1 SATISFACTION AND DISSATISFACTION WITH DESTINATION ATTRIBUTES: INFLUENCE ON OVERALL SATISFACTION AND THE INTENTION TO RETURN

Satisfaction surveys are one of the most essential tools used to gather information regarding tourists’ opinions of a destination. Such surveys usually include evaluations of different destination attributes on an ordinal scale. On such a scale, the mid point of which is indifference, the tourist can express his/her satisfaction or dissatisfaction with each attribute. In this study we suggest that some of the tourist’s negative or unsatisfactory experiences need to be defined within a specific context of evaluation. For such purpose we discuss the potential differences and the complementary nature of the concepts and measurements of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the holiday experience. With a sample of 2,423 sun and sand tourists, we examine both dimensions of evaluation. Furthermore, we estimate the impact of the satisfaction- and dissatisfaction-based evaluations on both the tourists’ overall satisfaction and their intention to return to the destination. Our results show that the experiences of dissatisfaction lower the tourist’s overall satisfaction, and that negative perceptions tied to over-commercialization, overcrowding and environmental deterioration considerably lower the visitor’s intention to return to the destination