Quality of a rural destination: Visitor and resident approach

Abstract

Destination quality is a complex set of many factors. Methods of evaluating these factors are subject to continuous research. An evaluation of the visitors’ and locals’ satisfaction and using the results to manage the quality and sustainable development of the destination is a possible approach. This article applies importance-performance methodology to analyse a rural region in the Czech Republic. Using ipa analysis, the factors that most affect the satisfaction of visitors and residents are identified. The differences in the perceptions of visitors and residents are statistically significant, e.g., visitors consider the factors ‘overcrowding’ and ‘friendly acceptance by locals’ to be more important. At the same time, both groups have some awareness of the importance of sustainable tourism and the quality of services. The results indicate that in the region there are areas of improvement and performance, furthermore, they point out opportunities for the improvements mentioned. Moreover, the main difference between the performance (meaning the perceived level of quality of the service provided in the destination) and the importance of research factors has been determined. Based on the results, recommendations for destination management are formulated.