Visitor Satisfaction on Minneriya National Park: The Role of Park Attributes
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Date
2015
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
The increased demand for visitors is creating increasing pressureon visitor satisfaction particularly in protected areas such as national parks. After the establishment of peace in 2009, the amount of tourists to the many national parks spread around Sri Lanka is constantly booming. The Minneriya is Sri Lanka's most visited national park. Only fewer study undertakings have been undertaken to evaluate visitor satisfaction in Sri Lanka's national parks. With this in mind, the investigator set out to explore and recognize the visitor satisfaction on Minneriya national park. Further, it uncovers the role of park attributes in shaping visitor satisfaction who visit Minneriya national park and the researcher considers about park attributes, travel motivation and destination image. There were mainly four objectives based on this research and those to identify the park attributes influence on visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park, to identify the intermediating role of travel motivation in shaping visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park, to identify the intermediating role of destination image in shaping visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park, to identify the most significant attributes affecting visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park. A Sample 160 tourists were drawn using purposive sampling. Data collected by using a structured questionnaire and questionnaire consists of 33 questions. The five dimensions and two mediators used in the research were evaluated when Questionnaire was distributed during their visit to Minneriya National Park. There were two intermediating roles of affecting visitor satisfaction which was travel motivation and destination image. Data were collected through a questionnaire filled by respondents. Data were analyzed by SPSS and SmartPLS software. In order to attain the research goal, descriptive statistics, Sobel test, Structural Equation Model were used to analyze the data. Visitors with distinct local national park attributes and check their intention to satisfy them. Relevant to existing literature that there are no strong variables, therefore this study tries to fill this gap.
Key Words: Park Attributes, Visitor Satisfaction, Travel Motivation, Destination Image
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Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management degree programme (HTE)