Tourist experience, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions of rural tourism destinations in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Abstract

Tourism plays a pivotal role in the development of economies across the globe. South Africa is no exception and has benefited significantly from tourism over the past couple of decades. The latter has propelled the government to renew its efforts and commitment to improving the sector in order to attract larger volumes of tourists to the country. Despite the growth in international tourist arrivals to the country, little focus has been dedicated towards the rural tourism sector. This sector is underdeveloped compared to urban tourism destinations, and generally little information exist on tourists’ experience, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in these areas. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate tourist’s experience, satisfaction, and intentions of visiting rural tourism destinations in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Two rural coastal tourism destinations served as the focus areas for the study. Using convenience sampling, a total of 196 usable questionnaires were obtained for the quantitative data analyses. The results of the study indicate that education, aesthetics, entertainment, escape, and peace of mind influence tourist’s satisfaction of rural tourism destinations in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The results indicated that commonly, tourists had a positive experience, were satisfied visiting the selected tourism destinations, and had a favourable intention of visiting the same destination or recommend the destinations to friends and families. Rural tourism destinations can use the established satisfaction factors and recommendations offered in the study to enhance their competitiveness in the industry.

Keywords

• Behavioural intentions
• Customer satisfaction
• Eastern Cape
• Rural tourism experience
• South Africa