The Role of Heritage Immersive Authenticity to Increase Tourist Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of Cultural Immersive Authenticity (CIA) as a mediator of the relationship between service quality, destination image, and tourist satisfaction, and to provide theoretical and practical contributions in the management of experience-based tourist destinations. This study used a quantitative approach with a survey method. The subjects of the study were tourists visiting Prambanan Temple, Indonesia, as a representation of cultural tourism destinations. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire distributed to 219 respondents. Data analysis was carried out using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method using AMOS software to test the causal relationship between variables. The results showed that Cultural Immersive Authenticity played a significant role as a mediator between service quality and destination image on tourist satisfaction. This finding also supports the hypothesis that cultural, historical, existential, and environmental authenticity have a positive influence on tourist experience. This study concludes that improving service quality and destination image combined with a deep heritage of authenticity can increase tourist satisfaction. This study provides important implications, both theoretically in enriching the literature on cultural authenticity and tourism marketing, and managerially in designing strategies to improve the quality of cultural-based tourist destinations.