The Influence of Different Factors of Product Attachment on Taoist Tourism Loyalty

Abstract

Zinan Temple is one of the Taoist temples in Taiwan, demonstrating the vital status of religious activities and beliefs. Creating religious products that tourists like through unique religious resources and conducting product differentiation competitions is essential for religious tourism to attract tourists. The research used a convenience sampling method, and 377 online questionnaires were distributed and used SPSS 21.0 to conduct linear regression. This research affirms the positive effect of product attachment on loyalty through indispensability and irreplaceability, as well as irreplaceability being a more critical intermediary variable. This research has verified the theoretical impact of religious tourism products on loyalty and makes specific recommendations on improving Taoist tourists’ loyalty to enhance the tourism competitiveness of Zinan Temple. Therefore, this research provides practical suggestions for religious development and cultural sustainability.

1. Introduction

Many scholars believed that pilgrimage in religious tourism is a popular project for tourists worldwide [1]. Religious culture has a supernatural attraction and is one of the ways to soothe the soul. Therefore, engaging in religious and cultural activities can help people stabilize their emotions [2] and use resources to plan leisure as a characteristic tourism activity in Asia. It has the invisible power to stabilize people’s hearts [3] and meet people’s spiritual needs and sense of belonging [4]. Religion, culture, and art tourism are sustainable resources with significant capital and critical components [5]. As part of cultural heritage, religion is a crucial resource for local development [4]. Moreover, it combines tourism resources to promote social and economic development and the sustainability of local culture [6]. Therefore, religious tourism promotes the tourism industry and is an essential sustainable resource in preserving local traditional customs, boosting the local economy and culture, and benefiting social residents [7].

Taiwanese Taoism has inherited the Taoist traits of Minnan culture since it was introduced, and it still retains this feature in modern times. Taoist temples in Taiwan often enshrine more than ten kinds of gods, such as Mazu, the Jade Emperor, and the Earth God. By the end of 2020, there were 15216 temples registered in Taiwan, and more than 8000 were Taoist. The number of believers is more than 8 million (accounting for more than one-third of the population of Taiwan), and believers are distributed in various cities throughout Taiwan [8]. The primary purpose of recreational activities in tourism is religious activities, which account for 8.1%, which means Taoism’s critical position and competitiveness in Taiwan’s tourism market. Religious tourism is part of the oldest form of tourism. Besides believers, tourists also flock to the holy land [9], which has become a popular tourist attraction in Taiwan.

“Zinan Temple” in Chushan Town, Nantou County, is the first temple in Taiwan where believers can go to ask the Earth God for “fortune money.” Zinan Temple is one of the three major land temples in Taiwan. Tourists come in an endless stream. In addition, to donate temples for worship (sesame oil money) yearly, the most considerable income is to borrow “fortune money.” Believers pray to the Earth God for their smooth entrepreneurship and achievements. Believers usually “repay the money” within one year after seeking “fortune money.” Usually, the Earth God will “respond to every request” of the believers, and the believers will also add sesame oil money when “returning the money,” and the believers will repay more than the amount borrowed before as “repayment.” Therefore, people set off an upsurge of asking for wealth from the Earth’s God. It has the “Gods Bank” title and attracts about 8 million tourists annually. Due to the uniqueness of fortune money representing the blessing of the gods and the special significance of guiding the people’s mazes of life, the Zinan Temple is flourishing, the number of tourists increases year by year, and the development of the industry is promoted.

Religious tourism helps protect the local natural resources, cultural heritage, and traditional values of the community to ensure long-term economic and social benefits [10]. Loyalty refers to the stable commitment and support for specific objects [11], which is mainly manifested in practical actions such as repeated purchases or recommendations [12,13,14]. In previous studies, loyalty focused on the relationship between the destination and tourists as well as trying to establish a lasting and beneficial relationship with them. Although Pedeliento et al. [15] took product attachment as a pre-variable of brand loyalty in the study, they did not discuss whether tourism product attachment would affect the loyalty of the destination. In addition, so far, no research has explored loyalty from the perspective of religious tourism. Therefore, determining what factors will affect loyalty is the main motive of this research.

