DESTINATION SECURITY, SERVICE QUALITY AND CONSERVATION ATTITUDES’IMPACT ON VISITORS’ LOYALTY TO SOME ECODESTINATIONS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Destinations are facing worldwide competition for tourists. Destination images influence tourists’ travel decision making and behavior towards a destination, as well as satisfaction levels and recollection of the experiences. This study thus identified demographic characteristics of visitors, motivational factors of visitors, ecotourism resources, sources of information, visitor's perceptions of security and service quality, conservation attitudes of visitors, level of visitor's satisfaction, perceived value and loyalty at the selected eco-destinations in Northern Nigeria. Direct observation was used to identify ecotourism resources while structured questionnaire was administered to 575 respondents at Chad Basin National Park; CBNP (69), Gashaka Gumti National Park; GGNP (165) and Yankari Game Reserve; YGR (341). Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. Results revealed that majority of the respondents at CBNP were male (72.5%), majority of the respondents (77.6%) were female in GGNP, 53.1% were male in YGR. Ecotourism facilities identified were museum, hills, fauna and flora species, water bodies, mountains and sand dunes. Visitors were mainly motivated to come to CBNP for enjoyment of nature (27.5%) to be away from hustle and bustle of cities (33.3%) (GGNP) and game viewing (33.4%) (YGR). Sources of information about the parks were previous trip in CBNP (29%) and YGR (36.1%) while friends and relatives (45.5%) at GGNP. Destination security revealed “peace, safety and security are the primary condition for successful tourism development” (4.41) at CBNP, “all forms of insecurity incidents negatively affect their image and can cause decline in tourist Destinations are facing worldwide competition for tourists. Destination images influence tourists’ travel decision making and behavior towards a destination, as well as satisfaction levels and recollection of the experiences. This study thus identified demographic characteristics of visitors, motivational factors of visitors, ecotourism resources, sources of information, visitor's perceptions of security and service quality, conservation attitudes of visitors, level of visitor's satisfaction, perceived value and loyalty at the selected eco-destinations in Northern Nigeria. Direct observation was used to identify ecotourism resources while structured questionnaire was administered to 575 respondents at Chad Basin National Park; CBNP (69), Gashaka Gumti National Park; GGNP (165) and Yankari Game Reserve; YGR (341). Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. Results revealed that majority of the respondents at CBNP were male (72.5%), majority of the respondents (77.6%) were female in GGNP, 53.1% were male in YGR. Ecotourism facilities identified were museum, hills, fauna and flora species, water bodies, mountains and sand dunes. Visitors were mainly motivated to come to CBNP for enjoyment of nature (27.5%) to be away from hustle and bustle of cities (33.3%) (GGNP) and game viewing (33.4%) (YGR). Sources of information about the parks were previous trip in CBNP (29%) and YGR (36.1%) while friends and relatives (45.5%) at GGNP. Destination security revealed “peace, safety and security are the primary condition for successful tourism development” (4.41) at CBNP, “all forms of insecurity incidents negatively affect their image and can cause decline in tourist arrivals” at GGNP (4.28) and at YGR (4.31). Service quality recorded employees being consistently courteous as the highest mean at CBNP (4.33), employees’ readiness to respond to customers request at GGNP (4.38) and YGR (4.39). Visitors’ perceived value, “natural areas are important to me because I use them for recreation” as highest mean at CBNP (4.74), “to say that natural areas have values just for themselves is a nice idea but we just cannot afford to think that way: the welfare of people has to come first at GGNP (4.67) and “natural areas are valuable to keep for future generation of humans” as highest mean in YGR (4.73). For satisfactions, the visitors were satisfied with competence of personnel at CBNP (4.28), the surrounding neatness and temperature at GGNP (5.04) and the employees’ understanding of request at YGR (4.36). In terms of conservation attitude “sustainability of wildlife lies in conservation” had the highest mean at CBNP (4.55), “wildlife should be valued as natural and cultural relics at GGNP (6.20) and at YGR (5.33). Destination loyalty further revealed “I will visit the park again” had the highest mean at CBNP (6.26) and “I will recommend the park to others” had the highest mean at GGNP (6.05) and YGR (6.12). Furthermore, there are significant differences in the sex, age, marital status, monthly income, educational level, occupation, nationality, non-Nigerian and motivation of the respondents among the site, (p<0.01). There are also significant differences in destination image, destination security, satisfaction and conservation attitude among the sites (p<0.01). In addition, destination image, destination security, service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, conservation attitude significantly predict tourists’ loyalty to the destinations (p=0.00). Thus, visitors’ loyalty to a destination is influenced by destination security, service quality and conservation attitudes. It is therefore recommended that conservation education should be taken as top priority by management of eco-destination and government should create more security measure to curb menace of insecurity.