Destination Selection Determinants and Revisit Intentions: The Role of Satisfaction and Sociodemographic Factors

Abstract

Understanding what influences a tourist’s choice of a tourism destination has received much attention in academic literature in recent times. Against this background, the purpose of the study is to ascertain the relationship between destination selection determinants and revisit intentions in the Ghanaian context. The study further assessed the impact of tourist’s satisfaction and socio-demographic variables (Country of Origin) on destination selection determinants and revisit intentions. A quantitative approach was adopted for the study and a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 284 respondents. Tourist sites for the study were purposively selected to gather data from international leisure tourists. The sample was selected using convenience sampling approach. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), AMOS version 20 was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant and positive relationship between destination selection determinants and revisit intentions. However, the disintegration of the constructs of the destination selection determinants into individual components revealed that education/ learning and ego enhancement are a major predictor of tourist revisit intentions. The findings of the study also revealed that country of origin as a socio-demographic variable strengthens the positive relationship between destination selection determinants and revisit intentions. The findings of the study also revealed that Education/Learning achieved full mediation effect with satisfaction to influence destination selection determinants on revisit intentions. The study concluded that tourism brings people with different cultural and geopolitical landscape to enjoy a destination offering. When tourists are fulfilled with the travel experience, they will return to the destination or recommend it to others. The study had a geographical limitation as it only focused on some tourist sites in the Greater Accra, Central and Ashanti Regions of Ghana; hence future research could expand the scope of the study to cover other geographical areas or perhaps the entire country. The study also focused only on country of origin as a moderator among the various demographic factors. Future study could measure how other socio-demographic characteristics affect the destination selection determinants and tourists revisit intentions.