Smith [16] mentioned that the relationship between people and places requires a comprehensive understanding of what factors can strengthen the connection between them and ultimately improve visitors’ loyalty [12]. Most previous studies discussed the impact of place attachment on loyalty [12,17]. Still, they did not specifically address a particular thing. It is not only an academic gap but also an inability to provide specific suggestions to the religious tourism industry. The most significant feature of the “Zinan Temple” is the “fortune money” for believers to obtain TWD 600 cash. This “fortune money” is a representation of the transformation of intangible beliefs into tangible products. Therefore, as a religious product, “fortune money” in this research understands the impact on Zinan Temple loyalty through attachment to this product. For emotional attachment to a product, the most important thing is to know what makes tourists fall in love with it and how to create an emotional bond with it [18]. Religious product consumption is also an experience of pleasant emotions, self-expression, group affiliation, and memory [19,20,21]. Therefore, this research will explore the specific impact on product attachment of the above four variables. This research aims to establish a comprehensive theoretical model to break through the limitations of previous research in this field and comprehensively explore how religious product attachment affects tourist loyalty.

Product attachment will make consumers feel the profound and essential significance of products, reducing the substitutability of other products [22]. Because of the uniqueness of wealth currency, which represents the blessing of gods and the special significance of guiding people’s mazes, products can provide consumers with unique means and around people’s emotional responses [23]. Consumers attach their self-concept to religious products [24]; this is indispensable for tourists. Therefore, this research takes irreplaceability and indispensability as the influencing factors of loyalty. To sum up, the purposes of this research are as follows:

(1)

To explore which factor affects tourists’ product attachment.

(2)

To explore how product attachment affects Taoist tourist loyalty through indispensability and irreplaceability.

(3)

Put forward practical suggestions for shaping the differentiation and uniqueness of religious tourism products.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Product Attachment

Product attachment is a special emotional connection formed through experience between consumers and products [25]. Attachment is a particular emotion that makes people like, rely on, and identify with things. For travel operators and managers, it is timely and important to understand what factors create an attachment to products [26]. Attachment theory is widely applied in leisure tourism-related research, but most focus on discussing place attachment. Most measure place dependence and regional identity as the dimensions of place attachment [12,27]. Relevant scholars have extended the attachment theory to religion to explore the intimate attachment between man and God. When people are under tremendous pressure, they often turn to God for help [28,29], which is an act of approaching God to seek help and an attachment to a haven. The product attachment contains three crucial implications: (1) There is a strong emotional relationship between consumers and products. (2) The difference in consumers’ feeling degrees [22,30] and the specific goods preferred by consumers will have a solid emotional connection [31]. (3) Personal emotions are triggered by marked objects to form a sense of attachment [22].

The irreplaceability of product attachment is sometimes confused with indispensability. Irreplaceability is a significant factor used to describe product attachment; it is also an indispensable prerequisite for maintaining a sense of lasting relationships. Indispensability usually comes from the functional necessity of products while irreplaceability is mainly measured by passionate attachment [32]. For consumers, products have a profound and essential significance, reducing the substitutability of other products. The consumer’s input and experience of the thing have a special meaning to the consumer [30]. This indicates an emotional connection between the owner and the product and the importance of the specific product to the owner [18,22,32,33]. In other words, irreplaceability indicates the irreplaceable emotional connection of the product in the owner’s (consumer) mind. A product attachment is an interactive relationship between an individual or group and a unique item. For product functionality, regard product attachment as the primary function of consumers to use the product to obtain benefits [33], and the function of this product is not available in other products. Based on the above, this study found that the most significant difference between product indispensability and irreplaceability is that one is based on product efficacy, while the other is based on consumers’ spiritual and emotional perspectives.

In this research, “fortune money” is regarded as a religious product that inherits the connotation of religious spirit and achieves the benefits of commercial exchange. As the “carrier” of religious culture, it means attaching religious meaning, life attitude, and values to the product and extending the contact between religion and the public [34] to understand what factors will affect the product’s attachment to tourists. Therefore, “fortune money” has both the indispensability and irreplaceability of the product. However, research has yet to explore the effect of product attachment on destination loyalty.

2.2. Influencing Factors of Product Attachment

A product can be meaningful because of its connection with important memories, experiences, people, places, or values [35]. Mugge et al. [31] suggest four possible determinants of product attachment: pleasure, self-expression, group affiliation, and memories, of which all but pleasure are associative.

Over time, pleasure will change the degree of consumer attachment to the product and their satisfaction with the product [36]. It is the product that produces pleasure in its function, providing entertainment or relaxation. Mugge et al. [31] found that the product’s superior practicality or appearance will make people happy to see similar products and then affect the experience of product attachment [37]. Bi et al. [38] found that people need a pleasant product experience, and products that support basic human needs and values are the most popular. Product attachment should not only have practical value but also meet the emotional needs of users. Because the pleasure factors of religious products are closely related to preferences, especially psychological pleasure (such as use efficiency) and physiological pleasure (such as visual and other sensory pleasure) can increase tourists’ unique feelings and experiences of religious products [21].

