INFLUENCE OF SELECTED DETERMINANTS ON THE PERCEPTION OF BEACHES AS A TOURISM PRODUCT

• Published in: Tourism and hospitality management 2022-12, Vol.28 (3), p.703-706
• Main Author: Magaš, Damir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age groups; Beaches; Emotions; Hypotheses; Qualitative research; Questionnaires; Research methodology; Sociodemographics; Statistical analysis; Sustainable development; Tourism
• ISSN: 1330-7533; 1847-3377
• DOI: 10.20867/thm.28.3.15

Purpose Beaches are icons of summer tourism and a strong motivating factor for the arrival of tourists in the sun and sea tourism destinations. Spending time on the beach is one of the most popular forms of tourism leisure worldwide. Beaches serve both as recreational areas of coastal cities, and valuable ecosystems that provide natural and protective functions. The Croatian coast is relatively rich in this valuable tourism resource, but the management of beaches as a tourist product has not reached significant progress. This dissertation aims to contribute to the sustainable management of beaches as a tourism product and recognises the possibility of involving all stakeholders in this process by studying socio-demographic factors, preferences, satisfaction, and future behavioural intentions of beach visitors. This knowledge can make an important contribution to the beach management process because it can be used to make more informed management decisions. Which characteristics of a particular beach need to be improved, what facilities should be introduced or discontinued, beach managers can find out through social science research methods that can encourage participation of all stakeholders, increase visitor satisfaction and destination competitiveness, and thus lay the groundwork for more sustainable development of beaches as tourism products. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to develop a cognitive-affective-conative model of beach visitor satisfaction. This dissertation developed, validated, and tested an empirical model of beach visitor satisfaction by combining the sustainable development framework, international coastal zone management protocols, and national legislation with theories of satisfaction, quality, and consumer behaviour. The empirical model includes measures of beach visitor satisfaction levels with natural beach features, beach facilities, overall beach experience, emotional experience and their future behavioural intention. Methodology The study follows a mixed method design, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method was used for the purpose of testing the links between model constructs. Kruskal Wallis and MannWhitney U tests were used in analyses of socio-demographic variable influences of beach visitors. Data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire on three separate beach locations in the Primorsko – goranska county littoral during the su