Abstract:
Tourist satisfaction has been a central focus of scholars specifically to explain the
marketing and management of issues of tourist destinations. The increased demand for
visitors is creating increasing pressure on visitor satisfaction particularly in protected
areas such as national parks. Yet, only a few studies have been carried out to evaluate
visitor satisfaction in Sri Lanka's national parks. Thus, the investigator sets out to explore
and recognize visitor satisfaction in Minneriya national park. Further, it uncovers the role
of park attributes in shaping visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park. Accordingly,
the study was conducted based on four key objectives: to identify the park attributes
influence on visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park, to identify the intermediating
role of travel motivation in shaping visitor satisfaction at Minneriya national park, to
identify the intermediating role of destination image in shaping visitor satisfaction at
Minneriya national park, and to identify the most significant attributes affecting visitor
satisfaction at Minneriya national park. Sample of 160 tourists was drawn using purposive
sampling. Data were collected by using a structured questionnaire and analysed by SPSS
and SmartPLS software to achieve research objectives. Descriptive statistics, Sobel test,
SEM model were used to analyse the data. The findings showed that the positive
relationships between park attributes and visitor satisfaction at Minneriya National Park.
This study suggests that the tourists who visit Minneriya National Park are satisfied,
willing to behave positively and revisit. Tourist information supplied through printed
media and the website should be given in other languages, including Chinese, Japanese,
Russian, French, Italian to improve and diversify the visitors’ markets. The government
must attempt to maintain the destination as pure as possible given its setting renowned.
Keywords: Park attributes, Visitor satisfaction, Travel motivation, Destination image