Self-expression shows symbolic personal personality through purchase behavior and private use of products [39]. Carroll and Ahuvia [40] defined self-expression as consumers’ perception of how a specific individual improves their social self or social status, and self-expression reflects a person’s inner self. Products can connect our past, present, and future moments to build a coherent life story that reflects our identity as a person [35]. The use of products is a way for individuals to convey their personalities. People tend to maintain their unique identity as self-expression products, and self-expression is closely related to products [30]. Therefore, people can establish an identity different from others by using the product [36]. Lochrie et al. [19] found that the religious product of a particular product is not only a way of self-expression but can also change a person’s image through the religious product purchased. In religious analysis, the meaning of consumption often comes from self-expression, community, and close connection with others [41]. This specific religious product can show others who he is; in other words, it serves as a medium for tourists to enhance their self-image [20,42].

Group affiliation refers to product attachment that requires a connection with the masses, which could symbolize the importance of a person or a social group. Therefore, more attention is paid to the product, and the sense of connection between the product and the person is enhanced [22,24,30]. As Agarwala et al. [43] mentioned, there is a symbiosis between religion and culture. Group beliefs and culture must be considered when analyzing religious products, as participation in religious groups makes individuals more motivated to purchase religious products [44]. These groups are usually communal, such as cultural, ethnic, religious, family, and peer groups [45]. Group affiliation may affect product attachment and user satisfaction [46].

The symbolism of a product is a special memory that exists between people and the product [47,48], and the product helps people evoke memories of the past. The long-term relationship between tourists and products is conducive to forming a strong attachment to products [33]. Increasing product-related memory is a channel for increasing product attachment and consumption, and religious belief is no exception [19,32,35]. This association may stem from the materiality of the product (color, smell, texture, form, shape, etc.); it may also be derived from personal beliefs [35]. Based on the above analysis, we can find that religious product attachment is affected by different aspects. In other words, in this research, “fortune money” is closely connected with personal emotions, self-expression, group links, and product memory. Therefore, this research proposes the following research hypotheses:

H1: 

Pleasure has a positive and significant effect on product attachment.

H2: 

Self-expression has a positive and significant effect on product attachment.

H3: 

Group affiliation has a positive and significant effect on product attachment.

H4: 

Memory has a positive and significant effect on product attachment.

Previous research has influenced the relationship between attachment, irreplaceability, self-extension, and indispensability [32]. Indispensability tells you whether the production should not be missed. Consumers attach their concept of self to the products (objects) they own and use [24]. Self-extension refers to whether the product feels like part of the user. Indispensability is related to attachment and irreplaceability through self-expression [32].

Irreplaceability means symbolic meaning. Even the same product gives people different feelings. In other words, consumers’ feelings for products are irreplaceable. Most people refuse to give up their products, mainly because they have a sense of attachment and are unwilling to replace them with other products [22]. Attachment and irreplaceability are related.

Product attachment positively affects product irreplaceability, and product irreplaceability positively affects a buyer’s repurchase intention [15]. Therefore, this research proposes the following research hypotheses:

H5: 

Product attachment has a positive and significant effect on the indispensability of the product.

H6: 

Product attachment has a positive and significant effect on the irreplaceability of the product.

2.3. Loyalty

Product attachment can prevent products from being replaced by other products and indirectly improve brand loyalty. It shows that brand and product attachment positively impact brand loyalty; product attachment positively influences product irreplaceability; and product attachment will have an indirect positive effect on loyalty through product irreplaceability [15].

Previous studies on explaining destination loyalty have included emotional solidarity [49], place attachment [50], and overall satisfaction [51]. Yuksel et al. [52] mentioned that tourists use symbolic meaning as a sense of attachment because they have achieved specific goals or activity needs. The main result of attachment is that consumers keep close to the products to which they are attached [15]. Past studies have widely discussed the relationship between place attachment, destination image, satisfaction, and destination loyalty. In particular, place attachment is considered a measure of tourists’ attitude loyalty [12,17,53].

Few studies have explored the effect on loyalty of innovative variables (e.g., product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability). Park and Yoo [54] concluded that consumers’ emotional attachment to the product is not enough to increase their loyalty, but meeting their hedonic and utilitarian needs may help improve their loyalty. Although there are few references to support this research and put forward relevant hypotheses directly, they can be inferred from the above material. Attachment is an essential indicator for predicting tourist satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, we boldly speculate the following hypotheses:

H7: 

Indispensability has a positive and significant effect on loyalty.

