Assessing the relationship between tourism marketing mix, tourism quality standards and image on statisfaction and loyalty in Jordan curative tourism

Curative tourism is a unique type of tourism that offers various therapeutic properties for healing diseases and maintaining health. In Jordan, this sector contributes significantly towards the country’s GDP. This study was conducted to accomplish five objectives; to examine which of the marketing mix components has more impact on tourist satisfaction and loyalty in destination curative tourism, to examine which of the quality standards components has more impact on tourist satisfaction and loyalty in destination curative tourism, to examine which of the destination image components has more impact on tourist satisfaction and loyalty in destination curative tourism, to examine the relationship between tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty in destination curative tourism, and to examine tourist satisfaction mediating effect on marketing mix, quality standards, and image and destination loyalty. The research framework was based on Oliver’s Theory of Loyalty and was developed to study curative tourism customer satisfaction and loyalty in Jordan. Questionnaires were distributed to 950 local and international tourists at four tourist attraction sites, i.e. AlHemmah (North), Dead Sea (Central), Ma’in (East), and Afra (South). Out of 950 questionnaires, 690 were collected (representing a 73% response rate). Exploratory factor analysis was applied to validate the construct, and all hypotheses were tested through multiple regression. Twenty-two of 30 sub-hypotheses were supported revealing that tourist satisfaction in curative tourism partially mediates place, safety and security, travel environment, price and value, and natural attraction, whereas tourist satisfaction fully mediates harmony. The study contributed to the literature by revealing that tourist satisfaction mediates the relationships between tourism marketing mix, quality standards, and destination image, and destination loyalty. Additionally, tourist satisfaction also is positively linked to tourist loyalty towards curative tourism in Jordan