Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

Tourist characteristics and demand for tourism destination products in nigeria, tropical africa
The second section of the questionnaire evaluated the dependent variables of tourism product
demand using 3 grouping of variables: (1) Type of destinations highly patronised or valued
by tourists. (2) Features or image attributes of products within destinations considered highly
attractive to tourists. (3) Destination features or their components considered obnoxious/disliked
by tourists. Each of these 3 variable groupings that were selected as surrogates for the tourism
products demanded was evaluated in the questionnaire by asking tourists to rate each on
various 5 point Likert type bi-polar scales. Thus, to evaluate the types of tourism destinations
tourists patronise or value most, respondents were requested to rate a set of 105 tourists
destinations in Nigeria on a 5 point Likert type scale that was anchored by the bi-polar
adjectives of least important to very important for me to visit as a tourists. Next, to evaluate
the specific destination image or components that are highly valued by tourists, respondents
were requested to rate on a 5 point bi-polar scale 28 items on destination features that attracted
or motivated them to selected destinations for visitation. The scale ranged from least important
for me to very important to me in the destination features that determine my decision to visit.
Finally, the distractions/problems encountered in the destinations by tourists were evaluated.
18 items that reflected various dimensions of distractions/problems within the destinations
that distracted from the quality of each destination were presented to tourists for rating on a
5 point Likert type bi-polar scale that ranged from least important to very important to me
as a problem during visit. The detailed format and information on the three sets of items
presented to tourists for evaluation of destination product demanded or valued is omitted here
for brevity of space. The three sets of items presented to tourists for rating were, however,
selected from previous developed and published tourism studies by Greewood and Moscardo
(2001); Fakeye and Crompton, (1997); Awaritefe (1993, 2004) and Afolabi, (1993).
Data Analysis
Mean scores obtained for each of the 3 sets of variable rating schemes were aggregated for
each tourist’s segment, and also for the seven destinations separately. The mean scores
obtained for the 3 groups of items provided measures for the tourism product demand (y)
used in the multiple regression models of study. Mean scores for each of all items measured
were obtained by the ranking procedure developed by Nunally (1967). As a result of the
abundant data obtained, a factoring technique that involved identifying items with thematic
commonalities developed by Miles and Huberman, (1994), was used to scan the data obtained
into various categories or grouping of items of similar dimensions, with each sharing a common
description factor. Next, these dimensions of items were segmented according to tourist’s
demographic characteristics, culture/nationality and social groupings. And finally, the means
obtained were presented under each segment. These were used as summary measures for the
various independent tourism product demand variables in the regression models and in the
various one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-tests to establish significant differences
between various tourists groups in product demand, which is the central hypothesis of the
study. Scheffe’s multiple range tests was also applied to ANOVA results to identify tourists’
groups that differed significantly in product demand.
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper
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