H8: 

Irreplaceability has a positive and significant effect on loyalty.

H9: 

Product attachment has a positive and significant effect on loyalty.

3. Research Methodology

3.1. Research Site

The Chushan Zinan Temple (Figure 1) is a Chinese temple dedicated to Fude Zhengshen and located in Sheliao Village, Chushan Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. It is the first temple in Taiwan where believers can come here to ask the Earth God for “fortune money.” Believers believed that borrowing money from Fude Zhengshen, the God of Prosperity, would bring them good luck, good fortune, and prosperity.

3.2. Questionnaire Design

In this research, the questionnaire survey method is the primary survey method. The questionnaire has four parts. The first part is the determinants of product attachment, including pleasure, self-expression, group affiliation, and memory. The second part is about related factors affecting loyalty, including product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability. The third part is loyalty, including that I am willing to go to Zinan Temple to seek “fortunate money” in the future, I am willing to go there again and recommend it to relatives and friends around me. The fourth part is the basic information about tourists, including seven categories: gender, marital status, occupation, salary, number of participants, education, and place of residence.

They are measured on a category scale. Except for demographic variables measured on category scales, the remaining variables were measured on the Likert five-point scale, ranging from 1 = extremely disagree to 5 = extremely agree.

3.3. Sample Criteria

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers could not collect face-to-face data. To overcome this barrier, the online questionnaire was more rigorous and standardized. In the questionnaire design, we will first set a question “had been to Zinan Temple and asked for fortune money.” The respondents can enter the questionnaire only when they choose “YES.” After meeting this condition, it became the sample of this research.

3.4. Data Collection and Analysis

The questionnaire was made through the SurveyCake platform and distributed to respondents of different ages, jobs, and living in other regions using Line and Facebook groups with more than 100 participants. When we designed the online questionnaire, each account could only fill in the questionnaire once. In addition, to reduce sampling errors, the screening of invalid samples was completed by two authors. The research was conducted from 20 August 2021 to 5 September 2021 using a convenience sampling method. 377 online questionnaires were distributed, and 335 valid questionnaires were returned.

IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.0 (SPSS 21.0) was used as an analysis tool in this research. This research uses descriptive statistics to analyze the basic conditions of tourists. Factor analysis is used to extract the main factor facets of each variable and analyze the validity of each variable. Finally, regression analysis is used to verify the influence relationship between the variables of the proposed research hypotheses.

4. Analysis of Results

4.1. Descriptive Statistics

The demographic characteristics of respondents showed that “male” accounted for 33.7% and “female” accounted for 66.3%. Marital status was dominated by “married,” accounting for 62.7%, and “unmarried,” accounting for 37.3%. There were as many “30–39” year olds as “40–49” year olds, accounting for 29.3%. Education level was dominated by “university,” accounting for 47.2%, followed by “High school, “accounting for 35.5%. The average monthly income was above TWD “25,000–35,000,” (USD 888–1243) accounting for 27.2%, followed by “35,001–45,000,” (USD 1243–1517) accounting for 22.4%. Occupations with “service” accounted for the largest (38.8%); followed by “Commerce “accounting for 13.1%. The demographic characteristics of the respondents are presented in

Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of the samples.

Items	Variables	%	Items	Variables	%
Gender	Male	33.7	Marital status	Married	62.7
	Female	66.3		Single	37.3
Age	20–29 yrs	24.2	Occupation	Civil servant	5.7
	30–39 yrs	29.3		Service	38.8
	40–49 yrs	29.3		Freelance	12.8
	50–59 yrs	13.4		Industry	12.2
	Above 60 yrs	3.8		Commerce	13.1
Education	Elementary and middle	7.2		housekeeper	5.7
	High school	35.5		Agriculture and animal husbandry	2.1
	University	47.2		Student	5.1
	Graduate and above	10.1		Others	4.5
Place of residence	Northern region	24.5	Monthly income(NT$)	≤25,000	17.9
				25,001–35,000	27.2
	Central region	52.2		35,001–45,000	22.4
	Southern region	22.1		45,001–55,000	15.5
				55,001–65,000	6.9
	East area	1.2		Above 65,001	10.1

.

The most significant proportion of tourists who came to Zinan Temple for fortune money for the third time or more was 36.7%. In addition, 65.5% of tourists stay for 1–3 h, and 63.6% spend less than TWD 500 (USD 16.8) around Zinan Temple. Meanwhile, 93.4% of tourists go by private car, and 72.2% of the tourists go with their families.

