Building enduring culture involvement, destination identification and destination loyalty through need fulfilment

Involvement and identification have been deemed as prominent constructs that result in favourable outcomes for a holiday destination. However, research that investigates the drivers of these two constructs is very limited. Drawing upon Self Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how fulfilling the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence (ARC) would affect involvement, identification and loyalty. Based on a survey of 725 respondents, the findings show that if the destination is able to foster tourists’ need fulfilment, these tourists will have higher involvement, identification and ultimately become loyal to the destination. The findings of this study also show the mediating role of involvement and identification. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.