Influence of Motivation on Domestic Tourists’ Visit Behaviour in Historical Heritage Sites: An Example from An African Heritage Circuit

Abstract

An understanding of the factors that motivate domestic tourists to patronize heritage attractions in the new post-Covid-19 normal, and how these relate to their visit behaviour is critical in promoting domestic heritage tourism. Grounding on motivation theories, this study sought to investigate the types of motivational factors for domestic tourists visiting heritage sites in the Kenya coast region, and their visit behaviour to these attractions. A survey was conducted on a sample of 693 domestic tourists visiting historical heritage sites in the Kenya coast region, where quantitative data was collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using the SPSS version 20.0 software. Descriptive analyses involved determination of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, while inferential analyses involved determination of the t-statistics by one sample ttest and a one-way ANOVA. An alpha level of .05 was used for these statistical tests.

The findings revealed that the strongest motivational factor for visiting HHS in the Kenya coast region was “recreation and enjoyment purposes” (M = 5.94, SD = 1.283), and the statement with the least score for the motivation variable concerned “boosting self-esteem” by visiting historical heritage sites, which was rated the lowest (M = 5.21. SD = 1.844). Overall, the motivation variable had a combined mean of 5.65 (high) implying that the domestic tourists had a high motivation for visiting historical heritage sites. There was a significant relationship between motivations for visiting historical heritage sites in the Kenya coast region and the visit behaviour of domestic tourists. Motivational factors significantly influence domestic tourists visit behavior to heritage attractions. These findings are instrumental for theory, policy and marketing management practice among relevant heritage tourism stakeholders in revitalizing the role of domestic heritage tourism.