A considerable amount of literature describes concepts that predict theme park visitor behavior. Although previous studies made an effort to measure the impact of several variables on theme park visitors’ loyalty, there is a lack of empirical attention on the impact of some consumption variables such as previous experience, perceived queuing quality, waiting time, using of virtual queuing, and the role of anticipating and remembering the visit. The current study introduces several new experience concepts that were not previously discussed in the literature: the amount of pleasure from anticipation, visiting, and remembering the experience, and time allocation for waiting in lines, amusement activities, and food consumption. Factors that explain these variables, as well as factors that explain perceived value, queuing quality, satisfaction, and loyalty were investigated through survey data from a cross-sectional study. The results demonstrate that previous theme park experience has significant influence on customer loyalty and explains the amount of pleasure visitors receive from anticipation, remembering, and the actual visiting experience. Another important finding is related to the role of virtual queuing, which has relationships with perceived value, perceived waiting time, perceived queuing quality, satisfaction, loyalty, as well as the amount of pleasure from anticipation, visiting, and remembering the theme park visit. Theoretical and managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.
