FROM IMAGE TO LOYALTY: THE SERIAL MEDIATING ROLES OF PERCEIVED QUALITY AND SATISFACTION IN CHENGDU’S URBAN PARKS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i43.2093Keywords:
Park City, Park Image, Perceived Quality, Visitor Satisfaction, Loyalty, PLS-SEMAbstract
Urban parks play an important role in sustainable urban development, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying visitor loyalty in the context of “Park City” remain insufficiently examined. This study uses the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model to explore how park image and perceived quality affect the satisfaction and loyalty of visitors in Chengdu, China. A total of 513 valid questionnaires were collected through on-site surveys of two representative urban parks. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to examine the hypothesised relationships among the constructs. The results indicate that park image significantly predicted perceived quality (β = 0.600, p < 0.001), while park image (β = 0.337) and perceived quality (β = 0.264) significantly enhanced visitor satisfaction. Satisfaction also had a significant positive effect on loyalty (β = 0.400). The validated serial mediation pathway (Park Image → Perceived Quality → Satisfaction → Loyalty) demonstrates that park image is a foundational driver of visitor loyalty, whose influence is translated through perceived quality and satisfaction with the park experience. These findings suggest that Park City planning should align image construction with everyday experiential quality, enabling positive park perceptions to support satisfaction, revisit intention, and public recommendation.
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