Factors Influencing Tourist Attraction to the Adelaide zoo Samples

Question: Discuss about the Factors Influencing Tourist Attraction to the Adelaide. Answer: Introduction The tourism industry is important as it generates revenue for country to boost the economic development. The tourists visit various destinations for leisure, business or any other purpose and while on stay or entry to those regions they are able to pay for services. The customer satisfaction is important in tourism due to its influence on their decision to visit a given tourist destination and thus strategies can be adopted to maximize customer satisfaction and retention (Kouthouris and Alexandris, 2005). Customer satisfaction has long been used in marketing to measure how organizational products meet or surpass customers satisfaction. A study by Cronin et al. (2000) found that customer satisfaction is important for the success of business. Adelaide Zoo is one of the largest tourist destination in Australia and it is particular of interest since it experiences fluctuation of visitors annually (Orams, 2002). The current study of customer satisfaction provides best indicators and facto rs tourist consider before visiting Adelaide Zoo. If tourist is satisfied, then there is high chance of coming back to the back or mobilizing friends and family to visits the place. The tourists who are unhappy are at high risk of not visiting Adelaide Zoo thus affecting revenue generation. There is a high competition in tourism industry worldwide just like any other business activities necessitating the government to adopt strategies to improve local tourism. The indicators of why customer chose one destination over another provide useful information for the tourism sector and local government to support Adelaide Zoo by creating political, social and infrastructure developments that create environment for greater tourist satisfaction. It has been established that there are many factors that affect tourist destination including price, expectation and perceived quality (Beerli Martin, 2004). Other studies have highlighted significant influence of behavioral, demographic and socioeconomic factors on tourists' satisfaction with destinations (Murphy et al., 2000). In this study, we evaluated customers satisfaction of people in campus who have visited Adelaide Zoo in order to inform the destination on how to improve its competitive advantage. Background information on Adelaide Zoo Adelaide Zoo is one of the oldest tourist attraction in Australia located near Adelaide City, South Australia. The Australian government made the park to be run on a non-profit basis to increase conservative measures and encourage the locals to visit the site. The park is rich in plant and animal diversity with over 300 animal species and approximately over 2000 animals. The park was open in 1883, making it one of the oldest tourist attraction site in Australia occupying 8 hectares of land (Anderson, 1995). Early in 1950s the park was negatively affected by bird trade where live birds particularly finches and parrots were exported. A proper legislation has curbed many risk factors that was threating wildlife in the park and many community and private organizations are involved in conservation. This site was chosen particularly due to its uniqueness as having display of all Australian zoos. Furthermore, apart from its closeness to central business district, the site has huge variety o f exotic and native mammals, fish, largest panda and reptiles in surrounded by magnificent botanic garden. The resident gets to enjoy free tour in the park thus offering motivation for locals (Adelaide Zoo, 2017). Limitations One of the problem encountered in the study is randomization. Since there were few individuals who have visited Adelaide Zoo it was difficult to pick interviewee randomly. In this study, the respondents were restricted to three variables, there is possibility that there are other intervening variables affecting individuals decision to visit the park. The study further could not establish link between tourist motive and level of satisfaction. Methodology Research Design This study adopted descriptive survey research design. This design was chosen because it uses data collected from research questions to answer questions concerning current status of a phenomenon. Mertler (2008) argued that when dealing with people, situations and conditions about which we wish to know more, then descriptive survey is best. These arguments favor this study hence the choice of this design. This research used both quantitative and qualitative methods. sampling techniques and target Population This study adopted purposive sampling technique to determine the sample population who have visited Adelaide Zoo. Approximately 100 people were asked if they had visited the park from which 20 individuals were picked. Target population is the list of all individuals or members that the study is about or interested in (Kitchenham Pfleeger, 2002). The target population of the study comprise of 20 individuals attached college and must have visited Adelaide Zoo. Research Instruments In this study, data was collected through structured questionnaires which was circulated to study participants in the college. Questionnaires are selected because they provide a high degree of data standardization and adoption of generalized information amongst any population (Hsieh et al., 2005). The questionnaire was presented with closed and open ended questions. The questions seek factual information such as position in the college, sex, and professional qualifications. The other part aimed at seeking opinions, perceptions and attitudes of the respondents with regard to the variables used in the study. A 5 point Likert scale for establishing visit frequency (5=very frequently, 4= frequently, 3=occasionally, 2=Rarely and 1= Very rarely) and another scale for determining level of satisfaction (5= very satisfied, 4 = satisfied, 3= neither satisfied or dissatisfied, 2= dissatisfied and 1= very dissatisfied) were used to solicit respondents perceptions and opinions regarding the selec ted effect action variables. Opportunities were also provided to respondents through open ended questions to provide extra relevant information. Data Collection Procedure The questionnaires were administered to the sampled respondents using the drop and pick method. The respondents were allowed adequate time to fill the questionnaires after which the questionnaires were collected after one week for analysis. Data Analysis and Presentation Once the raw data was collected, the first step was to clean the data for any inconsistencies. The coding of the data was the next step. