Correlation between tourists’ perceptions/evaluations of destination attributes and their overall satisfactions: Observations of a meta-analysis

Abstract

This study examined the correlation between tourists’ perception/evaluation of destination attributes and their overall satisfaction. Using the data gathered from 34 previous studies and applying the metaanalysis method, this study found that destination image, destination quality, and destination attribute satisfaction have significant positive effects on the tourists’ overall satisfaction, whether the latter variable is singly or multiply scaled; all the overall estimates have small to medium sizes. However, three issues should be taken into account when interpreting this correlation. First, not all of the components of the attribute-based constructs (destination image, destination quality, destination attribute satisfaction) can have significant effects on the overall tourist satisfaction. Second, the unfavourable attributes of a destination may have some negative influences on tourist satisfaction. Third, the attribute-based constructs represent the external/common antecedents of overall tourist satisfactions; their predicting power may be eliminated when controlled by other internal/personal forces, such as personal values. Implications for future research and destination attributes management are discussed based on these observations.