The Fun Factor: Unlocking Place Love Through Exceptional Tourist Experiences

This study illustrates the psychological mechanisms of tourists’ behavioral outcome. Destinations strive to offer a wide range of venues with rich experiential attributes that evoke positive emotions. Fun holds the key to unlocking positive outcomes. This study explored the mediating role of fun between service excellence and place love and examine how expectation congruence moderates the mediating effect between service excellence and fun. As such, this paper should be of interest to a broad readership including destination marketers who may be interested in understanding factors contributing to the fun in marketing their destinations.