Tourists' perceptions and intention to revisit Norway
Abstract
Purpose - The overall purpose of this study is to explore tourists' perceptions and their intention to revisit Norway. The aim is to find out what are the factors that drive the overall satisfaction, the willingness to recommend and the revisit intention of international tourists that spend their holiday in Norway. Design-Method-Approach - the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1991), is used as a framework to investigate tourists' intention and behavior towards Norway as destination. The overall conceptual model is divided into three sub-models. Three regression analyses are applied to the sub-models. The first regression analysis for sub-model 1 explored the effect of service quality, destination image and expensiveness on satisfaction. The second regression analysis for sub-model 2 explores the relationship between satisfaction and word of mouth recommendation. The third regression analysis for sub-model 3 explores the effect of service quality, satisfaction, word of mouth recommendation and expensiveness on revisit intention. Questionnaires were developed in English and German and distributed to 203 respondents. Findings - the empirical findings support five out of eight hypotheses and show that the service quality and destination image positively influence tourists' satisfaction, and expensiveness has a weak negative influence on satisfaction. Another finding is that satisfied tourists are more likely to recommend Norway to others. Regarding the dependent variable intention to revisit, only one hypothesis is supported: serive quality positively influence tourists' revisit intention. Satisfaction, WOM recommendation and expensiveness do not influence the tourists' intention to revisit. The control variables age and income level have a negative impact on the revisit intention. Limitation of the study - a major limitation of this master thesis is that the sample consists of only 203 respondents. Another limitation is the selection of the sample. Since the sample came from one regian (Møre and Romsdal) the study cannot be generalized. Managerial implications - this study determines which factors influence the tourists' intention to revisit, satisfaction and WOM recommendations. It is advised to Norwegian Ministry of Trade and to the tourism businesses to focus on strategies for promoting a unique image of Norway as a tourists' destination, to improve service quality in the tourists' spots, and to focus on the yougner segment of tourists which are more likely to come back.