Tourists Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions
Tourists Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions
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This study attempts to investigate the tourist’s satisfaction as an influence on future behavioral
intensions (intention to revisit and recommendation) within a tourism context, specifically with
reference to the accommodation services, incoming travel agency services, and destination facili-
ties. The study was conducted in Alanya with a total of 2,200 respondents. The research findings
indicated that there were significant relationships among destination attributes, tourist satisfaction,
and behavioral intensions. Especially, the dimension of accommodation services was the strongest
predictor of the tourist satisfaction, followed by incoming travel agency services and facilities of
Alanya. In addition to this, the repeat tourists were more likely than first-time tourists to intend to
revisit Alanya in the future.
Address correspondence to Ahmet Aktaş, Ph.D., Professor, School of Tourism & Hotel Management, Akdeniz University, Antalya,
Turkey. Tel: +90 242 310 20 28; Fax: +90 242 227 46 70; E-mail: [email protected]
243
244 AKTAŞ, ÇEVİRGEN, AND TOKER
Many of the links are not even located within one disposed towards it and may even recommend it
destination, and are thus beyond the control or to others (Johnston & Clark, 2005).
even the influence of a single destination manager Customer satisfaction is one of the most fre-
(Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). Some holiday experi- quently examined topics in the hospitality and
ences, such as a taxi to the airport, airport services, tourism field because it plays an important role in
air travel, etc., are outside of a destination and survival and future of any tourism products and
cannot be controlled by that destination. But oth- services (Gursoy, McCleary, & Lepsito, 2003;
ers, such as accommodation facilities, meals, travel Neal & Gursoy, 2008). Satisfaction with the tour-
agency services, recreational and sports facilities, ist destination depends on the outcome of tourists’
sightseeing, etc., are within a particular destination consumptions and their perceptions of tourist
and can be controlled. product. Tourist satisfaction can be defined as the
A potential traveler compares attributes when tourist’s emotional state after experiencing the trip
deciding which destination to choose. The chosen (Baker & Crompton, 2000; Yüksel, 2001). There-
destination potentially will be the most compatible fore, evaluating satisfaction in terms of a traveling
with the tourist’s expectations, thus having less experience is a postconsumption process (Fornell,
negative consequences. Destinations that appear to 1992; Kozak, 2001). In addition, assessing satis-
satisfy the most are more likely to be considered faction can help managers to improve services
and chosen in the travel decision process (Rei- (Fornell, 1992). It also significantly influences the
singer & Turner, 2000). choice of destination, the consumption of products
How to attract the tourists to revisit and/or rec- and services, and the decision to return (Kozak &
ommend the destination to others is crucial for the Rimmington, 2000).
success of destination tourism development (C. F. Several researchers investigate customer satis-
Chen & Tsai, 2007). Many destinations rely faction in the tourism literature. In tourism satis-
strongly on repeat visitation because it is less ex- faction has been examined in travel agencies (Mil-
pensive to retain repeat tourists than to attract new lan & Esteban, 2004; Rodriguez del Bosque, San
ones (Um, Chon, & Ro, 2006). The tourists’ per- Martin, & Collado 2006), accommodation estab-
ceptions of destination attributes may enhance lishments (Choi & Chu, 2001; Heung, 2000; Pi-
tourists’ holiday satisfaction or discourage them. zam & Ellis, 1999; Poon & Low, 2005), and desti-
If the expectations and needs of tourists are not nations (Baker & Crompton, 2000; Bigne, Sanchez,
met, there is the possibility that they will not come & Sanchez, 2001; Hui, Wan, & Ho, 2007; Joppe,
to the same destination again. Martin & Waalen, 2001; Kozak, 2001; Kozak &
This study focuses on tourists’ satisfaction and Rimmington, 2000; Pizam, Neuman, & Reichel,
their behavioral intentions in Alanya. In this study, 1978; Reisinger & Turner, 2000; Rodriguez del
overall holiday experience was evaluated in terms Bosque & San Martin, 2008; Yoon & Uysal,
of destination attributes that are controlled by des- 2005).
tination stakeholders. Satisfaction determines whether the tourist be-
comes a repeat visitor. Holiday dissatisfaction under-
Conceptual Framework lines the tourist’s decision process and influences
purchase intention (Reisinger & Turner, 2000).
