Does Destination Distance Change How Affect Becomes Satisfaction? An Exploratory Multi-Group Analysis of Korean Travelers and Its Limits for Low-Carbon Demand Management

Policies that shift travel demand from long-haul toward nearer destinations presume that near and distant trips are evaluated on comparable terms. This exploratory study examines this for one link: the conversion of trip affect into satisfaction. A 2018 online panel survey of Korean travelers (N = 352) was grouped by most recent destination (domestic, n = 179; Southeast Asia/Japan/China, n = 141; Europe/the Americas, n = 32), and a disposition → emotion → satisfaction chain was compared across bands; metric invariance was supported but is provisional for the long-haul band. First, the positive affect–satisfaction association is stronger in the long-haul band than in the nearer bands (zero-order r = 0.67, 0.75, and 0.89; Fisher z p = 0.002 and 0.025; exploratory post hoc planned contrast p = 0.036), but no graded ordering is established, and in the long-haul band positive affect and satisfaction are not empirically distinct (HTMT = 0.94), so the result fits a judgment account and a measurement account alike. Second, a weaker negative affect–satisfaction association for long-haul travel is not supported, because the bootstrap intervals on the differences include zero. Third, the antecedent segment shows no detectable differences, but the design could not have detected differences of the size those paths have. All three-band omnibus tests are non-significant. Implications for low-carbon demand management are stated as questions for replication.