Investigating tourists’ satisfaction with infrastructures located proximal to attractions

Abstract

There is limited information concerning relationship between tourists' satisfaction and awareness of infrastructure locations, particularly with regard to associated impacts to the Outstanding universal values (OUVs).  The study was conducted in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) World Heritage Site (WHS) in Tanzania employing a quantitative research approach. Theoretically, the study employed Expectancy-Disconfirmation model and Dissonance Theory on customer satisfactions.  The study was guided by two null hypotheses: H01: Demographic characteristics (age, education, nationality and sex) do not influence tourist’s satisfactions with infrastructures located proximal to attractions; and H02: Tourists’ awareness of potential consequences of infrastructures located proximal to attractions do not influence their satisfactions. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed on the 210 responses to investigate the relationships between tourists’ demographic characteristics and awareness of potential consequences and satisfactions. Both hypotheses (H01 and H02) were rejected, indicating that tourists are satisfied with infrastructures located proximal to attractions despite being aware of the potential consequences. In addition, tourists who were aware were twice as likely as those who were not to be satisfied. However, highly educated tourists (Masters and PhD) were less likely to be satisfied of infrastructures located proximal to attractions compared to tourists with lower education levels. This study recommends that infrastructure developers and NCA WHS conservators collaborate to develop monitoring and evaluation strategies to constantly balance conservation and tourism objectives because tourists are more satisfied with infrastructure proximal to attractions. Future research should focus on new construction materials, designs and technology to safeguards WHS OUVs.