EFFECT OF TRAVEL EXPERIENCE ON TOURISTS’ CHOICE OF DESTINATION IN PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE

Individuals become tourists when they voluntarily leave their normal surroundings, where they reside, to visit another environment. These individuals will usually engage in different activities, regardless of how close or how far of the destination. Therefore, tourists are visitors, and what they do while visiting another place may be considered as tourism. Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes (Camilleri, 2018).

Tourism is a major force in any economy in the world; it is one sector of the economy that has a global importance and fastest growing economic sectors and a key driver for socio-economic progress in  the  world this is because it creates jobs and source of internal revenue for host communities  through  money  generated  from  games  reserves,  and  inflow  of  tourists. Tourists are classified as temporary visitors staying at least 24 hours in a destination. If they are travelling for recreation, health, sport, holiday, study or religious purposes, their visit could be categorised as leisure. Alternatively, excursionists, including cruise travellers may be considered as temporary visitors, if they stay in a destination for less than 24 hours (World Tourism Organization, 2018)

Tourism is an important activity that contributes positively to human wellbeing and rejuvenation of human mind thereby enhancing happiness and improves, this is particularly important because the modern man is so preoccupied with so many stress induced activities that contribute to poor job performance and sometimes shorten modern man’s life span. However, these unpleasant consequences can be eliminated or reduced by taking a break from the regular work and go on tour (Liu, 2013).

Experiences represent a distinct economic offering to commodities, goods and services because they are unique, memorable and personal, However, Travel Experience is a set of activities in which individuals engage on their personal terms, such as pleasant and memorable places, this allows one to build his or her own tourist experiences so that these satisfy a wide range of personal needs, from pleasure to a search for meaning. The tourist experience includes everything a tourist goes through at a destination as experience, including behavior and perception, cognition and emotions: either expressed or implied (Sthapita & Coudounaris, 2017).

Travel Experience dimension is seen as a construct in which a tourist goes from one destination to another until the finds the experience which is needed to carry out and undertaking, it is inherently personal and goes along with memorable experiences (Buhalis, & Ladkin, 2014). Memorable experiences are regarded as the ultimate experience that consumers aim to obtain however, after a luxurious stay in an environment all that remains for the tourist is his or her memory of that travel experience. However, Buhalis, & Ladkin (2014) saw travel experiences to be past, personal, tourist-related events strong enough to have entered long-term memory and in the long run, such memorable experiences may contribute to a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like.

Specialized literature has revealed that satisfaction is a subjective opinion based on the assessment by the tourist after living different experiences in a place. In this regard, tourist satisfaction with a destination is essentially what the tourist expects. In other words, it is the fulfillment of an expectation, which can be expressed as an affective state, a cognitive state or a combination of both after living experiences in the place. However, it is a positive assessment by the tourist of the benefits obtained in the place or a sum of judgments regarding the quality perceived by the tourist (Enrique, 2017).

Tourist satisfaction has long been an important requirement, this is because tourism industry is one of the main industries promoting the wealth of a country. Hence the need to fulfill the satisfaction is a must for tourist destination managers and providers. Fatemi (2017) defined satisfaction as an evaluation which fulfills the expectation and the need of visitors which is at least good for their experience. When tourists visit a place, they would compare the service and experience with their expectations they had before the visit, these is explained as tourist satisfaction. The needs to fulfill satisfaction of these visitors are because tourist destinations apart from various promotions and advertisements, these tourist destinations also depend on the loyalty of the visitors (Tapak, Abbasi & Mirhashemi, 2019).

Tourism destination is a product that cannot stand alone but is a combination product of various attributes considered by travelers to make the decision to visit or revisit (Framke, 2012). Corte et al. (2015) suggested that the positive tourist experience from the services, products, and other resources provided by the tourism destination can create customer retention and positive word of mouth information. Satisfaction with the travel experience can contribute to the loyalty of destination. Tourist’s loyalty is reflected in their intention to return and recommend the destination to others. Thus, information on tourist loyalty is important for marketers and managers in order to maintain the attractiveness of a destination.

Destination loyalty relates directly with the behavior of the visitor immediately after completing a trip, and is one of the indicators used to measure marketing strategies success so as to enhance competitiveness. In the recent studies, the concept of brand loyalty has been fully applied to activities in the tourism sector. The main concepts include: behavior study, attitude study and behavior-attitude study (Bigne, 2015). Destination loyalty encourages revisit intention because of previous satisfaction (Jang and Feng, 2007). Positive experiences realised by tourists enhance not only their intent to revisit, but ensure that they recommend to others positive things about the place to their relatives and friends. destination loyalty depends on tourists’ perception concerning the place and how potential tourists perceive of information given to them by those who have already visited (Rajesh, 2013).