4.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis

This research carried out a factor analysis based on the items of each factor dimension. The factor loading ranged from 0.695 to 0.905 and was more than 0.50. The explained variation on each dimension ranged from 64.53% to 82.64%, as shown in

Table 2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Construct	Variables	Mean	SD	Factor Loading	Explanation of Variance (%)	Reference
Pleasure (PLE)	PLE1 It’s a very happy thing to go to Zinan Temple to ask for a fortune money	4.17	0.749	0.894	73.60	[32,33,55]
	PLE2 It is very satisfying to go to Zinan Temple for fortune money	4.03	0.790	0.898
	PLE3 I feel very happy when I go to Zinan Temple to ask for a fortune money	4.11	0.791	0.885
	PLE4 I feel very interesting when I go to Zinan Temple to ask for a fortune money	4.04	0.793	0.852
	PLE5 I enjoyed the process of seeking fortune money from Zinan Temple	3.85	0.867	0.809
	PLE6 It is a very special activity for me to ask for a fortune money	3.98	0.828	0.805
Self-Expression (SEL)	SEL1 I spent a lot of money on the Zinan Temple for a fortune of money	3.09	1.042	0.874	78.54
	SEL2 I spend a lot of time for Zinan Temple asking for a fortune of money	2.92	1.041	0.905
	SEL3 Asking for a fortune from Zinan Temple allows me to understand myself better	3.05	0.924	0.883
	SEL4 Asking for a fortune from Zinan Temple can help me explore my inner life and express myself	3.06	0.936	0.883
Group Affiliation (GAF)	GAF1 I have many friends that go to Zinan Temple to ask for a fortune of money	3.82	0.904	0.867	75.52
	GAF2 I am happy to discuss with my friends the message of asking for fortune money in Zinan Temple	3.77	0.944	0.899
	GAF3 I am happy to share with others that I went to Zinan Temple to ask for a fortune money	3.61	0.954	0.840
Memory (MEM)	MEM1 It can make me feel a beautiful atmosphere	3.52	0.922	0.817	64.56
	MEM2 I would like to take photos here as a souvenir	3.32	0.989	0.752
	MEM3 The scenery here is beautiful	3.63	0.881	0.726
	MEM4 It’s a good memory for me to go to Zinan Temple to get fortune money	3.44	0.908	0.861
	MEM5 I feel happy to go to Zinan Temple to get fortune money	3.50	0.896	0.852
Product Attachment (PATT)	DEP1 Compared with the fortune money of other temples, I prefer Zinan Temple	3.71	0.840	0.866	64.53	[32]
	DEP2 The Zinan Temple fortune money gives me more satisfaction and happiness than other temples’ fortune money	3.70	0.831	0.851
	DEP3 Fortune money from Zinan Temple is more important to me than fortune money from other temples	3.60	0.862	0.844
	IDE1 I will feel honored if someone praises the fortune money of Zinan Temple	3.42	0.910	0.760
	IDE3 Zinan Temple fortune money has local religious and cultural characteristics to me	3.67	0.852	0.790
	IDE4 Zinan Temple fortune money is significant to me	3.58	0.901	0.695
Indispensability (IND)	IND1 Zinan Temple fortune money has an impact on my career	3.50	0.990	0.801	68.98
	IND2 Zinan Temple fortune money is beneficial for my career	3.74	0.898	0.745
	IND3 Zinan Temple fortune money is of particular use and significance in my career	3.71	0.904	0.833
	IND4 Zinan Temple fortune money is indispensable to me	3.36	0.958	0.895
	IND5 Zinan Temple fortune money is necessary for me	3.48	0.916	0.888
	IND6 My business needs Zinan Temple fortune money	3.47	1.014	0.828
	IND7 Zinan Temple fortune money can change my business	3.47	0.954	0.815
Irreplaceability (IRR)	IRR1 The fortune money of other temples cannot replace the fortune of the Zinan Temple	3.37	0.919	0.882	82.64
	IRR2 Zinan Temple fortune is irreplaceable for me	3.35	0.954	0.930
	IRR3 Compared with the fortune money of other temples, the fortune money of Zinan Temple means different to me	3.43	0.934	0.914
Loyalty (LOY)	LOY1 Zinan Temple fortune money has helped me. I will want to ask for it again in the future money	3.67	0.945	0.892	78.17	[15]
	LOY2 I want to borrow fortune money from Zinan Temple again	3.75	0.928	0.905
	LOY3 I will recommend my relatives and friends to Zinan Temple for fortune money	3.75	0.887	0.854

.

