Tourists' satisfaction at Trijuginarayan: An emerging spiritual and adventure tourist destination in Garhwal Himalaya India

Abstract

Tourists' satisfaction has been acknowledged as one of the most important elements of competitive advantage and formulating effective destination management strategies because it is a reliable standard to evaluate performance of tangible and intangible elements of tourism products and services. The purpose of this study is to investigate tourists' satisfaction by examining the relationship between destination attribute importance and performance in a tourist destination. Trijuginarayan, an emerging spiritual and adventure tourist destination located in Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand state of India was selected as the study area for this research. Importance-Performance Analysis was employed to examine the relationship between importance and performance of various destination attributes. Results revealed that attributes related to tourism product of spiritual and cultural nature, atmosphere and climate, a variety of tourist activities, hospitality and safety are significant factors in determining tourist satisfaction, whereas basic facilities such as accommodation, transportation, tourism infrastructure and hygiene and sanitation at destination are of significant importance in satisfaction evaluation. Findings also reveal that tourists were satisfied with the core products, but were dissatisfied with basic tourist facilities offered at the destination. The findings alert concerned tourism stakeholders for outlining effective strategies for holistic development and improving performance of attributes in a given destination.