Consequences of citizens' quality of life in word of mouth of cities: the mediating effect of destination image

Abstract

Cities have witnessed a growing number of tourists visiting their attractions, events and monuments. From this growth, tourism has become increasingly important over the last few years. For this evolution has influence the image of the cities themselves but also the influence of the word of mouth that tourists promote by their lived experiences in these cities. Scientific studies around tourism marketing have accentuated the analysis of studies of tourist profile and behavior, leaving aside the importance that the citizen, resident in the city, has in promoting the place as a tourism destination. In this sense, due to the importance of tourism for the Portuguese economy and the small number of relevant citizen-centered studies in literature, our study deepened the contributions of citizens' quality of life to the word of mouth of cities. To achieve our goal, we tested a research model using partial least squares estimated structural equations (PLS-SEM) across a sample of 428 individuals. The results show that citizens will recommend their cities through word of mouth if their quality of life is high, with emphasis on the psychological well-being and enjoyment dimensions obtained by each citizen in the city. Thus, our study contributes to understand the importance of cities, have strategies oriented to their resident citizens that, in this way, will be able to recommend to tourists and consequently promote the dynamization of economic activities.