Predicting Visitor Satisfaction in Parks: Comparing the Value of Personal Benefit Attainment and Service Levels in Kakadu National Park, Australia

Cultural Centre, Destination Cultural Offer and Visitor Satisfaction

“…Therefore, tourism decision-makers must try to boost the positive aspects of their destinations and to remedy negative ones. Crilley, Weber and Taplin's [31] research at Kakadu National park in Australia shows that benefits attained by visitors are stronger predictors of an overall positive response to a park visit, and therefore suggests that the visitors' desired benefits should be paid greater attention. It is important to understand what benefits are dependent on the biophysical, socio-cultural and managerial environment, and the offered visitor activity in the destination.…”

A method for testing the effect of management interventions on the satisfaction and loyalty of national park visitors

“…Other antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty, derived from theoretical perspectives in addition to expectationdisconfirmation theory and the influences of service quality, are suggested as useful avenues 640 to pursue. Growing bodies of research investigating the relationships between benefits and positive response to a park (e.g., Crilley et al, 2012) and between place attachment and loyalty (e.g., Weaver, 2013) provide promising future research directions. Lastly, theoretical insights regarding loyalty suggest a broadening of this construct in future research to further consider Oliver's (1999) model of loyalty formation with its attitudinal, conative, and 645 behavioral elements.…”

“…Other influences investigated using correlational analyses include experiences previsit (Crompton et al, 1991), the destination 565 image and/or infrastructure (Chi, 2012), and perceptions regarding value for money (Rivera & Croes, 2010). Recent research in Kakadu National Park in Australia by Crilley, Weber, and Taplin (2012) showed that the benefits obtained by visitors were a strong predictor of a positive response to the park. The challenge with these variables is determining how to manipulate them so their influences on satisfaction and loyalty can be experimentally 570 tested.…”

“…Visitor satisfaction as a global attitude places it super-ordinate to service quality, suggesting investigation of the latter as an antecedent of the former (Baker & Crompton,135 2000; Lee et al, 2004;Tian-Cole & Crompton, 2003). Measurement of overall visitor satisfaction has been central to visitor research for protected areas (Bushell & Griffin, 2006;Crilley, Weber, & Taplin, 2012;Dorfman, 1979;Lee et al, 2004;Moore et al, 2013;Taplin, 2012b;Tian-Cole et al, 2002;Tonge et al, 2011).…”

“…A number of studies of service quality in protected areas over the last decade suggest a focus for interventions, through identifying universal concern identified in studies in the United States, (Fletcher & Fletcher, 2003), New Zealand (Ryan & Cessford, 2003), Africa (Wade & Eagles, 2003), and Australia (Crilley et al, 2012;Tonge et al, 2011). Fletcher and Fletcher (2003, p. 21) suggested that park maintenance and park personnel are sufficiently important to visitors to be the sole focus of management attention, with "measurable and documentable increases in park visitor 265 satisfaction" achieved.…”