TOURISTS’ SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM TOURISM INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA
Abstract
Sri Lanka will be positioned as a high-end tourism destination focusing more on quality service delivery to capitalize on the thriving tourism sector in present context. Attracting the same tourist to same destination is cheaper than a new one in particular in the case of marketing cost. In this context, this study aimed at investigating the relationship between tourists’ satisfaction and their behavioral intention towards a destination. Moreover, the study expected to investigate the relationship between tourists’ satisfaction with willingness to recommend. Further, it was aimed to explore the limitations of tourist satisfaction with respect to three satisfaction categories which include thirty attributes. A sample of 120 tourists was drawn by using the stratified random sampling technique. Primary data was collected by using questionnaire and direct interview methods. Descriptive statistics, correlation, ANOVA and OLS regression were employed to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between both intention to revisit and willingness to recommend with tourists’ satisfaction. Even though most of tourists were satisfied with all thirty attributes it was observed that a considerable percentage of tourists are yet to be satisfied with some of the attributes. In particular traffic, language barriers, infrastructure facilities and cost were found to be limitations for tourists satisfaction. Finally, the recommendations were made based on the above findings. Specifically, both facility operators and policy planning officers in this industry are recommended to address above areas to ensure a smooth and pleasant experience for all the tourists and consequently it will sustain this industry in the long run.
Key Words: General Satisfaction, Attribute Satisfaction, Met Satisfaction, Revisit Intention, Perceived Performance Theory
For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk
