Influence of Product Involvement on Tourist Shopping Behavior: The Mediating Role of Place Attachment, Satisfaction, and Visit Frequency

This study investigates how tourists' involvement with certain products that originate in a destination country influences their expenditures on these products during their trips to the country. Based on the extant literature, we propose a model that accounts for the mediating mechanisms of place attachment, overall satisfaction, and visit frequency. The relationships between the model's variables are empirically examined using data collected from 1,314 Chinese tourists who had travel experiences in Japan and varying levels of involvement with Japanese cosmetic products. Contrary to our expectations, the result for the direct effect of product involvement on purchase amount is negative and significant. However, the indirect effects of product involvement through place attachment and overall satisfaction are both significantly positive and appear to surpass the negativity of the direct effect. Thus, this study confirms that tourists' involvement with a product will cause them to spend more money on the product. The implications for local retailers and manufacturers to increase revenue from inbound tourists are discussed.