Tourist Satisfaction Of Wetland Tourism: A Case Study In Baiyangdian Lake

Baiyangdian Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in North China.It has been praised as "the pearl of North China" and as "the kidney of North China".It featured beautiful scenery and scenic spots,Baiyangdian Lake has become a renowned travel destination to nearby provinces of Hebei,Tianjin,and Beijing,especially in Xiongan New Area.Baiyangdian Lake is a typical wetland tourist destination that could be characterized as wetland tourism destination.It has the potential for tourism and recreational opportunities.Tourist satisfaction can be a key factor affecting revisit intentions.Tourist satisfaction is a key topic in tourism and hospitality research because it influences the choice of destination,the consumption of products and services and the decision to make a return visit.Therefore,this paper seeks to contribute to the literature on tourist’s satisfaction by evaluating the tourists’ satisfaction at Baiyangdian Lake,in conjunction with the research model framework of tourist personal characteristics,motivational factors,and overall satisfaction.Tourist satisfaction are determined by attraction features and visitors features;while its major indicators are tourist experience and tourists behavioral intention towards the attractions.A questionnaire survey,both containing open and closed ended questions was used in this research to investigate tourist satisfaction in Baiyangdian Lake through random sampling.The target sample are Chinese tourist visiting Baiyangdian Lake.To perform the statistical analyses,Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS)Version 22.0 was used.This study intended to investigate tourist satisfaction after the end of the tourism activities.Using a total of 102 usable responses from local tourists(Chinese)visiting Baiyangdian Lake,the influence of travel attributes on satisfaction and the moderating effects of demographic factors in the relationship between elements of Baiyangdian Lake and tourist satisfaction were investigated.Baiyangdian Lake is a typical wetland destination in China,especially in Xiongan New Area.The results confirmed that overall satisfaction is significantly different based on some controlling factors such as demographic characteristics and travel motivations such as pull and push factors.The research results serve as a catalyst for improving future tourism planning of Baiyangdian Lake that can create a recreational environment for attracting more tourists.It is also hoped that the research results can be the core basis of transferring Baiyangdian Lake to a recreational and vacation destination in the future.In addition,some recommendations,limitations and suggestions for future studies are also presented in the paper.