Visitor experience in Kafue National Park, Zambia

ABSTRACT

Research is limited with respect to park-based visitor experience and satisfaction in the southern Africa region, especially in Zambia. In this study, the relationships of service quality, value, satisfaction, and future intention to revisit Kafue National Park were explored. A conceptual model was formulated and empirically tested. Data were collected from various sites with a useable sample of 336 responses. Analysis was conducted via a structural equation model to test four hypotheses. Service quality was divided into three dimensions. Staff and information were positively related to value, which in turn indirectly improved satisfaction and future intention. Accessibility to wildlife was found to be the most significant antecedent to value. Physical facilities did not significantly contribute to the strength of any factors in the model. The findings are useful for park managers to understand visitor needs and accordingly facilitate services that will optimise experience to ensure repeat visitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Service quality
• value
• satisfaction
• future intention
• park
• visitors
• southern Africa

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Gregory Parent, Patricia Mupeta and Brian Child at the University of Florida for their work related to the broader project in Zambia. Additionally, thanks to the team at RuralNet Associates Ltd. in Zambia for all the assistance with respect data collection initiatives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This number largely reflects overnight visitors who stay in the various accommodations within KNP, as each facility is responsible to collect the entry fee and then submit it to Zambia Wildlife Authority on a monthly/quarterly basis. Therefore, day visitors are likely excluded from the total visitor counts but it is acknowledged that due to the proximity of the park to major population clusters such as Lusaka, day use is relatively minimal but could be higher for the surrounding communities in the Game Management Areas.

2. Domestic visitors are a major target market especially among the growing middle and upper middle class segments.

3. The cross-sectional sample may not be representative of all visitors who visit during other months.

4. A total of 3877 visitors were approached and 1481 refused to participate, which resulted in a response rate of 61.8% (N = 2395). Non-response bias was not conducted of non-respondents. Only questions related to the specific constructs were used in the analysis of this study. For more information about the larger study, the reader is referred to Thapa et al. (2011).

5. Cronbach’s alpha of 0.6 may be acceptable in scales with six or less items (Cortina, 1993).

6. An effect of mediation occurs when a variable ‘accounts for the relation between the predictor and the criterion’ (Baron & Kenny, 1986, p. 1176).

Additional information

Funding

A larger study was funded by the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation and managed through US Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service. The specific contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the agencies.