Fairness in the local movements of tourists within a destination: justice perceptions, bus services, and destination loyalty

Purpose This paper aims to incorporate the justice framework of hospitality and marketing literature into the bus service user research to extend our knowledge about whether and why visitors on a local daytrip within a travel destination display behavioral intentions to revisit that destination. Because prior studies show that perceived justice leads customers to positive outcomes, the authors suggest that when bus service is provided fairly, it is more able to elicit feelings of satisfaction with the bus service in same-day visitors. This satisfactory context, in turn, leads same-day visitors to experience feelings of destination loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 105 day visitors on 48 bus arrivals to Las Palmas city from the southern area of Gran Canaria Island (Spain). The authors used partial least squares regression (SmartPLS 20) to test the relationships. Findings Although the studied relationships may be dynamic over time, and a cross-sectional method might seem useless in accounting for them, results support that the more fairly the bus operator treats the daytrip visitors, the more they express intentions to revisit the destination, with service satisfaction acting as a full mediator that explains this link. Practical implications These findings suggest that by promoting fair treatment on local daytrips, the travel destination, through the bus transport, is communicating to same-day visitors a collective effort to provide happy and successful local visits within the destination, thus contributing to the overall attractiveness of the destination. Originality/value This paper is one of the first empirical studies to provide a justice-based framework for understanding why tourists’ experiences during their local movements by bus within a destination could encourage these tourists to revisit the destination.