a cognitive-affective-behavioral framework for tourist revisit intention and loyalty

Although the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been widely applied to predict behavioral intentions, its application in tourism research has been criticized. Scholars argue that its theoretical scope is too narrow and rational, focusing primarily on individual cognitive factors while failing to explain the cognitive-affective-behavioral pathway. To address this research gap, this study uses the representative rural sports event, the Village Basketball Association in Guizhou Province as the research context, integrates the TPB with the Quality of Loyalty Model (QLM), constructs and investigates a cognitive-affective-behavioral conceptual framework, and empirically examines the impact of event quality on tourists’ revisit intention and loyalty. The study employed convenience and snowball sampling methods and collected 298 valid questionnaires from participants. Data were analyzed using Smart-PLS. The findings indicate that (1) the integrated TPB-QLM model demonstrates good model fit and strong explanatory power; (2) event quality positively effects tourists’ satisfaction, revisit intention, and loyalty; and (3) satisfaction and revisit intention serve as mediators. These results offer important practical implications for stakeholders in sports tourism.