Cultural material heritage has become a factor which can make a city more attractive to visitors. Adequate management of the heritage is essential to achieve visitor satisfaction during and after the visit as well as improve the visitor expectations before and the perceived quality after the visit. Continuous improvement of these aspects can be the differentiating factor for the loyalty of the visitor to the city. The strong competition for visitors between destinations with heritage and culture sites, especially UNESCO listed sites, means that making continual improvements to the management of these sites is essential. The current situation will only become more difficult in the future [1]. In view of this, visitor loyalty to a destination is an important factor to take into account, especially for tourist destinations in areas with cultural heritage [2]. This research makes a valuable contribution to this subject [2].
The Citadel of the Catholic King is material heritage that has a lot of historical and cultural relevance. Firstly, due to the cultures that used the site. The first record of the existence of the enclave comes from Roman culture when it was used as a way to defend the city against incursions made on the Guadalquivir River. After that it became the center of Arabic culture in Spain, being used as the residence of the city rulers. After the reconquest of Cordoba by the Catholic kings, it was transformed into a building where the monarchs could rest and relax. The Citadel of the Catholic King is also a place where important historical changes for Spain and the world happened. It was the place where Cristopher Columbus met the Catholic Kings, who were the Monarchs that unified Spain into a Kingdom [3]. The building that can be visited today was built by Alfonso XI in 1328 on the site of the Omeya Citadel (Arabic origin) [4]. From 1492 to 1811, it was owned by the holy Catholic inquisition. From 1822 to 1931 it was a prison and later used as a military installation until its transfer in 1955 to the Córdoba City Council, which now owns it and manages it as a tourist site [5]. The Alcázar was classified as a Historical Monument in 1931 and is in the area in Córdoba that was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. Currently, The Citadel of the Catholic King is the third most visited material heritage in Cordoba, the second being the synagogue of Cordoba and the first is the Mosque-Cathedral. In 2019 it had 615,737 tourist visits, and an average growth in visits of 10.69% in the last 10 years (Observatorio de turismo de Córdoba, 2019).
This study is based in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) [6], which is a model that has been fully tested for use in research on tourism [7], tourist satisfaction [8], heritage [9] and culture [10].
“The ACSI model has been used in multiple studies of satisfaction and loyalty in tourism in general and in heritage tourism [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19].
The model is based on the expectations that are created before visiting a heritage tourism destination (expected quality). Tourists once they arrive at their destination, live the experience at destination, perceive the quality of different factors that build the perceived quality. Both constructs, (expected quality and perceived quality) relate to the perceived value, which compares the balance or imbalance between perceived cost at its destination and the value received at it. Once the tourist has internalized the perceived value, he is able to assess the level of satisfaction at the destination. The satisfaction level allows you to decide to recommend and repeat the destination (Loyalty).”
This study expands the existing literature about the satisfaction and loyalty of heritage and cultural tourists, since the expected quality of the heritage and cultural aspects are separated, as are the perceived cultural quality and the perceived heritage quality. The concept of moderating constructs is also added to the classic theory of the Structural Equation Model. Two hypotheses specifically analyze the modulating effect of the constructs perceived cultural quality and perceived heritage quality of the visiting tourist. This study is configured as follows: first the introduction, secondly there is the theoretical framework that explains the constructs of the theoretical model and structural equations, below explains the methodology used and the fourth section summarizes the results of the research. To finish the article we find the discussion and conclusions of the study, followed by a list of the references used in the article.
In recent decades Cultural tourism occupies a niche market with exponential growth in international tourism [20]. Visiting tourists have motivations perceptions and build their idea of satisfactory destination based on various factors. Cultural and heritage, as an important part of the demand for knowledge of the place visited, create the experience of the tourist's visit that allows to have the ability to make the decision to return, recommend and promote the destination as a prominent part of his historical heritage experience [21]. World heritage cities compete to offer recreational and cultural experiences that attract the greatest number of tourists with the desire to learn more about the history of the destination, enriching their knowledge and their life experience [22]. Ramires, Brandao, and Sousa describes cultural historical tourism as a social phenomenon [23]. Cultural heritage cities have to differentiate the difference from the competition, either including in their cultural offer local customs, centuries of history, art and traditions transmitted from generation to generation. Consequently, heritage tourism is important for the cities that have heritage sites [24].
