Determinants of tourists' length of stay in cultural destination: one-night vs longer stays

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to empirically analyze tourists' length of stay in Istanbul, an important cultural destination. The objective of the study is twofold: (1) uncovering the qualitative difference between one-night visitors and longer stay visitors and (2) for those visitors staying longer at the tourism destination, investigating the key determinants of length of stay.Design/methodology/approachThis research was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to international tourists who were about to leave the destination. To perform the analysis, we applied a two-step approach: first, we opted for classical binary logit to investigate the tourists' group membership (one-night vs longer stays); second, we applied a zero-truncated Poisson model for uncovering the drivers of length of stay for longer stay visitors.FindingsThe results confirmed the structural difference between the two visitor subgroups. Moreover, we found a positive impact of cultural attributes on tourists' length of stay.Practical implicationsThe findings provide useful information for destination managers and planners, highlighting the importance of designing different tourism policies in light of tourists' heterogeneity. Moreover, the results confirmed the importance of the preservation and promotion of cultural attributes, given that these are a key factor in determining the success of a destination.Originality/valueThe importance and originality of this study are that it explores the impact of cultural/heritage attributes of the destination on tourists' length of stay. Moreover, it sheds light on the qualitative difference between short- and long-stay visitors.

Determinants of tourists’ length of stay

“…This is also confirmed by our results, according to which urban-based tourism is negatively related to LoS. Interestingly, according to our results, culture-based tourism does not have an impact on LoS, which is in contrast to some previous results in which culture was included among the factors positively related to LoS [ 4 , 17 , 20 , 27 ].…”

“…The factors negatively related to LoS were tourists’ education, the type of vacation, the type of accommodation, and the local hospitality level. Atsiz et al [ 17 ] also conducted a study on the LoS in Turkey, but the purpose of the analysis was cultural tourism in Istanbul. The research was divided into two main stages.…”

Tourists and Local Community of the Case Study Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (Aseza)

“…This indicates that, in addition to the consideration and concern paid to the sharing of local history by these organisation's tourism opens up different horizons for locals to see people's actions and to draw a stunning picture of the region. According to this analysis, the outcomes of the growth of tourism are varied, including improved community life, a positive environment, a positive cultural effect, economic benefits, tourism preparation and a better family life (Atsız et al, 2020;Doe et al, 2021;Faraji et al, 2020). Generally, the local population of Aqaba viewed the beneficial effect of the growth of tourism in the city of Aqaba.…”

Cultural Destination Attributes, Overall Tourist Satisfaction and Tourist Loyalty: First Timers versus Repeaters

“…A cultural tourism destination is considered as a place with a variety of cultural attractions that meet the requirements of visitors (Atsız et al, 2020) and, ultimately, impact their overall satisfaction with the destination (Huh & Uysal, 2004). While tourism is the focus of these destinations, their cultural attractions have a determining role in the overall satisfaction and loyalty of visitors to that destination (Huh et al, 2006).…”

“…Moreover, these studies generally investigate the general features of a destination rather than on specific aspects such as culture or heritage. Although its cultural attractions are fundamentally important to a destination and motivate many interested tourists to visit (Akova & Atsiz, 2019;Atsız et al, 2020), inadequate holistic research has been conducted on the impact of these attractions on tourist satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, this evaluation can offer different results as it depends on whether the tourist was a first timer or a repeat visitor (Moniz, 2012).…”