Is preservation the key to quality and tourists’ satisfaction? Evidence from Lake Garda

ABSTRACT

This study empirically examines the effect of the preservation of local resources on the perceived quality of tourism resources and tourists’ satisfaction. A quantitative questionnaire was developed and administered to tourists on Lake Garda, the second most visited Italian destination. Through a structural equation model, we show that the perceived quality of tourism resources is affected by the preservation of local resources, which in turn influences tourists' satisfaction. This outcome underscores the importance of preservation of local resources as a key to adding value to visitors’ experiences. Indeed, given that quality and preservation are connected constructs, the preservation of local resources should be a top priority in tourism development and management.

KEYWORDS:

• Preservation
• local resources
• tourist satisfaction
• lake Garda
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Overnight stays of foreign tourists on Lake Garda represented 83.1% in 2017, while domestic tourists 16.9%; Germany is by far the top incoming market with almost 11 million overnight stays. Municipalities around Lake Garda belong to three different Italian Regions (Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto and Lombardy). Data was drawn from two regional tourism reports (Garda Trentino, 2018; Camera di Commercio di Verona, 2018) and, in the case of Lombardy, provided by PoliS-Lombardia.

2 88% of the total number of overnight stays (1,741,852) are concentrated between the months of April and October, with peaks in July (309,934) and August (326,776) (Garda Trentino, 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gianluca Goffi

Gianluca Goffi holds a post-doctoral position at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Economics and Management. His research interests are related to tourism sustainability and competitiveness, destination management, regional and labour economics.

Linda Osti

Linda Osti is Associate Professor and coordinator of the research cluster in Tourism, Marketing and Regional Development at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Economics and Management. Her research interests lie in consumer behaviour in tourism, green consumers, tourism sustainability, authenticity.

Consuelo R. Nava

Consuelo R. Nava is a fixed-term Research Assistant at the Department of Economics and Political Sciences of the University of Aosta Valley. Her main areas of research expertise relate to econometric theory and applied econometrics.

Oswin Maurer

Oswin Maurer is a Professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bolzano. He is currently also Dean of the Faculty and member of the Board of several international organisations. His research interest include consumer behaviour, tourism marketing, food & tourism, and international competitiveness.

Tonino Pencarelli

Tonino Pencarelli is Full Professor of Economics and Business Management at the Department of Economics, Society and Politics of the University of Urbino ‘Carlo Bo’. He is vice president of the Italian Management Society. He has published widely in areas of economics and business management, in particular SMEs, business strategy, experiential marketing and tourism.