The power of professionalism: Enhancing tour guide impact on visitors’ experience and satisfaction to foster visitor sustainable behaviour

Distinguishing between tour guide performance and professionalism is crucial for understanding their distinct contributions to fostering visitor sustainable behavior. Therefore, this study aims to explore the moderating role of the tour guide’s professionalism in the relationship between visitor experience, satisfaction, and sustainable behaviour. It also examines the impact of the tour guide’s performance on sustainable behaviour through the mediating role of visitors’ experiences and satisfaction. To test the proposed conceptual framework, we ran a PLS-SEM analysis on 249 visitors. Drawing on expectancy disconfirmation theory (EDT), the findings show that tour guide performance encourages sustainable visitor behaviour, improves their experience, and achieves satisfaction. Besides, tour guide professionalism amplifies these effects, highlighting its crucial function in fostering positive outcomes through experience, satisfaction, and enduring conduct. Our findings present significant implications for the tourism industry decision-makers, travel agents, tour operators, and tour guides in particular, as well as the research community.