Satisfaction is the outcome of the consumer’s Tourists’ positive experiences of service, products
evaluation of a service based on a comparison of and other resources provided by tourism destina-
their perceptions of service deliver with their prior tions could produce repeat visits as well as posi-
expectations. Thus, expectations, and indeed per- tive word-of-mouth (WOM) effects to potential
ceptions, are key components in delivering a qual- tourists such as friends and/or relatives (Chi & Qu,
ity service. If the operation meets the expectations, 2008; Oppermann, 2000a; Yoon & Uysal, 2005).
or indeed exceeds them, then customers are satis- Recommendations by previous visits can be taken
fied with the service. If they are satisfied they are as the most reliable information sources for poten-
more likely to become valuable customers who tial tourists. Recommendations to other people
not only use the service again, but are positively (WOM) are also one of the most often sought
SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS ON DESTINATION ATTRIBUTES 245
types of information for people interested in trav- in Turkey. Together with its natural and cultural
eling (Chi & Qu, 2008). attractions, Alanya is a resort in Antalya, and it is
Several studies in tourism point to a positive situated in the 135-km east coast of Antalya Gulf
relationship between tourist satisfaction and a de- on the Anatolian Peninsula. Following the arrivals
sire to return (Bigne et al., 2001; Kozak, 2001; of Germans in the late 1950s, Alanya met with
Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Cronin and Taylor (1992) tourism. In the 1970s locals started to offer their
stated that customer satisfaction has a significant residences to tourists. The east and the west of
effect on purchase intentions. Kozak and Rim- Alanya were declared as a “tourist center” with the
mington (2000) also concluded that the level of “Tourism Incentive Act” in 1982. The declaration
overall satisfaction with holiday experiences had helped to increase investments demands. The total
the greatest impact on the intention to revisit the bed capacity in Alanya was 8,708 in 1988 (Soyak,
same destination. In other study, Baker and Cromp- 2003). Because Alanya had 67,168 beds in 631
ton (2000) found a significant direct relationship establishments in 1996, along with the growth of
between satisfaction and behavioral intentions. tourism, the number of establishments increased
Oppermann (1998, 2000b) and Pritchard (2003) to 669 in 2006 with a percentage of 6%, but the
highlighted different reasons why repeat visitation total bed capacity increased to 147,303 with a per-
has been regarded as a desirable phenomenon in centage of 120% in the same period. In compari-
the literature: (1) the marketing costs needed to son with establishment numbers in 1996, the total
attract repeat visitors are lower than those required bed capacity in 2006 characterizes the mass tour-
for first timers, (2) repeat visitation is considered
ism-oriented nature of establishments. Table 1 shows
a positive indication of tourist satisfaction, (3) re-
the growth of tourism in Alanya. Alanya, as one of
peat visitors are the type of tourist most likely to
the most important tourism destinations in Turkey,
revisit a destination, and (4) they might recom-
received 6.9% of total tourists and provided 7.2%
mend the destination to friends and relatives (as
of total receipts in 2006 (Alanya Chamber of
cited in Alegre & Cladera, 2006).
Commerce and Industry [ACCI], 2007; Republic
In order to assess the customer satisfaction,
various theories and measurement models such as of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
“expectancy-disconfirmation,” “importance-perfor- 2007). The foregoing statistical data underlines the
mance,” and “performance-only” have been used importance of tourism in Alanya.