In this context, the components that are related to satisfaction in the visit to the material heritage can cite how visitors seek new experiences, authentic contexts and unique or exceptional activities. Actions such as participation, hedonism, knowledge, nostalgia, history, novelty and local culture are the basic ingredients of a memorable and satisfying tourist experience [25], in the same line the authors [26] highlight how the experiences provided in the heritage present the same degree of satisfaction for visitors that aims to visit the material heritage itself as those who visit the heritage for the tourist experiences around it (theatrical visits, historical explanations). This, coupled with the fact that these activities are usually carried out on holidays and that holiday contribute to the satisfaction of life and its quality of life [27,28,29] in addition to adding congratulations and pleasurable effects to the activities carried out in the holiday period [30].
Studies have shown that loyalty to a visited place is directly related to the satisfaction and opinion of the visitor [31, 32]. Studies which analyze loyalty in tourism have mainly looked into the attitude and intention of the visitor [32]. Academic studies can be grouped into two categories due to how loyalty is examined. The first group investigates repeat purchases, that is to say, tourists returning to a destination. The second, and far more interesting, group takes loyalty to mean recommending the tourist destination to other future tourists [33,34,35]. This means that the tourist feels a connection with a destination and intends to visit it again in the future, while also recommending it to third parties [36,37,38,39]. It should be pointed out that there are authors who warn that a tourist’s desire for new experiences may counteract the loyalty shown to the destination [40]. Studies which investigate loyalty to cultural heritage are mainly cognitive and use structural equations to predict intentions to return to or recommend a destination [41, 42].
How comfortable the tourist felt at the destination and the monument visited is one of the most important factors when deciding to return to a destination, and therefore for visitor loyalty [35, 38, 43]. The perceived quality is usually considered one of the most important factors in research on tourist behavior [44]. Researchers define perceived quality as the overall accumulation of the tourist’s feelings about the experience at a destination [45, 46]. Tourists value their experience as positive or negative for different attributes of the monument or destination [80]. Following on from this idea, the perceived value of a destination by a visitor is considered to be the most important indicator of their intentions to return to the chosen destination. It is possible that a customer does not buy a product or service because it is not considered value for money as the perceived value is not adequate for the price asked [47]. Studies by different authors explain that perceived value measures a tourist’s general assessment of their experience at a destination from the feelings they had there [48, 49]. Cossío-Silva et al. obtain a realistic idea of tourist behavior by means of this variable and the results obtained can be useful for public institutions and organizations that offer tourism [50]. Customers who are aware of the value of a service or product sometimes expect particular benefits from it [51]. For this reason, perceived value is related to the usefulness of a purchase because the purchase has intrinsic benefits that satisfy the buyer’s needs [52]. A tourist who is interested in value will look for information and contemplate the idea fully before making a decision [53]. This means that perceived value affects the decisions of customers [54]. Perceived value can positively affect the loyalty of a customer [47] because customers who are aware of the value of a service make positive judgements about it, relating value to price and critically assessing all options.
This study analyses the relationship between the following variables, perceived heritage quality (PPQ) and the expected heritage quality (EPQ), perceived cultural heritage quality (PCHQ) and the expected cultural heritage quality (ECHQ), the perceived value of the visit as a whole (PV), satisfaction (SATISFAC) and loyalty (LOYALTY). In literature there are several studies including these variables, however few studies include modulating variables in the relationships between constructs [55, 56]. The different authors who have used this type of theoretical model are shown in Table 1.
The questionnaire with which the data was obtained was designed following various authors who have used constructs similar to those used in the theoretical model. The ACSI model has been used in multiple studies of satisfaction and loyalty in tourism in general and in heritage tourism [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19].
The model is based on the expectations that are created before visiting a heritage tourism destination (expected quality). Tourists once they arrive at their destination, live the experience at destination, perceive the quality of different factors that build the perceived quality. Both constructs, (expected quality and perceived quality) relate to the perceived value, which compares the balance or imbalance between perceived cost at its destination and the value received at it. Once the tourist has internalized the perceived value, he is able to assess the level of satisfaction at the destination. The satisfaction level allows you to decide to recommend and repeat the destination (loyalty).
The variables which were investigated in this study are satisfaction and loyalty. These have been studied on several occasions in different areas by several authors [57, 58]. Both variables are positively related showing that the probability of a visitor at a heritage site revisiting or recommending the destination is high [59, 60] if they are satisfied with the visit. These are judgments made by tourists because of their experience at the destination, and these affect the likelihood of the tourist revisiting the site or city and their willingness to recommend it to friends and family [2, 61].
