Determinants and perception of visitors’ satisfaction in Nigerian protected areas

Abstract

Visitors' satisfaction is an important component of conservation that could be used to improve protected area management in order to increase conservation efficiency. Therefore, this study assessed visitors’ perception and some demographic factors, park interpretation and human relations in regard to their influences on tourist satisfaction in Okomu National Park and Yankari Game Reserve, Nigeria. The data was collected through the use of questionnaire randomly administered to 45 visitors in each protected area. The questionnaire was designed to cover the respondents’ demographic characteristics, perception of park interpretive service, level of human relations and level of visitors’ satisfaction. Data collected were analyzed descriptively in form of frequency counts, percentages means and standard deviation. Results revealed that Satisfaction of visitors with park services was significantly influenced by sex (p< 0.01), marital status (p< 0.01) religion (p< 0.01), age (p<0.05) and educational status (p<0.05). Park interpretation and human relations to tourists had a significant correlation (r = 0.482, 𝜌≤ 0.01) with the satisfaction of visitors with park service. The study concludes that the socio-economic status, beliefs and expectations of the tourist in terms of demographic influence should be planned for in order to meet their needs and thus obtain their support as well as meet the expectations of the visitors.