in the literature. There is still much discussion
about the single best method of measuring cus- Aim of the Study and Hypotheses
tomer satisfaction using pre- and postexperience
constructs (i.e., “expectations,” “importance,” and This study attempted to investigate the relation-
“performance”). Recently, the debate has centered ship among tourists’ satisfaction and behavioral
on a comparison of single construct measurement intentions in Alanya. The aims of the study are
(i.e., performance-only models) and multiple con- threefold: (1) to examine tourists’ satisfaction to-
struct measurements (i.e., expectation-performance wards destination facilities, accommodation, and
and importance-performance models) (Fallon & incoming travel agencies services, (2) to determine
Schofield, 2003). The performance-only measure their overall holiday satisfaction and behavioral
outperformed other alternative models in terms of intentions, and (3) to investigate whether there
predicting overall satisfaction and behavioral in- were any differences between first-time and repeat
tention (Baloglu, Pekcan, Chen, & Santos, 2003; tourists’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Baker & Crompton, 2000; Crompton & Love, Based on the theoretical issues outlined above
1995; Kozak, 2001). For this reason, in this study and the empirical findings of previous researches
tourist satisfaction was measured by performance- the following hypotheses were established:
only model.
H1: There is a significant positive relationship be-
The Study Area: Alanya tween tourists’ perception of destination facili-
The Mediterranean coast around the province ties and overall holiday satisfaction.
of Antalya is one of the main tourist destinations H2: There is a significant positive relationship be-
246 AKTAŞ, ÇEVİRGEN, AND TOKER
Table 1
The Scope of Tourism in Alanya
Source: Alanya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2007, pp. 65, 68).
tween tourists’ perception of accommodation (Ball & Giakoumis, 2003; Heung, 2000; Millan &
services and overall holiday satisfaction. Esteban, 2004; Pizam et al., 1978, Sussmann &
H3: There is a significant positive relationship be- Rashcovsky, 1997; Yüksel & Yüksel, 2001). A 5-
tween tourists’ perception of incoming travel point Likert type scale was used in this part of the
agency services and overall holiday satisfaction. questionnaire, ranging from 5 = “completely agree”
H4: There is a significant positive relationship be- to 1 = “completely disagree.” The final part deals
tween intention to revisit and overall holiday with the measurement of single-item overall satis-
satisfaction. faction and two-item behavioral intentions with a
H5: There is a significant positive relationship be- 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 5 = “completely
tween intention to recommend and overall holi- agree” to 1 = 1“completely disagree.” The survey
day satisfaction. questions were discussed with agency managers.
H6: There is a significant difference between first- Thus, this result was used to improve the clarity
time tourists’ and repeat tourists’ intention to and readability of questions.
revisit. This study was executed in three basic stages:
H7: There is a significant difference between first- sampling, data collection, and data analysis. The
time tourists’ and repeat tourists’ intention to data used in this study is based on the project,
recommend. named “Alanya Tourist Profile Research 2007”
H8: There is a significant difference between first- (Aktas, Çevirgen, & Toker, 2008). Sampling de-
time tourists’ and repeat tourists’ satisfaction. sign and sample size are significant subjects to sta-
tistically represent the population and to be able
Method to suggest implications both theory and practice.
A questionnaire survey method was used in the Simple random sampling design was used for this
study and data were obtained by managing a struc- survey owing to its efficiency. The sample popula-
tured questionnaire. The questionnaire instrument tion of the study was limited to tourists visiting
consisted of three parts. The first part included ba- Alanya via travel agencies. According to ACCI,
sic questions regarding the profile of the respon- 1,357,554 tourists came to Alanya in 2006. The
dents such as nationality, gender, age, marital sta- survey was carried out between June and Septem-
tus, and number of visits. The second part of the ber 2007. A total number of 5,000 questionnaires
instrument comprised 23 questions concerning were delivered to tourists through travel agencies
tourists’ perceptions of destination attributes. The and 2,200 questionnaires were obtained, resulting
literature on destination attributes provided the ba- in a response rate of 44%. The questionnaires were
sis for developing a questionnaire for this study filled out by the respondents at the end of their
SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS ON DESTINATION ATTRIBUTES 247
Table 3
The Factor Analysis Results
Factor % of Variance
Items Loading Eigenvalue Explained Mean F-Value Alpha p-Value
Table 4
Correlation Matrix
Incoming Overall
Destination Accommodation Travel Agency Holiday
Facilities Services Services Satisfaction Recommendation Revisit
Destination facilities 1
1967
Accommodation services 0.552* 1
1917 2025
Incoming travel agency services 0.525* 0.552* 1
1865 1946 1960
Overall holiday satisfaction 0.354* 0.505* 0.383* 1
1838 1909 1857 1936
Recommendation 0.403* 0.519* 0.363* 0.689* 1
1835 1909 1861 1894 1938
Revisit 0.371* 0.478* 0.345* 0.646* 0.798* 1
1819 1892 1842 1874 1891 1919
for the significant positive relationships between vices) and exerting the strongest influence in de-
perception of destination facilities and overall hol- pendent variable (overall holiday satisfaction).