However, tourism thrives in an environment where there is political stability, adequate security, functional infrastructure as well as continuity of policies that promotes tourism activities. It is based on this premise that visitors feel satisfy to revisit and to recommend same to families, colleagues, friends and neighbours. Tourist satisfaction is significant to tourism this is because tourists well being is an offshoot of how well they were treated the first time they visited tourist sites. Woodside (2015) maintained that destination loyalty is as a result of the satisfaction derived from a visit to tourism community. Thus, tourist satisfaction has the capacity of attracting more people from other countries through recommendations and electronic discovery.

When tourists are satisfied with the services they received including destination behaviour, they will plan another visit to the same tourism venue but when they don’t receive good treatment, they will neither recommend nor return back another time. In line with the above, Solnet (2011) asserts that tourists who are satisfied with a destination are likely to become loyal and visit repeatedly; will deepen their relationships with the destination and its individual service providers; are more likely to recommend the destination to others; and demonstrate less price sensitivity.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Tourism has become one of the leading industries in the world contributing 10% of global GDP and 6% of the world’s total export (UNWTO, 2015). Such immense contributions help countries to address most of their pressing challenges such as socio-economic growth, inclusive development, and environmental preservations. Such pervasive and significant contributions are possible because tourism affects not only the industry itself but also other sectors such as retail, transportations, and construction (Sadeh et al., 2012). In addition to this, tourism serves as the millions of cross-cultural encounters happening every day in different parts of the world. Through such cultural linkage, tourism enhances unity of people in the long run and makes the world impartial place for all to visit and experience.

Tourist satisfaction is one of the most important concerns of competitive destinations as it considerably influences the tourist’s choice of a destination, the consumption of products and services and the decision to visit the destination in the future (Bhat & Qadir, 2013). Satisfied tourists tend to communicate their positive experience to others (word of mouth) and they tend to visit the places repeatedly. This implies that, satisfying tourists has not only immediate result of satisfaction (Huh et al., 2006; Bosque and Martin, 2008); it has also tremendous effect on future sustainability.

Despite that  tourism  is  of  great  importance  to  developing  countries,  there  are  still  some  negative aspect, ranging from insecurity of tourist down to environmental hazards and fear of kidnapping. Infrastructure decay in  most  developing  nations  also  adds  to  the  problem  associated  with  research on the subject matter. Another major problem is political instability of developing countries ranging from civil unrest to economic crisis which leads to inflation and devalue of currency. But having said this, the governments with the help of international agencies such as the United Nation (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), have both been able to put in place programs to curtail the excesses of this problem (Khoje 2013) the study seeks to explore travel experience on tourists’ choice of destination in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

 1.3       Objective of the Study

The main objective of the study was to examine the effect of travel experience on tourists’ choice of destination in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The study has the following specific objectives;

      i.         To examine the effect of perceived value on tourist satisfaction.

     ii.         To examine the effect of perceived value on destination loyalty.

   iii.         To identify the factor affecting tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty

   iv.         To examine the determinant of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty

              1.4       Research Questions

      i.         What are the effect of perceived value on tourist satisfaction?

     ii.         What are the effect of perceived value on destination loyalty?

   iii.         What are the factors that affect tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty?

     v.         What are the determinants of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty?

              1.5       Significance of the Study

The findings of the study will be significant to the tourist, Government, Communities and Researchers in the following ways:

Tourist: from the experiences derived by the tourist in the course of his tour will broaden the knowledge in the way of thinking, this is because travel introduces new experiences, culture and new ways of life, the satisfaction will also add to his educational value, it will also help the tourist to relax, which in turn enable him to be more productive in the workplace and in everyday life

Government: since tourism requires many facilities/ infrastructures to meet the needs of the tourist. This often means that many developments in an area such as new roads, new sewage systems, new playgrounds, bus services etc need to be provided for as a result of tourism. It will enable the government of a country to understand the areas in which it needs to work and reinvest on in order to achieve destination loyalty derived from tourist satisfaction. This is because when tourists are satisfied with the services they received including destination behaviour, they will plan another visit to the same tourism venue.

Communities: the study will be of great benefit to the host community as it will create employment opportunities. However, since it the local culture that the tourists are often coming to visit, it will enable the community to conserve effort to preserve and protect the local culture. This often contributes to the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, the protection of local heritage, and a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts.

Researcher: the study will be of immense benefit to the researchers and research community as it will add to the volume of existing literature, it will also give its reader a strong understanding of the dimensions of tourism, the industries of which it is comprised, the issues that affect its success, and the management relating to effect of travel experience on tourists’ choice of destination.

1.6       Scope of the Study

The study seeks to examine the effect of travel experience on tourists’ choice of destination in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The study is limited to tourist centers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study set out to achieve the following objective to examine the effect of perceived value on tourist satisfaction, examine the effect of perceived value on destination loyalty, identify the factor affecting tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, examine the determinant of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty.

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