Factors that affect the perception of a tourist resource’s value: the case of the Caminito del Rey

Résumé 0

The objective of this paper is to analyse the formation of overall customer satisfaction in a tourist resource by applying two similar techniques with different approaches. The importance performance analysis (IPA) is widely used thanks to its simplicity and its ease of interpretation, and the asymmetric impact-performance analysis (AIPA) is derived from the IPA, and attempts to capture the asymmetric nature of attributes in the final contribution to customer satisfaction. A survey was conducted between June and December 2017, resulting in a total of 171 valid returns. IPA and AIPA analyses were undertaken, and suggest that Caminito managers give little priority to the generation of tourist information and the satisfaction with the urban environment. Instead, they should concentrate on improving signposting. The IPA found assessment of the environmental environment to be an overexploited factor, but the AIPA suggested that it could still contribute shaping customer satisfaction. In the same way, the AIPA found environmental cleanliness and cleaning the Caminito to be fundamental factors in the high general satisfaction of users. The systematic use of these tools allows us to identify the factors that add or reduce value to a tourist resource, helping to improve the quality and sustainability of the resource, and ultimately improving the destination's competitiveness and its global success. These tools can also help to create a strategy of communication and brand differentiation for a destination.