Abstract:
Even given the continuing interest of both academia and industry to understand what accounts for the length of stay (LOS) of tourists, explanatory variables have mostly been limited to socio-demographic and trip characteristics overlooking the influence of the holiday experience despite it eing a major reason why tourism is embarked on. Departing from previous studies, this study proposed and tested an experience-led length of stay hypothesis employing a zero truncated negative binomial regression model. It was revealed that tourism experience significantly explains the variations in tourists’ LOS with self-development, recreational engagements, hospitality, weather and sanitation identified as specific determinants. The findings also provide support for age, nationality, travel party size, budget, number of international trips, and risk taking behavior as significant determinants of LOS. With these observations in mind, the study offers practical insights for sustaining tourists’ length of stay as well as propositions for future research on the tourism experience-led length of stay hypothesis. Management implications: Provision of positive memorable experiences in the domains of self -development, recreation, hospitality, weather and aesthetics is one way to ensure that tourists stay longer. Specifically, need exits for destination management organizations and service providers to step up efforts in maintaining sanitation at the destination, especially at attraction sites and tourism-related premises. They can do this by ensuring regular cleaning, providing ell-designated trash cans and disposing of sewage properly. In addition, a diverse of novel activities should Be made available to tourists to sustain their interest and prolong their stay. Activity engagements that allow for skill acquisition such as volunteerism, cultural immersion (i.e. food azaars) and co-creation of services are recommended