4.3. Reliability and Validity Analysis

In this research, Cronbach’s alpha and combined reliability (CR value) are used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Both are more than 0.7, which is considered to have good reliability.

Table 3. Reliability and Validity Analysis.

	Mean	SD	Cronbach’s α	CR	AVE
PLE	4.03	0.687	0.926	0.943	0.736
SEL	3.03	0.874	0.908	0.936	0.786
GAF	3.73	0.811	0.837	0.902	0.755
MEM	3.48	0.737	0.860	0.901	0.645
IND	3.53	0.786	0.924	0.939	0.690
IRR	3.38	0.851	0.895	0.935	0.826
PATT	3.61	0.693	0.887	0.916	0.645
LOY	3.72	0.814	0.860	0.915	0.782

shows that Cronbach’s alpha of all variables is between 0.860 and 0.943, all exceeding 0.7; the combined reliability (CR) ranges from 0.902 to 0.943, all exceeding 0.7, indicating that the questionnaire has good reliability. The average variation extraction amount (AVE) of all aspects is between 0.645–0.826, more significant than 0.5, which means sufficient convergence validity.

Each AVE opening number value concept must be greater than its correlation with other concepts.

Table 4. Discriminant validity of the constructs.

	PLE	SEL	GAF	MEM	IND	IRR	PATT	LOY
PLE	0.858
SEL	0.439	0.886
GAF	0.631	0.412	0.869
MEM	0.588	0.510	0.644	0.803
IND	0.653	0.683	0.520	0.568	0.831
IRR	0.496	0.581	0.533	0.627	0.675	0.909
PATT	0.670	0.644	0.649	0.730	0.793	0.726	0.803
LOY	0.620	0.559	0.635	0.683	0.711	0.717	0.795	0.884

Note: Square roots of AVE are reported on the diagonal.

shows that the square root values of AVE are more significant than the correlation among the variables, which means that the scale had high discriminant validity.

4.4. Regression Analysis

This research used SPSS 21.0 to conduct linear regression to evaluate the influence. The regression analysis results are shown in

Table 5. Regression analysis.

Dependent Variable	Independent Variable	Unstandardized Coefficient		Standardized	t Value	Significance	Collinearity Statistics
		Β Estimation Value	Standard Error	Beta Value			Tolerance	VIF
PATT	(Constant)	0.310	0.122		2.532	0.012
	PLE	0.244	0.039	0.242	6.180	0.000	0.531	1.882
	SEL	0.241	0.027	0.304	8.969	0.000	0.708	1.412
	GAF	0.135	0.035	0.159	3.882	0.000	0.487	2.053
	MEM	0.311	0.039	0.331	8.078	0.000	0.484	2.067
IND	(Constant)	0.281	0.132		2.124	0.034
	PATT	0.900	0.036	0.793	25.033	0.000	1.000	1.000
IRR	(Constant)	0.165	0.162		1.019	0.309
	PATT	0.891	0.044	0.726	20.280	0.000	1.000	1.000
LOY	(Constant)	0.268	0.128		2.092	0.037
	PATT	0.571	0.063	0.486	9.094	0.000	0.304	3.289
	IND	0.152	0.052	0.147	2.947	0.003	0.350	2.859
	IRR	0.253	0.042	0.265	6.001	0.000	0.446	2.240

, which are described as follows:

(1)

Model 1: Independent variables are pleasure, self-expression, group affiliation, and memory, the dependent variable is product attachment. F value=216.016, p = 0.000, adjusted R₂ = 0.699. DW (Durbin–Watson) = 1.928. VIFs=1.412 to 2.067, all are less than 10.

(2)

Model 2: Independent variable is product attachment, and the dependent variable is indispensability. F = 626.673, p = 0.000; adjusted R₂ = 0.628. DW (Durbin–Watson) = 1.938. VIF = 1.000 is less than 10.

(3)

Model 3: Independent variable is product attachment, and the dependent variable is irreplaceability. F = 411.270, p = 0.000; adjusted R₂ = 0.678. DW (Durbin–Watson) = 1.917; VIF = 1.000 is less than 10.

(4)

Model 4: Independent variables are product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability, the dependent variable is loyalty. F value = 261.149, p = 0.000; adjusted R₂ = 0.678. DW (Durbin–Watson) = 1.917; VIFs = 3.289, 2.859, and 2.240 are less than 1.

