The Mediating Role of Place Attachment in Anime Pilgrimage: Linking Destination Attractiveness to Destination Loyalty

Traveling to sites appearing in anime works, commonly known as anime pilgrimages, has become prominent over the past two decades. Previous studies have shown that anime pilgrims exhibit strong destination loyalty, including positive word-of-mouth and site-enhancement activities. However, few studies have identified the causal mechanisms between destination loyalty of anime pilgrims and their antecedents. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) hypothesis, this study developed a hypothetical model to determine how place attachment mediates the causal link between visual media-induced destination attractiveness and destination loyalty in anime pilgrimage. Using online survey data from anime pilgrims in Japan (n = 365), this study analyzed the proposed model through structural equation modeling (SEM) and identified two main findings. First, place attachment as a second-order factor consists of two dimensions: place personal attachment and place social bonding. Second, place attachment has a significant mediating role in the relationship between destination attractiveness and anime pilgrims’ loyalty. This study offers theoretical and managerial contributions for advancing tourism research and destination marketing in the context of visual media-induced tourism.