Revisiting an Academic Tourism Destination : An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Motivations, Attitudes, Satisfaction, and Electronic Word of Mouth

Academic tourism is a worldwide phenomenon experiencing significant growth. Beyond the benefits for students, host academic institutions obtain direct economic benefits from the mobility program, and the destinations receive indirect spillovers out of the living expenses of the students. The present study develops a structural equation model (SEM) aimed to explain the behavior of students after visiting a given academic institution. Using the information on a large sample of Erasmus students, the model helps to explain the subjects’ recommendations on both the institution and the destination, and their intention to revisit the destination for leisure purposes. The study finds that the intention to recommend the host academic institution, followed by the attitude toward it, are the primary determinants of the intention to revisit. Moreover, push and pull motivations are fundamental in explaining the attitude toward the institution. Finally, both satisfaction and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) influence the intention to revisit indirectly, through the intention to recommend. Consequently, academic tourism destinations should assess their visiting students’ ex-ante motivations and attitudes toward the institution to improve satisfaction and, simultaneously, potentiate electronic word of mouth to increase the probability of revisiting. The study discusses the implications of academic tourism for leisure destinations suggesting some lines of work for future research