Abstract
The long-term sustainability of China’s national parks depends on the appropriate use and management of park resources and the provision of positive experience opportunities for tourists. While past experience, in terms of frequency of visits to the same destination and behavioral intention measured as willingness to revisit/recommend, have been extensively examined in a typical destination loyalty model using structural equation modeling (SEM), past experience with other destinations and willingness to pay (WTP), another form of behavioral intention, have received less attention from researchers. This paper, for the first time, simultaneously examined these two types of past experience and WTP using both second-order and first-order SEMs, based on data collected from two national parks in China. Results show that, while frequency of visits had no significant impacts on attribute satisfaction (AS) nor on overall satisfaction (OS), previous experience with other destinations significantly influenced AS, which, in turn, significantly predicted OS. While OS significantly and consistently predicted visitors’ intentions to revisit/recommend for both samples, its impact on WTP was significant for one sample, but not for the other. This suggests that asymmetric beliefs in destination loyalty may exist, depending on how and where behavioral intention was measured. The study endorses norm theory in studying destination satisfaction.
Highlights
As important nature-based tourism destinations, national parks play an essential role in the protection of natural resources, as well as provision of recreational, educational, and spiritual opportunities for the public
Due to the reliance on entrance fees for revenue generation, it is possible that some tourism destinations and popular national parks have inflated entrance fees to the point that it is having a negative affect on the visitor experience
Of the 750 questionnaires distributed in Lushan, 548 were collected, resulting in a response rate of 73.1%, which is comparable to the response rate of 76.9% in Zhangjiajie where 577 out of 750 visitors were willing to take the survey
Summary
As important nature-based tourism destinations, national parks play an essential role in the protection of natural resources, as well as provision of recreational, educational, and spiritual opportunities for the public. Due to the reliance on entrance fees for revenue generation, it is possible that some tourism destinations and popular national parks have inflated entrance fees to the point that it is having a negative affect on the visitor experience. This so called ‘tickets economy’ model based on entrance fees “has caused excessive exploitation of tourism resources, and it does not conform to the sustainable development principles” [1] It should be noted that tourists tend to become less loyal if they are not satisfied with their visiting experience at a destination, resulting in less
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