Managers of cultural material heritage should have previous information about the visitors who visit the site in order to plan actions which will improve the visitor expectations about the heritage and cultural experiences. These modify the behavior of the tourist because of the relationship between the perceived value and satisfaction. This study uses structural equations with all the above variables and, as it also includes a new approach using moderating relationships at heritage sites, it is of academic interest. This research increases the contribution to academic literature around heritage, loyalty and satisfaction by adding culture on the visit.
There are not many Royal and historical Citadels (with a past dated at least from the Muslim era) in Spain which are put in tourist value and are visitable. The uniqueness that were the quarters of the Catholic kings, with a historical character and that are touristic. In particular, there are four: Royal Citadel Sevilla, Royal Citadel Madrid, the Muslim Citadel of Valencia and the Royal Citadel Almunia (Palma de Mallorca). In academic matters, different studies have been carried out from the historical or archaeological perspective [62, 63] but not from the tourist management. The Citadel of the Catholic King of Cordoba is the most culturally, and architecturally significant. It belongs to the historic center of Cordoba being an inscription by UNESCO and is dated from roman times, an optimal conservation and valued for the tourism, therefore it is the most historical and cultural.
The aim of this study is to add to the information available about cultural heritage tourism, contribute to the improvement of the management of visits to the unique heritage sites and provide useful knowledge for cultural heritage managers and tourism companies. The most concrete objective is to detect how tourist experiences in culture and heritage increase satisfaction and loyalty by increasing visits, repetition and their recommendation. This research studies the loyalty of visitors to the cultural heritage site and to the city, along with the Satisfaction and Expectations of the tourists who visit The Citadel of the Catholic King. Scientific literature which studies cultural heritage tourism by investigating heritage and culture, and the influence on Perceived Quality at different Citadel s, is scarce. While it is true that there are some studies in tourism with modeling variables, the study in particular cases of heritage tourism in Spain (as a second country in the ranking of international tourists) is novel. It contributes to academic knowledge about the cultural and heritage aspects of material heritage. This means that it makes a contribution to the current knowledge of cultural heritage and city management.
Therefore this article contributes in several ways: first it contributes to scientific literature in the analysis of the modulation of cultural and heritage quality perceived in the relationship between perceived value in general and satisfaction, considering ranges of low values and high values, secondly, provides the study of the characteristics of the cultural and heritage tourism through the visit to a cultural heritage and third place, provides conclusions to achieve or loyalty improve to tourists cultural and heritage.
Hypotheses development
The variables used to measure the loyalty of the visitors to the city of Cordoba were, (1) The expected cultural quality of The Citadel of the Catholic King, (2) The expected heritage quality of The Citadel of the Catholic King, (3) The perceived cultural quality of The Citadel of the Catholic King, (4) The perceived heritage quality of The Citadel of the Catholic King, (5) Comparing the expected quality and the perceived quality we can estimate the perceived value, (6) Satisfaction, as an emotional or cognitive response of the visiting tourist, and (7) The loyalty that tourists feel as a result of their attitude and contact with the experience in destiny.
The following (Fig. 1) hypotheses were formulated using the existing literature:
Hypothesis 1 (H1)
The expected patrimonial quality (EPQ) positively and significantly influences the perceived patrimonial quality (PPQ). EPQ influences PPQ.
Hypothesis 2 (H2)
The expected cultural heritage quality (ECHQ) positively and significantly influences the perceived cultural heritage quality (PCHQ). ECHQ influences PCHQ.
Hypothesis 3 (H3)
The perceived cultural heritage quality positively and significantly influences the perceived value as a whole. PCHQ influences PV.
Hypothesis 4 (H4)
The perceived patrimonial quality (PPQ) positively and significantly influences the perceived value (PV) as a whole. PPQ influences PV.
Hypothesis 5 (H5)
The perceived patrimonial quality (PPQ) positively and significantly influences the relationship between perceived value (PV) and satisfaction (SATISFAC). PPQ moderates PV which influences SATISFAC.
Hypothesis 6 (H6)
The perceived cultural heritage quality (PCHQ) positively and significantly influences the relationship between perceived value (PV) and satisfaction (SATISFAC). PCHQ moderates PV which influences SATISFAC.
Hypothesis 7 (H7)
The perceived value (PV) influences the satisfaction (SATISFAC) with it. PV influences SATISFAC.
Hypothesis 8 (H8)
The satisfaction of the visitor to the cultural heritage positively influences their loyalty to it. SATISFAC influences LOYALTY.