Abstract
This study introduces a new method, named Dynamic Destination Satisfaction Method (DDSME), to model tourists’ satisfaction with a destination (and its attributes), breaking it down into an individual-level component (linked to the specific individual tourists’ perceptions) and a system-level (time-related) component (common to all the tourists). Moreover, this work develops a matrix “entropy/trend accuracy” that destination managers can use to understand to what extent managing a specific attribute has increased tourists’ satisfaction with the destination over multiyear time spans. We test the innovative method on a large data set, covering the period 1997-2015 and including almost 0.8 million observations. By doing so, we analyze tourists’ satisfaction with tourism-related sectors and attributes of Italy as an inbound tourism destination and we use the matrix to map out destination attributes over time. The findings indicate that courtesy, art, and food are strategic attributes to enhance satisfaction in the long term.
Highlights
Despite the consensus around the usefulness of market intelligence aimed at supporting destination development planning and marketing strategies (Morrison 2019), scarce scholarly attention has been paid to the topic of monitoring tourists’ satisfaction with a destination over time and by means of a longitudinal perspective (Song et al 2012)
We suggest to augment a Cumulative Logit Model (CLM) with parallel assumption (McCullagh 1980) with a trend component that captures the system-level effect
We illustrate a method for the dynamic evaluation of satisfaction with a tourism destination, the Dynamic Destination Satisfaction Method (DDSME), which is suitable to track tourism destination satisfaction trends with repeated cross-sectional data
Summary
Despite the consensus around the usefulness of market intelligence aimed at supporting destination development planning and marketing strategies (Morrison 2019), scarce scholarly attention has been paid to the topic of monitoring tourists’ satisfaction with a destination over time and by means of a longitudinal perspective (Song et al 2012). The aforementioned aspect constitutes an important research gap, in light of the role that scholars assign increasingly to tourism destination satisfaction as an antecedent to enhance destination loyalty in the form of revisit intentions and recommendation to others (Alegre and Cladera 2006; Song et al 2012) that might potentially translate into enhanced destination competitiveness (Crouch and Ritchie 1994, 1999; Crouch 2011). The objective of this paper is not to offer a measure of the attributes of destination competitiveness (Crouch and Ritchie 1994 1999; Crouch 2011), but rather to design a new method to monitor and explain tourists’ satisfaction dynamics taking into account a number of attributes that feature rather frequently in research conducted by tourism destinations themselves on international tourists.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
