Tourism in Kenya: A preliminary examination

This study seeks to explore the trends in international tourist arrivals in a developing country - Kenya - which has been well recognized as an international tourist destination in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya’s tourism sector has undergone several challenges over the years. Several factors that affect the tourists’ propensity to stay longer in a destination are discussed and suggestions for marketing are proposed

Examining the mediating effects of study outcomes on student experience and satisfaction

Global demand for higher education has been growing. Insight into study outcomes may hold the key to finding out what exactly students hope to take away from their university experience and how they may be satisfied. This paper's aim is to understand the mediating effects study outcomes have on student experience and satisfaction. Findings suggest study outcomes such as personal development and career opportunity mediate the relationships between student experience (image, teaching, learning, student services and technology) and student satisfaction

Important attributes of corporate social responsibility - an exploratory assessment from Oman

This paper reports the results of an exploratory investigation of consumers in Greater Moscat area of the Sultanate of Oman in regards to the important attributes that a socially responsible company should have in order to meet its social responsibility and corporate citizenship. An intercept survey of 153 participants (45% Omanis and 55% expatriates) revealed that a socially responsible company should have attributes such as safe products/services, appropriate treatment of employees, provision of reliable products/services, behave ethically, and committed to social responsibility. The 16 item attributes measured on 5-point Likert scale were represented by three components, namely community, organisation, and commitment and explained 62% of total variance. Whilst gender had no statistically significant difference on these three components, age, education, and nationality demographics showed statistically significant differences. Results were discussed with suggestions for further assessment of the larger sample of the Omani consumers located outside of the Greater Moscat area

Factors effecting destination loyalty: a case of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

This empirical study was conducted to find out the determinants factors of loyalty for the destination Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. We investigated the theoretical and empirical evidences for developing a comprehensive loyalty model in a tourism sector. Two formative and five reflective determinates were adopted from the literature and contextualised employing a qualitative research design. The interrelationships among adopted determinants were depicted based on literatures and field study. Forty three (43) measures were used in this study to collect data from 602 visitors. The model was tested employing Partial Least Square (PLS) based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach. The result presented a strong support that “Perceived Satisfaction” is the main factor effecting “Destination Loyalty”. The study also found that perceived quality and perceived sacrifice had direct positive effect on perceived satisfaction. The outcomes of this study contribute to determining the behavioural loyalty mechanism. The theoretical and managerial implications were presented based on the study findings

A field study of factors and variables regarding tour destination loyalty of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh

It is a generally held belief that a tourism destination gets maximum benefit from loyal visitors compared to nonloyal visitors. Although literature on loyalty covers different issues, it lacks a comprehensive study of factors and variables that influence destination loyalty. Therefore, this article aims to investigate the main factors affecting destination loyalty in adopting and applying it to the world's longest beach, Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Initially a conceptual destination loyalty framework was developed based on the literature. An exploratory field study utilizing a deductive methodological approach was undertaken by conducting field interviews with 10 experienced visitors from multiple disciplines. Then, we utilized a content analysis based on transcription of the interviews to extract the factors and variables and further developed a loyalty framework. The outcomes of the field interviews identify three new factors (Religious Belief, Seasonal Variation, and Level of Income) that play important roles in destination loyalty judgment. In addition, nine variables (natural beauty, longest beach, reputed place, adjacent attractions, nontraditional items, time, rational price of tourism products, recommendable place, and visit again) are also found to be common and of utmost importance. The article concludes by highlighting the methodological, theoretical, managerial implications, and future research directions

Credibility of online reviews and initial online trust in hotel services: the roles of similarity and review quality

As a new type of word-of-mouth media, online hotel review sites have a significant role in travelers’ decision making. Despite of growing popularity and adoption among travelers, online reviews are often questioned for their credibility. The purpose of this study is to investigate how review quality and perceived similarity affect travelers’ perception of credibility of the reviews and their initial trust in the hotel being reviewed. A survey involving 430 real travelers from 16 countries was conducted in popular tourist destination. Results confirm that (1) review quality affects credibility and initial trust in hotel services; (2) similarity affects credibility and initial trust in hotel services; (3) credibility of online reviews affects initial trust in hotel services