Factors Influencing The Attractiveness Of A Tourist Destination: A Case Study | Debadyuti Das, Pratap K J Mohapatra, Sushil Kumar Sharma & Ashutosh Sarkar

The present study attempts to find out the determinants of the attractiveness of a tourist destination based on tourists? expectation, experience and satisfaction with the tourist related attributes of the destination. A factor analysis carried out on 24 items pertaining to the expectation of visitors on touristic attributes gives rise to seven meaningful constructs. Results of step-wise multiple regression analysis between the perceived attractiveness as dependent variable and the seven constructs as independent variables reveal the importance of each of these seven constructs in explaining the perceived attractiveness of the destination. Further findings of multiple regression analysis between the overall attractiveness of the destination (based on experience of visitors) and 24 attributes show that four attributes are most dominant in explaining the overall attractiveness of the destination. Subsequent analyses further indicate that four and five attributes are most important in explaining the motivation to recommend the destination to others and the intention for repeat visit to the destination respectively. Results of t-tests between the expectation and experience of visitors on 24 items show that the expectation of tourists remains unfulfilled on 18 attributes. Finally the holistic impressions of the destination from the perspective of the visitors have also been presented in the present study.