DOES VISITORS' DEMOGRAPHICS, STATUS, LENGTH-OF-STAY, AND TRAVEL PARTY AFFECT LOYALTY INDICATORS? A CASE OF VISITORS TO EL-GÖLÜ PARK, IRAN

The main objectives of this study are to examine the effect of visitors’ demographics, status (first timer or repeater visitor), length-of-stay, and travel party on the loyalty indicators, and to investigate whether there are any differences of visitors’ loyalty indicators between male and female visitors, between single and married visitors, between visitors of different age groups, different education groups, different occupation groups, between first timer or repeater visitors, those who stayed in El-Gölü Park, and those who traveled alone or with friends or with family. In this study we focused on three loyalty indicators: recommending to other, willingness to positive word-of-mouth and intent to return. Results revealed that education level affected willingness to positive word-of-mouth and intent to return, and travel party influenced recommending to other. Results also indicated that there were significant differences in willingness to positive word-of-mouth and intent to return between visitors of different education groups, as well as in recommending to other among visitors of different travel party groups.

Visitor demographics, Visitor status, Length-of-Stay, Travel party, Loyalty.