Path Analysis to Explore the Relationship in Between Tourist Satisfaction and Development of E-Tourism: Case Study of a Class I Town in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Development of e-tourism mainly depends on the tourist satisfaction at destination and integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in recent times. Co-evolution of socio-cultural development together with the growth of tourism industry has been a regular phenomenon. The present study opts to explore the correlation among factors associated with e-tourism such as Quality of Travel Satisfaction (QTS), Satisfaction with Travel Websites (STW), Satisfaction with Quality of Information (SQI) and Psychological Status of Tourists (PST) and their associated observed variables through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The present study surveyed fourteen hotels equipped with ICT and 400 tourists selected randomly through a structured questionnaire in Purulia municipality town. It has been found that adoption of ICT in tourism persuaded tourists to explore the natural beauty and cultural heritage of Purulia repeatedly. The SEM model revealed that all the 17 observed variables studied under the 4 latent variables associated with e-tourism were strongly correlated with tourist satisfaction. The present study, therefore, intends to draw the attention of government tourism planners and private tour managers to consider the tourist destination satisfaction factors linked with e-tourism for steady growth in regional tourism and sustainable socio-economic development.

Keywords: E-Tourism, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Tourists’ Satisfaction, Sustainability, Socio-Economic Development

View PDF