Unpacking the motivations, satisfaction and loyalty of tourists travelling to a distressed destination

ABSTRACT

The study investigates the travel motivations, satisfaction and loyalty of tourists visiting a destination (under distress). Furthermore, the current study examines the challenges faced by tourists when visiting politically and economically unstable destinations, such as Zimbabwe. Drawing upon a sample of international tourists that visited Zimbabwe’s popular destinations, the results showed that tourists are motivated by scenery, solitude, excitement and thrills as well as social dimensions. The critical challenges of visiting a distressed destination were also identified, and key among them include higher prices and excessive police roadblocks. The travel motivation dimensions and challenges were identified using exploratory factor analysis. Further analyses were done using correlations and regression analyses. Both linear and non-linear relationships were observed and discussed. Thus, the study yields essential results regarding the nature of travel motivations, satisfaction and loyalty in destinations with distress, as well as the challenges tourists face during their visit and stay.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist destinations
• tourist motivations
• tourist satisfaction
• tourist loyalty
• Zimbabwe

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Correction Statement

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erisher Woyo

Erisher Woyo is an academic and researcher with 11 years of regional experience in higher education, research and consulting environments. He holds a doctorate from North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. An African Doctoral Academy trained Masters and PhD supervisor, with a traceable record of publishing in national, regional and international peer-reviewed journals that are indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. He has been engaged in various transnational and collaborative research networks with a keen interest in ICT and higher education, tourism destination competitiveness, and cross border destination marketing. He has attended six international conferences in Africa and Europe and presented on the impacts of tourism on communities, cross-border destination marketing and travel behaviour from the technology-mediated space. A successful instructor with reliable course evaluation at Harare Polytechnic, University of Namibia, Namibia University of Science and Technology and the International University of Management. Currently, an adjunct lecturer at the Namibia Business School, teaching Research Methodology, Project Management and Operations Strategy for the MBAs. He has been delivering lectures for the last 11 years in regional and multi-cultural universities in Southern Africa. Erisher Woyo is the corresponding author and can be contacted at [email protected].

Elmarie Slabbert

Professor Elmarie Slabbert is currently the Director for the Research Unit Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society (TREES) at North-West University (South Africa). She completed her PhD in 2005 and is currently focusing her research on the potential of game meat, travel behaviour, the socio-cultural impact of tourism and marketing issues. She has authored and co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, 10 accredited conference proceedings and she started supervising post-graduate students in 2005 as co-supervisor, and since 2006 as a supervisor. Since 2005 54 Masters students and 24 Doctorate students completed their studies with success under her guidance. Prof Slabbert has supervised over 48 Honours degree dissertations since 2002. At the international level, she has presented 51 papers at international conferences. This led to the development of various international network opportunities and international cooperation agreements. Prof Slabbert has also presented 13 papers at national conferences, co-authored 3 books, 15 chapters in books, 62 research reports, 6 in-service training manuals and served as an external examiner for 26 post-graduate studies.