Destination Enhancers Influencing Tourism Demand

The primary objective of this article was to determine the destination enhancers that influence tourism demand. Understanding why people travel, how they go about selecting their holiday destination and why one country is preferred to the other, is vital to the continued success of the tourism industry. The needs and wants of travellers are constantly changing, therefore, it is imperative that tourism businesses excel at developing new products and services which are better suited to the needs of consumers. A quantitative research design was utilised, where a survey was conducted among 400 outbound South African travellers. One set of hypotheses was constructed based on the literature review. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were utilised to measure the relationship between destination enhancers influencing tourism demand. Regression analysis was employed to determine which of the hypotheses are supported or rejected based on the findings of the questionnaire. Four statistically significant relationships were found between the destination enhancers (events, natural attractions, political issues and general infrastructure) and tourism demand. The outcomes of the study offer all tourism organisations insight on how to design appropriate marketing strategies for outbound destination marketing, for example, travel agents highlight the political stability of the destination when marketing it to clients, and that they confirm safety and lack of terrorism and labour unrest within some destinations.