Understanding The Influence of Value and Satisfaction on Intention to Revisit and Word of Mouth in Adventure Tourism

Abstract

The study's dependent variable was behavioral intentions which are indications of whether a visitor to a program or facility will return. The theory of reasoned action postulates that behavior can be predicted from intentions that correspond directly (in terms of BAKER AND CROMPTON 789 action, target, context, and time) to thatbehavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Adventure Tourism is a subset of the tourism industry and its growth has paralleled that of the general industry in many ways (Cheron and Ritchie, 1982). The primary motivation among tourism providers for investing effort in evaluating and improving their quality of performance and seeking to enhance level of satisfactions (Taelin and Zenithal 1993) Historically, any form of travel was considered dangerous, and only for war and business purposes (McArthur,1989) defines an adventure as requiring three elements: “freedom of choice; intrinsic rewards; and an element of uncertainty, for instance when the experience outcome is uncertain, or its risksare unpredictable.” The EIU Travel (Economist Intelligence Unit) and Tourism Analyst gives the following definition: “An adventure holiday can be defined as one that contains an element of personal challenge, through controlled risk, daring and excitement, often in an inaccessible (wilderness) environment”. Common element within the two definitions described is the risk factor. (Cheron and Ritchie, 1982) view risk as a multidimensional psychological phenomenon that influences individual perceptions and decision processes. It has been observed that most prior research in satisfaction in either the marketing or tourism has not included perceptions of quality of performance as a direct antecedent of satisfaction (Spreng et al., 1996).