Rural Tourism – Evaluating the Quality of Destination

Abstract

Abstract This paper concerns the topic of rural destination quality from the viewpoint of tourism development. The research exploring crucial quality factors from the viewpoint of demand is presented. Rural tourism participants attribute the highest significance to Destination cleanliness and Sense of security. The evaluation of the importance of most research quality factors is not dependent on gender and on the contrary, the importance of 16 quality factors depends on the visitor´s age. In the case of the factor of “Friendly acceptance by the locals”, the most significant influence on the visitor´s return to the destination was confirmed. On the contrary, this impact was not proven for the factor of “Level of prices of services and goods in the destination”. The research and the successive factor analysis revealed 6 dimensions representing the rural destination quality: Services, Image, Transportation, Well-being, Information/Communication and Attractions/ Experiences; Well-being was identified as the most important. This was consecutively confirmed by the analysis of the quality factors’ impact on the visitor´s overall satisfaction and loyalty to the destination. The research findings provide the theory with topical destination quality dimensions as well as contribute to better understanding of visitor´s behavioural mechanisms in rural areas.