Abstract:
Drive tourism is a new trend that emerged in the recent past. It is one of the emerging
concepts in the modern Sri Lankan tourism context. Since drive tourism is a new
concept, a limited number of researches has been published. This study focused on
investigating the relationship between destinations attributes and tourist satisfaction
mediated by memorable tourist experience: empirical evidences from drive tourists in
Sri Lanka. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted around Ella, Mirissa, and
Negombo areas of Sri Lanka and 120 respondents were collected employing a
purposive sampling technique. Pearson correlation analysis was carried out to identify
the relationship between destination attributes and satisfaction of drive tourist and the
relationship between destination attributes and memorable tourist experience and
finally Baron and Kenny approach and Sobel test was applied to identify the mediating
relationship of memorable tourist experience between destination attributes and
satisfaction of drive tourists. The results revealed that the relationship between
destination attributes and satisfaction of drive tourists were partially mediated by the
memorable tourist experience. A significant strong positive relationship was found
between destination attributes and satisfaction of rive tourists while strong positive
relationships between destination attributes and memorable tourist experience. To offer
the drive tourists with memorable tourist experience, facilities addressing especially
drive tourists such as accommodations with ample parking spaces, fuel refilling
centers, and money exchange should be improved further to the standard scale.
Keywords: Drive tourism, Memorable tourist experience, Destination attributes, Drive
tourist satisfaction
