Abstract
The Partnership for the Sounds is a non-profit organization based in eastern North Carolina and is in charge of operating a collection of museums and cultural sites including the North Carolina Estuarium in Washington, The Mattamuskeet Lodge in Swan Quarter, and the Columbia Theater Cultural Resource Center in Columbia. A recent survey was conducted at these areas by the Department of Recreation & Leisure Studies at East Carolina University. This survey addressed issues such as personal expenditures, perceptions and satisfaction rankings of various aspects of the facility, demographic information, and finally, a numeric overall rating of the site by the individual. An attempt is made to identify satisfaction indicators in relation to reported satisfaction levels of eco-tourism site visitors. More specifically, there is a need to deconstruct the visitor's overall experience and focus on individual factors that might influence satisfaction, or adversely, have little bearing on overall satisfaction. Three primary relationships will be examined. The first of these will be overall satisfaction in relation to personal expenditures. These expenditures include admission fees, food and lodging, transportation, and other activities and entertainment engaged in while in the immediate area. The second area focuses on specific activity at the site such as how much time was spent at the location, quality of the facility, opportunities to learn new information, and perceptions of safety issues and facility staff. Finally, personal demographic information will be observed to indicate whether overall visitor satisfaction at these areas directly correlates to age, education, race or annual household income.
Parent Publication
Citation
Ellis, Christopher L.; Vogelsong, Hans. 2003. Assessing indicators relating to overall tourist satisfaction of ecotourism developments in eastern North Carolina. In: Schuster, Rudy, comp., ed. Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-302. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 52-57