Museums and the urban heritage experience: an asymmetric dual-pathway model of visitor satisfaction and recommendation intention in Tashkent

Museums are prominent assets in the tourism offer of cities, yet how urban heritage visits relate to visitor satisfaction and to willingness to recommend remains under-examined in emerging, transitional destinations. This study examines a dual-pathway model of museum visitor satisfaction and recommendation intention in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, drawing on a cognitive-affective distinction informed by dual-system theory, and the cognitive-affective-conative sequence within a stimulus-organism-response architecture. Cross-sectional data from 179 domestic visitors at two urban heritage museums were analysed using PLS-SEM, with differences between path coefficients tested directly rather than inferred from differing significance levels. The results indicate an asymmetry that is specifically affective: both motivations were associated with the cognitive outcome to a statistically indistinguishable degree, whereas only experiential motivation was associated with the affective outcome. Perceived quality was the strongest correlate of satisfaction, significantly exceeding both experiential routes, and was significant among first-time but not repeat visitors. Satisfaction was strongly associated with recommendation intention, with no group difference detected. Because the design is cross-sectional and all constructs were measured on one occasion after the visit, the findings are associational. The study contributes museum-level evidence from a post-Soviet Central Asian city under-represented in urban tourism scholarship, and specifies what such evidence can and cannot establish about city-level outcomes.