Organizational culture and tourist satisfaction in a lake-based tourism area

Abstract

Problem statement: Although many studies have highlighted that certain cultures are evident in certain firms, there are only few studies done on ecotourism areas and little has been done to analyse how these cultures have affected the performance of these organizations. Approach: Conceptualizing organizational culture as the values and practices employed in an organization and considering tourist satisfaction as intangible performance we conducted a survey of all tourist resort operators located in a lake-based tourism area in Malaysia. The data wes analysed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test and Pearson product-moment correlation. Results: The results revealed that tourists are dissatisfied with the quality of service delivered to them and tourist satisfaction is significantly influenced by environmental friendly practices. Conclusion/Recommendations: The results imply that environmental friendly practices ranging from the issue of recycling, being compatible with local environment and culture and making minimal changes to the existing landform, should be the focus of the strategic policy in the future, to improve the planning and management of the resorts and the area promoted for tourism. © 2012 Science Publications.