The Effects of Experiential Marketing and User-Generated Content on Revisit Intention: Tourist Satisfaction as a Mediating Variable in the Sembalun Tourism Area

This study investigates how experiential marketing and user-generated content (UGC) influence revisit intention through tourist satisfaction in the Sembalun Tourism Area, East Lombok, Indonesia. The study is motivated by the rapid growth of nature-based tourism in Sembalun, the increasing visibility of the destination on social media, and the need to understand how direct destination experiences and post-visit digital exposure translate into loyalty-oriented behavior. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework and Social Influence Theory, experiential marketing and UGC are positioned as external stimuli, tourist satisfaction as the internal evaluative mechanism, and revisit intention as the behavioral response. The research applied a quantitative explanatory design. Data were collected through online and offline questionnaires distributed to domestic tourists who had visited and used tourism products in Sembalun within the last two years. Of 136 collected responses, 120 valid responses were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4. The results demonstrate that experiential marketing has positive and significant effects on revisit intention and tourist satisfaction. UGC also has positive and significant effects on revisit intention and tourist satisfaction. Tourist satisfaction positively and significantly affects revisit intention and mediates the effects of both experiential marketing and UGC on revisit intention. The mediation type is complementary partial mediation, indicating that revisit intention is shaped through both direct and satisfaction-based mechanisms. This study contributes to tourism marketing literature by sharpening the role of post-visit UGC exposure and demonstrating that satisfaction is not only a consequence of on-site experience but also a dynamic evaluation that can be reinforced by digital social validation after the visit.