The path diagram of the influence relationship between the above variables is shown in Figure 2.

4.5. Hypotheses Test

The research hypotheses tests are shown in

Table 6. Hypotheses tests.

Hypotheses	β Coefficient	t Value	p	Testing
H1	0.242	6.180 ***	0.000	acceptance
H2	0.304	8.969 ***	0.000	acceptance
H3	0.159	3.882 ***	0.000	acceptance
H4	0.331	8.078 ***	0.000	acceptance
H5	0.793	25.033 ***	0.000	acceptance
H6	0.726	20.280 ***	0.000	acceptance
H7	0.147	2.947 **	0.003	acceptance
H8	0.265	6.001 ***	0.000	acceptance
H9	0.486	9.094 ***	0.000	acceptance

Note: ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

, and all the hypotheses are accepted.

4.6. Mediating Variable Analysis

According to the path of relationships among variables in Figure 1, we build

Table 7. Mediating Variable Analysis.

Paths	Influential Effect
PLE-PATT-LOY	0.1176
PLE-PATT-IND-LOY	0.0282
PLE-PATT-IRR-LOY	0.0466
SEL-PATT-LOY	0.1448
SEL-PATT-IND-LOY	0.0354
SEL-PATT-IRR-LOY	0.0585
GAF-PATT-LOY	0.0773
GAF-PATT-IND-LOY	0.0185
GAF-PATT-IRR-LOY	0.0306
MEM-PATT-LOY	0.1609
MEM-PATT-IND-LOY	0.0386
MEM-PATT-IRR-LOY	0.0637

. Further calculation showed that the influence values of PATT, IND, and IRR as mediating variables were 0.8207, 0.1207, and 0.1994, respectively. Therefore, PATT was the primary mediating variable; PATT’s effect on LOY was the most obvious.

5. Discussions

This part discusses the role of product attachment on loyalty and the relationship between product attachment, indispensability, irreplaceability, and loyalty.

5.1. Key Factors Affecting Product Attachment

Pleasure, self-expression, group affiliation, and memory will significantly and positively affect product attachment. Memory and self-expression have the greatest impact on product attachment (respectively, 0.331, 0.304). The religious tourism generated by the people seeking fortune money covers the belief in gods and tourism. The belief in gods allows tourists to understand themselves better and connect with related groups. Therefore, tourism activities seeking fortune money make people feel excited and create good memories. People understand the symbolic meaning of fortune money and show symbolic personal personalities simultaneously.

Regarding product attachment, tourists think Zinan Temple fortune money is more popular than fortune money in other temples; Zinan Temple has local religious and cultural characteristics and is of particular use and significance to the cause. It shows that the Zinan Temple’s fortune money has local uniqueness, a deep specific purpose, and meaning. It meets tourists’ needs for the development of God’s protection, resulting in identification, dependence and emotional connection, and product dependence. Thomson et al. [56] thought that product attachment is an emotional relationship between people and products, and products have a profound and vital significance to consumers. Zinan Temple fortune money has a particular purpose in its function and has a unique emotional connection with consumers.

5.2. Relationship of Product Attachment, Indispensability, Irreplaceability, and Loyalty

From Figure 1 and Table 7, we find the influence values of product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability as intermediary variables (respectively 0.8207, 0.1207, and 0.1994), indicating that they positively affect loyalty. In addition, the path coefficient of product attachment that affects loyalty through irreplaceability (0.1994) is higher than indispensability (0.1207), implying that irreplaceability is an essential intermediary variable between product attachment and loyalty. Pedeliento et al. [15] showed that product attachment would indirectly positively affect loyalty through product irreplaceability. It means that consumers’ sentiment toward fortune money is irreplaceable. Most people will always seek fortune money as they have a sense of attachment to it and are unwilling to replace it in other ways.

PATT had the greatest impact on LOY (0.8207). Product attachment has the most important influence, and it means that attachment is an essential indicator of predicting tourist satisfaction and loyalty [52]. This means that the higher the tourists’ attachment to religious tourism products, the more indispensable and irreplaceable the religious tourism products will be. This finding confirms again that fortune money is an essential factor affecting the loyalty of Zinan Temple tourists.

6. Implications

6.1. Theoretical Implications

First, this study takes indispensability and irreplaceability as the antecedents of product attachment. It confirms that they have a positive and significant effect on product attachment, which enriches attachment theory research. This research integrates four driving factors for religious tourism products: pleasure, self-expression, memory, and group affiliation. Through analysis, this study finds that “memory” is the most critical factor affecting consumers’ attachment to products.