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explain results of the findings. The data collected was be coded, and analyzed through Excel. The results were presented in tables and charts. Results There were equal number of male and females in study sample (figure 1). However, during the initial 100 samples that were questioned to determine whatever they have visited Adelaide zoo there were more males (62 %) than females (38%) (data not shown). Figure 1: Gender of the participants Socio-demographic variables showed that majority of the interviewed were between the age of 21-30 years old (65%) followed by 31-40 years (15 %) and over 4 years were the least (20%) (Table 1). The participant who have enjoyed local tourism destination (55%) were slightly above the lovers of international travel (45%). Similarly, many people had visited other destination apart from Adelaide Zoo comprising of 55%. There were many undergraduate (80%) participants compared to graduate (20%) (Figure 2). Figure 2: socio-demographic characteristics The study showed that majority of the of the respondents visited Adelaide Zoo very frequently and frequently by 25% and few visited very rarely (10%). Accessibility stood to be the most motivating factor to visit Adelaide Zoo (45%). The number of respondent who were satisfied Adelaide Zoo were similar to undecided respondent. However, it was evident that significant number of respondent were very dissatisfied (10%) with Adelaide Zoo services. Table 1: dimensions influencing participants to visit destination Variable Results (n-20) Age (years) 21-30 (65%) -31-40 (15%) over 40 (20%) Rate of visiting Adelaide Zoo Very frequent (25%), frequent (25%), occasionally (20%), rarely (20%) and very rarely (10%) Motivation to visit Adelaide Zoo Affordability (35%), accessibility (45%) and income (20%) Level of satisfaction Very satisfied (30%), satisfied (30%), neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (25%), dissatisfied (5%), very dissatisfied (10%) Discussions The majority of the respondent were undergraduate students with age between 21 and 30 years old on campus and few staffs. The respondents preferred local tourism that is encouraging so as to save foreign exchange and offer revenue to the local industries. However, the studied further identified significant number of people prefer to travel abroad though the country has many enjoyable attractions. The government has a lot to do to promote domestic tourism. In other study, Felsenstein and Fleischer (2003) suggested that making arrangements with local tours and offering benefits at reasonable prices lower than that offered to foreign tourist boosts local tourism. The government has to invest heavily on infrastructural developments like hotels and shopping malls that support tourism industry (Littrell et al., 2004). Majority traveled more often to the Adelaide Zoo and they cited accessibility as a motivating factors. This is in harmony with previous studies where a universal accessibility has been cited to promote tourism irrespective of race, gender, age color, nationality, religion and physical conditions. The participant attributed accessible heritage and infrastructure in Adelaide as welcoming. The park is a walking distance from the central business district and one can take approximately 15 minutes to get into the park. Adelaide Zoo has met international standards by designing infrastructures around the park to gather for handicapped. The cheap transport system including road, air, sea and train transport network (Allan, 2011) that connect Adelaide city to the rest of the world is promoting tourism in the city. The increased use of technology has promoted information services (Buhalis Law, 2008). The respondents cited using internet to make travelling arrangement easy. One reported to booking and paying for fair and accommodation online. Affordability was further a great motivating factor for individuals to visit the park. As indicated earlier, the park is non-profit and thus little entry fee is charged on Australians. The efficient transport system has lowered the cost of travel to Adelaide city making it affordable for tourists. The cheaper flexible price of airlines in certain seasons of the year has enticed more people to travel (Pearce et al., 2007). High infrastructural development in the city has further contributed to affordable accommodation for the tourists. The income was least factor since majority of respondents were students who depend majorly on income from their guardian and parents. The respondents were generally satisfied with services of Adelaide Zoo. The park has adequa te tour guide to take people around the park. Conclusions This study proved that students are contributing significantly to the tourism sector in Australia with majority of them reporting to enjoy leisure travel. The Adelaide Zoo has opportunity to increase tourism activity from the student as evident from proportionate number of students who have visited the park. Affordability and accessibility were the major factors affecting individuals to visit the factor. This means that the government has to do more to make tourism affordable and accessible to encourage domestic and international tourism. 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