Testing a model of destination attachment - insights from tourism in Tanzania

Purpose – Transforming experiences is in this paper approached as a destination choice process for adventure tourists. This study seeks to explain conditions that support place identity and place dependence development in Tanzania. The study proposes a testable destination choice model of international visitors to Tanzania. Design/Methodology/Approach – The proposed order of the model is that perceived constraints and satisfaction depend on expectation and travel motivation and that these two may further predict place identity and place dependence. These measures capture our research questions. Visiting tourists to Tanzania were confronted at airport. During August and September of 2010, 700 filled questionnaires were gathered and 504 was usable for further analysis. Final questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and SEM (AMOS). Main results – The findings support that tourism policymakers and other stakeholders may consider tourists’ behaviors, such as expectations, motivations, perceived constraints and satisfaction with place identity, to be related to destination attachment. Originality of the research – The paper strengthens several theoretical arguments. First, indicating the amalgamation of different tourists’ behaviors formed in a path-dependent order. One stage is planning the travel, another is during their stay and finally when building their attachment. Furthermore, attachment relate to future choices.