African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (May 2017)
Do travel motives and life domains have an influence on visitors’ quality of life attending a heritage event?
Abstract
Heritage events serve as a way for enthusiasts to come together and celebrate their shared heritage interests. The Sandstone Estate is home to one of the largest collections of functioning vintage agricultural, railway and military artefacts in private ownership. Amos was used to provide statistical support for the Structural Equation Model. The data provided support for the Structural Equation Model, which produced an acceptable model fit. The Structural Equation Model indicates that travel motives, life domains and life domains overall have an influence on tourist’s Quality of Life attending a heritage event. Travel motives, life domains such as: travel life, social life, leisure and recreation life, self-life, life domains overall and Quality of Life attained acceptable reliabilities. The purpose of this study is to examine whether travel motives and life domains have an influence on tourists’ QoL attending a heritage event. Permission was given by management to send a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study. Tourists had been asked to leave their contact emails at free will with the estate to participate in this study. A link to a self-administrated online questionnaire was attached to the e-mail for tourists who chose to participate anonymously in this study. Data from 119 (N) completed questionnaires were captured and analysed using SPSS. From the study`s findings, managerial recommendations were made with the aim of maximising attending heritage tourists` Quality of Life. The research contributes to literature of tourism and QoL.