Second, this research has an essential contribution to loyalty to Taoist tourism products. Data analysis shows that these drivers’ integration yielded a robust model of religious domain loyalty. When product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability are integrated into one model, a plausible explanation is provided for how religious tourism product attachment affects loyalty. Therefore, this research confirms the relationship between product attachment, indispensability, irreplaceability, and loyalty and determines the critical role of product attachment in religious tourism loyalty. These findings provide literature reference values for the study of loyalty and religious tourism development.

Third, in this study, 12 paths were established through path analysis. Among them, PATT was the primary mediating variable; PATT’s effect on LOY was the most obvious. This result means that product attachment is essential for tourists to develop loyalty to Taoist religious tourism, and this enriches academic research and provides a reference basis for practical recommendations.

6.2. Managerial Implications

6.2.1. Surrounding Environment

When tourists seek fortune money, the pleasure and good memories they have will directly affect product attachment and loyalty. It is suggested to combine the process of obtaining treasure, sacrifice in the temple, service facilities, surrounding environment, and sightseeing experience activities to let tourists understand the significance of fortune money and local cultural value. Make tourists feel the importance and relevance of fortune money and provide an artistic environment for increasing tourists’ pleasure and positive memories. It is suggested that the temple managers strengthen the design of the surrounding environment to provide a suitable environment for the interaction between tourists [57]. It may be a Buddhist speech, an open-air movie, or even a tiny performance. The interaction between people and the surrounding environment, and this interaction is also one of the ways to increase people’s attachment and loyalty to the Zinan Temple.

6.2.2. Electronic Reminder

Tourists hope to help their work and career substantially improve. Therefore, fortune money has a special meaning related to spiritual rationality, resulting in a high degree of product dependence and becoming imperative spiritual sustenance for tourists. This research suggests that Zinan Temple uses the temple staff to guide tourists and believers and produce digital content for tourists to download through mobile phones. Science and technology, especially information technology, can provide better explanations and guidance for tourists and promote follow-up services and electronic reminders. Incorporate the concept of sustainable management into religious tourism and establish science and technology-assisted management. The reason for this is to enable tourists to understand the meaning and latest news of Zinan Temple anytime and anywhere.

Tourists can also apply to book and track “fortune money” on this system [58]. Regularly track whether these “wishing or fortune money” tourists have achieved their wishes and living conditions at this time. After obtaining the consent of the tourists, we can use the media’s power to inform more people about the effectiveness of the Zinan Temple. This method not only increases the loyalty of tourists but is also a good way of marketing and generating publicity.

6.2.3. Give Products Social Value

Charitable activities are donated to the care and help of school children and elderly living alone in remote areas in the name of tourists. This way of giving by a family or an individual will increase the shared memory of the individual or group. Give back to society through religious products and increase the irreplaceability and inaccessibility of products. In addition, the dependency spectrum between tourist contributions and local development leisure can be written into a “story” and spread as a marketing method, which is undoubtedly a way to increase tourist loyalty and attract potential tourists. Thus, enhancing the connectivity between tourists and local development will become a reason for additional passionate attachment that cannot be ignored [18].

6.2.4. Limitations and Future Research

Due to the epidemic, this research used an online questionnaire. Although we collect samples very rigorously, it is indeed an undeniable research limitation that there is no combination of online and offline questionnaires. In addition, this research only takes the Zinan Temple in Taiwan as the research object and does not analyze other temples, religions, or regions.

This research is the first to comprehensively discuss the different variables of religious tourism, which has a certain degree of innovation and extension. In this regard, there are some suggestions for future research. First, in this research, H₅ and H₆ can conduct a two-way conversation to verify whether indispensable and irreplaceable will also affect loyalty through product attachment. Second, it is suggested that future studies explore the differences in loyalty between different demographic variables or religions. Third, future research can try additional statistical software analysis tools such as SmartPLS, Amos, and LISREL.

7. Conclusions

In general, this research contributes to academic theory, practical suggestions, and the sustainability of religious tourism.

From an academic and theoretical perspective, this research puts these variables (product attachment, indispensability, and irreplaceability) into a comprehensive model for the first time. It verifies the positive influence relationship and mediation effect between the variables. This research summarizes the antecedent factors affecting religious product attachment for the first time, fills the research gap, and enriches the relevant literature.

From a practical perspective, this research puts forward specific and feasible industrial suggestions based on the data analysis results. These helpful suggestions bring substantial reference value for improving the competitiveness of religious tourism.