iday satisfaction (H1), perception of accommoda- This analysis presents the strength of any variable
tion services and overall holiday satisfaction (H2), in the overall model. Results of each process are
and perception of incoming travel agency services reported in Table 7 together with the t statistics,
and overall holiday satisfaction (H3). Consequently, standardized regression coefficients, and R 2 val-
H1, H2, and H3 were supported (p < 0.01). ues. Table 7 demonstrates the influence of three
The intention to revisit and intention to recom- factor variables over the level of the respondents’
mend the destination exhibits the high positive overall satisfaction with their holidays. The model
correlation with the overall holiday satisfaction accounts for 28% of the variance in the dependent
measure; thus, H4 and H5 were also supported variable. It is observed that all the factor variables
(p < 0.01). Furthermore, there is a relationship had statistically significant beta coefficients. These
among destination facilities, accommodation, and variables also had a positive score. In Table 7, the
incoming travel agency services as independent dimension of accommodation services was the
variables. Table 4 shows the research findings strongest predictor of the overall holiday satisfac-
suggest that there is a positive relationship among tion (p < 0.001), followed by incoming travel
all these factors. agency services (p < 0.001) and destination facili-
Subsequently, an independent t-test was em- ties (p < 0.005).
ployed to investigate whether there were any sta-
tistically significant differences between first-time Conclusions
and repeat tourists’ behavioral intentions and satis-
faction. Results of independent sample t-test in Tourists’ perceptions of destination attributes
Table 5 indicated that the repeat tourists were are important to successful destination competi-
more likely than the first-time tourists’ intention tiveness, because they influence the choice of a
to revisit to Alanya in the future (p < 0.01), thus destination and tourists’ future behaviors. For this
supporting H6. As can be seen in the Table 5, no reason, it is important to attempt to better under-
statistically significant differences were recorded stand the behavior of tourists when choosing, con-
between first-time and repeat tourists’ satisfaction suming, and later evaluating their destination ex-
and their intention to recommend to others (p > periences.
0.05), thus H7 and H8 were not supported. The This study attempted to investigate the relation-
results of the hypotheses testing are summarized ship among tourists’ perceptions of destination at-
in Table 6. tributes, tourist satisfaction, and behavioral inten-
Afterwards, multiple regression analysis was tions (revisit and recommendation). The study
used to determine the aggregate impact of certain results showed that tourists were generally pleased
independent variables (destination facilities, ac- with their visit to Alanya. The three dimensions of
commodation, and incoming travel agency ser- destination attributes were identified and named
“destination facilities,” “accommodation,” and “in-
coming travel agency services.” Particularly, tour-
Table 5 ists were ultimately pleased with incoming travel
Mean Difference Tests Between First-Time agency services (mean = 3.92), followed by ac-
and Repeat Tourists commodation services (mean = 3.79). But pleased
with destination facilities (mean = 3.72) was not
First
Time Repeat t-Value Sig. t relatively high as much as other dimensions.
It was determined that there were statistical re-
Intention to lationships between tourists’ overall holiday satis-
revisit 3.8446 4.0114 −2.83 0.003
Intention to faction and all dimensions of destination attributes.
recommend 4.0535 4.1246 −1.38 0.695 Specifically, the relationships between accommoda-
Overall holiday tion services dimension and overall holiday satis-
satisfaction 4.1018 4.0456 1.29 0.068
faction were at the highest level. The results of the
250 AKTAŞ, ÇEVİRGEN, AND TOKER
Table 6
Hypothesis Testing Results
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