Destination Threshold Potential and the Law of Repeat Visitation

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of how repeat visitation ratios can be used as a management tool in determining a destination’s position on the destination life-cycle curve. Following a review of the literature on repeat visitation, it presents the concepts of destination threshold potential (TP) and cumulative travel experience (CTE). It then relates how the number of first-time and repeat visitors is inextricably linked to the CTE and TP, as well as to the tourist arrivals in any given year. From those elaborations, several axioms on the law of repeat visitation are developed that provide destination and product managers with the necessary measuring tools to determine their destinations’ current position.