Abstract
The accelerated digitalization of tourism services after the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the tourist journey, but the presence of digital tools does not automatically generate loyalty. This cross-sectional study examines whether a personalized tourism experience statistically mediates the association between perceived digitalization and revisit intention and recommendation behavior in the Romanian post-pandemic tourism context. The analysis used a non-probabilistic convenience and snowball sample of 419 Romanian adults with recent travel experience. The constructs were assessed with reflective multi-item measures refined through a focus group, cognitive pretesting, and pilot testing. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bias-corrected bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples were conducted in AMOS. Perceived digitalization was positively associated with a personalized tourism experience (β = 0.630, p < 0.001), which was positively associated with loyalty intentions (β = 0.485, p < 0.001). The direct association between digitalization and loyalty intentions remained significant (β = 0.228, p < 0.001), while the standardized indirect effect was β = 0.305, 95% BC CI [0.221, 0.414] (B = 0.379), supporting partial mediation. The indirect effect was numerically larger than the direct effect, although the difference between them was not formally tested. The model explained 39.7% of the variance in personalization and 42.6% of the variance in loyalty intentions. The findings indicate that digitalization is more strongly associated with loyalty when tourists perceive it as personally relevant, convenient, and adaptive; causal conclusions remain limited by the cross-sectional, self-report design.
Cuvinte cheie
perceived digitalization
personalized tourism experience
behavioral loyalty intentions
revisit intention
recommendation behavior
post-pandemic tourism
Romania.
Istoric articol
Publicat
31.08.2026
Informații autori
Citare recomandată
Constantina-Alina Miloș (Ilie) (2026). Perceived Digitalization and Tourist Loyalty: the Mediating Role of Personalized Experience in Post-Pandemic Tourism. Constantin Brâncuși University of Târgu Jiu Economics Series, 2(1), 332–343. https://doi.org/10.65631/jes.4.2026.31
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