Abstract:
Tourists perceptions and satisfaction are likely to be affected by attributes found in a particular stage of destination development. This study examined 24 attributes considered important in influencing tourist perception and satisfaction in three tourism destinations found in gateway communities; Loliondo, lake Natron and Burunge in northern Tanzania. Using confirmatory factor analysis, four factors, namely, Amenities, Accessibility, Core Attractions and Ancillary services, were predictors of tourists’ perception and satisfaction. The Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) model was also employed to assess tourist’s perspectives on attribute importance and performance towards overall satisfaction. It was found that, attributes for core attraction factor are the most important to tourists and performed well (“Keep Up the Good work” quadrant of IPA grid). Although, the perceived overall satisfaction among the 422 sample tourists was high, some attributes reflecting on Accessibility, Amenities and Ancillary services factors were perceived to be underperforming (“Concentrate here” quadrant), thus demanding immediate attention of destination managers. This study has addressed the knowledge gap emanating from prior studies in gateway communities by examining tourists’ perceptions and extent of satisfaction with destination attributes in the development stage of destination life cycle, thus, provided necessary input information to destination planning for further tourism development
