How Wellness Tourists Become Loyal: A PLS-SEM Test of the Destination Image-Satisfaction-Desire Pathway with Gender MGA

This study examines how loyalty intentions are formed in wellness tourism and whether the underlying mechanism differs by gender.Data were collected through an email-based, anonymous survey of former customers of a major Romanian health tourism resort (N = 343; February 2023-November 2025).The proposed model links Destination Image, Satisfaction, Desire, and Loyalty Intention, extending the classic destination image-satisfaction-loyalty chain by introducing Desire as a motivational bridge.The model was tested with PLS-SEM, followed by measurement invariance assessment and multi-group analysis (MGA) for males versus females.Results support all direct hypotheses and the serial mediation pathway (Destination Image → Satisfaction → Desire → Loyalty Intention) in both gender groups and in the pooled sample, indicating a robust loyalty-formation structure.MGA further suggests statistically significant gender-based differences across the structural paths, implying that men and women rely to different degrees on image-driven evaluations versus motivational conversion processes when forming loyalty intentions.Practically, the findings recommend that wellness destinations prioritize strengthening destination image and satisfaction while also designing experiences that actively stimulate desire to return, and tailor communication and retention strategies by gender to maximize loyalty outcomes.