A destination performance measurement framework: exploring the relationships among performance criteria and revisit intentions

Measuring the success of tourism destinations is vital to policymakers, destination managers, researchers, and businesses. However, the processes and metrics vary considerably across academia, tourism organizations, and governments since destination performance is multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder. The primary aim of this research was to develop a destination performance measurement framework. Survey data were obtained from 403 domestic tourists who visited Ladakh, India, rating 12 destination performance criteria to test the framework. Variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM) was used and destination performance positively influenced destination revisit intentions. Destination performance also positively influenced new tourism products. New tourism products partly mediated the relationship between destination performance and revisit intentions. An importance-performance matrix analysis of the framework was conducted, and accessibility, activity, awareness, availability, and assurance were rated as highly important and influential in destination revisit intentions. The findings should be of practical value for destinations and those responsible for tourism planning, development, and marketing since they provide clear metrics for performance measurement.