Original scientific paper
Destination India: Investigating the impact of Goa's attributes on families' leisure travel experience
Erdogan H. Ekiz
; Tourism Institute, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore
; Griffi th Business School, Golden Coast, Australia
Abstract
The recent discourse of tourism development among officials within the Government of India has included the state of Goa, mainly because it has consistently witnessed positive economic impacts from tourism. However, in view of competition from other destinations, Goan tourism planners will need to identify important attributes of Goa that will positively affect tourists' destination loyalty. This study examines the correlation between five attributes of Goa and tourists' loyalty to Goa. Families traveling to Goa are targeted in this research because they represent a significant portion (39.5%) of the overall tourist arrivals in 2012. A sample of 258 families was collected, through convenience sampling, at the departure hall of Goa's Dabolim Airport between September and October 2012. The findings of the study revealed that all the attributes investigated have exerted destination loyalty. Moreover, price and accessibility are found to the least significant influence on the loyalty to Goa, These findings contradict those from past studies on individual travelers. Implications of the findings along with suggestions for future research for the tourism industry are also presented in the final section of this paper.
Keywords
destination attributes; destination loyalty; Goa; India
Hrčak ID:
125576
URI
Publication date:
25.7.2014.
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