Service Quality Is No Longer Enough and the Role of Digital Engagement in Tourist Loyalty

Tourist loyalty has become increasingly complex in the digital era, as travel experiences are no longer shaped solely by on-site encounters but also by sustained interaction through social media. Understanding how experiential and digital factors jointly influence loyalty is therefore critical for contemporary tourism studies. This study examines the effects of service quality, destination image, and perceived value on tourist loyalty and investigates the moderating role of social media engagement. This study adopts a quantitative explanatory design using a survey method. The population comprises tourists visiting Taman Nasional Bromo Tengger Semeru, with respondents selected through purposive sampling based on prior visitation and exposure to destination-related social media. A total of 250 valid responses were collected in December 2025. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling to assess direct effects and moderating relationships among the constructs. The results indicate that tourist loyalty is primarily influenced by perceived value and destination image, while social media engagement plays a meaningful role in strengthening tourists’ ongoing attachment to the destination. In contrast, service quality alone appears insufficient to sustain loyalty in a digitally mediated tourism environment. The findings further suggest that digital engagement reshapes the influence of traditional experiential drivers rather than uniformly reinforcing them, signaling a shift in the underlying logic of loyalty formation.