Tourist expectation towards memorable tourism experience: The case of Gondar city, Ethiopia
Engdu Gebrewold and Ashenafi Getachew
Modern tourism has transformed from the holiday industry to the experience industry in the experience economy creating memorable tourism experience is the ultimate goal of destinations to be competent. The process of tourist experience creation starts from expectation creation, tourist experience expectations are the output of interaction of tourists and tourism systems before the trip. Tourist expectations are an important factor for tourism experience and tourism activities. Since tourism experience expectation is essential for actual experience creation the issue must be studied for the success of destinations. The objective of this study was to assess tourists’ expectations towards memorable tourism experience in Gondar city. A sample survey was carried out among the members of a convenient sample of 338 tourists to Gondar. The study used descriptive quantitative research approach. Data collection was done through questionnaires. Frequency, percentage, the average mean, one way ANOVA, and independent t-test, was employed. The researchers used seven points of Memorable Tourism Experience scale to measure tourist’s expectation; as a result the research indicates that tourist who visited Gondar had less expectation compared to other destination. Tourists had higher expectation in Hedonism, Local culture, Meaningfulness and Knowledge than Novelty, Refreshment and Involvement. Gender and age also had important impact on tourist expectation, female tourists and based on age youth tourists had higher experience expectation. Hence, this study strongly recommends, re-creating and re-arranging itineraries with a plenty of worthy experience based on age and gender. And promote the destination by using technology to create better experience.
Engdu Gebrewold, Ashenafi Getachew. Tourist expectation towards memorable tourism experience: The case of Gondar city, Ethiopia. Int J Tourism Hotel Manage 2021;3(1):43-47.