Factors affecting toursits' destination satisfaction : The case of the world natural heritage - Ha Long Bay
Abstract
This research was conducted to determine the factors that directly or indirectly
affect foreign tourists’ destination satisfaction toward the World Natural Heritage of
Halong Bay through the mediating variable – perceived service quality. These factors
consist of Natural Environment and Resources, Cultural Factor, Leisure &
Entertainment, Shopping, Infrastructure, Accessibility, and Safety & Security.
Besides, it also examines the impacts of those factors on tourists’ satisfaction toward
Halong Bay destination. Additionally, the empirical information found in this research
somewhat showed foreign tourists’ assessment about Halong Bay order to make
appropriate adjustments and effective improvements for creating a better image of
Halong Bay in their mind and attract more foreign tourists coming to Halong Bay in
the future.
Regarding to the results of path analysis that was used to explore the direct and
indirect effects of six independent factors on foreign tourists’ satisfaction toward
Halong Bay, this study concluded that Leisure & Entertainment is the most
important factor that affected tourists’ satisfaction toward Halong Bay, followed
by Infrastructure, Safety & Security, Cultural Factor, and last is Shopping. Besides,
it cannot be denied that Perceived Service Quality also contributes an important part
in tourists’ satisfaction toward Halong Bay destination. In addition, based on these
results, some recommendation were given to tourisms agencies in Halong Bay so that
they can improve their service, eliminate weaknesses, and then make foreign tourists
more satisfied with Halong Bay.
In conclusion, from experiences gathered during the process of conducting the
research, some limitations of this study were provided, and based on these limitation,
some helpful recommendations were also given for further researches so that they can
achieve better results.