engleski

Seasonal variation in urban tourist satisfaction

The main purpose of this study was to detect the differences in satisfaction levels with regard to different elements of the city tourism offer during the high season and off-season. Furthermore, the aim was to find out what factors determine the satisfaction of high- season and off- season tourists. This paper is based on the results of a survey conducted during 2016 in Opatija and Rijeka (Croatia). The analyses were conducted on a sample of 1249 respondents. Data analysis included principal component analyses, ANOVA and series of regression analyses. Results confirmed that there is a significant difference in overall satisfaction, as well as in all five satisfaction dimensions, between tourists visiting the cities during the high season and those visiting in the pre- and post-season. In addition, regression analyses revealed that tourists staying in those cities during the peak season expressed a statistically significant higher level of satisfaction than those visiting in the pre- and post-season. However, no statistically significant difference was found in overall satisfaction, and in four out of five satisfaction dimensions, between pre- and post- season tourists. The findings have relevant implications for destination managers in their further decisions aimed at developing a more satisfactory tourism offer in the season and off- season. The main contribution of this paper lies in the relation between tourist satisfaction and the season of their visit, since previous studies have rarely considered the season when analysing tourist satisfaction with the destination offer.

tourist satisfaction ; seasonality ; urban destination ; tourism offer ; PCA ; Croatia

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