Tourists’ satisfaction and behavioral intention in eco-tourism sites of Sapa (Lao Cai Province)

Abstract

The main objective of the research was to determine the tourists’ satisfaction and their behavioral intention to travel to eco-tourism destinations of Sapa for the Year 2020. The study’s methodology used questionnaire which was designed with the purpose to describe the factors influencing tourists’ satisfaction of the eco-tourism destinations of Sapa as perceived by respondents and determine the influence of tourist’s satisfaction on tourist’s behavioral intentions to pay more, to return, and to recommend to friends and relatives. The respondent of this study were domestic visitors who visited five ecotourism sites of Sapa (Lao Cai province). Because of Covid 19 epidemic’s influence, the survey was conducted online in two months and 500 responses were received. The age of the respondents were from below 18 to over 60. To have the general view of the respondents, this study used Likert scales. All measurement items are based on a five-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree). The author used SPSS version 20 to run the data. Since the population was non probabilistic and data was not normally distributed, Non parametric test was used such as Mann-Whitney U-test for two groups (instead of t-test), Kruskal Wallis H-test for three or more groups and Spearman Rho. In addition, descriptive statistics, reliability test, factor analysis, were used in this study. The study recommended the following policy recommendations to improve the service of Eco tourism destinations in Sapa about Ecosystem health and cultural attraction; Amenities; Accommodation, food, people, safe and security and some other policy recommendations.