Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources

Committee Chair

Chad Pierskalla

Committee Co-Chair

Douglas Arbogast

Committee Member

Jinyang Deng

Committee Member

David Smaldone

Abstract

Tourism in the United States has become a key player in the economy as supported by the National Travel and Tourism Office. Specifically, West Virginia has proven to play its part, with Pocahontas county sitting as one of the top contributors. This rural area, which provides tourism opportunities year-round could fall victim to seasonality, preventing development and growth for the region. The Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau works to stay on top of this, however, even creating the basis for this study by partnering with researchers at West Virginia University to perform a visitor profile and economic impact analysis. The data used in this paper were pulled from this initial study. The main purpose of this research is to determine if any relationships exist between satisfaction levels of visitors to the county, the season they visited in, and the primary destination they visited. Most significantly, this research forms a new basis for future research by including site as a comparison variable, which previous literature has not yet done. Limitations to this research include unique sampling locations, a specific timeframe for data collection, budgetary and staff restrictions, and potential error in manual data coding.

The current literature finds that quality acts as an antecedent to satisfaction, with destination attributes being a significant factor of this, and loyalty acts as a consequence of satisfaction. Researchers have also found that seasonality is a complex subject that comes with various causes and effects. Causes are generally categorized as natural, institutional, and sometimes economic, while effects are broken down into employment, economic, ecological, and sociocultural. Additionally, it has been widely proven that season is an influential factor on satisfaction levels, with many studies showing that visitors are often more satisfied when visiting a destination in the off-season. Again, literature including multiple locations as a comparison factor is non-existent, allowing this research to open a new path for future studies.

Pocahontas County is located in the south-eastern portion of West Virginia and is considered a haven for nature lovers due to its vast public lands and plethora of recreational opportunities. The three main locations included in this study include Snowshoe Mountain Resort, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, and Green Bank Observatory, which are all generally in the north-central portion of the county and each provide unique experiences for visitors. The questionnaire used for this survey was developed collaboratively between the Pocahontas County CVB and researchers at WVU. Data collection took place between January 14th, 2023, and October 27th, 2023, in person at each of the three locations. A total of 994 surveys were collected, and 737 were deemed viable for analysis. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 29.0 and included a set of ANOVA and MANCOVA analyses.

The results were divided into three sections, with appropriate subsections to follow. The first defined socio-demographic characteristics of the participants of the study. The second displayed the results of the ANOVA analyses which compared the satisfaction items against both season and site independently to determine significant differences. The third showed the results of the MANCOVA analyses which aimed to determine significant influences on an aggregate satisfaction variable and price by season, location, and/or gender, while controlling for education as a covariate. The results of this research found that season and location were influential on certain satisfaction items in the county. In addition to this, it also supported that a more complex relationship exists between season, location, and satisfaction levels of tourists in Pocahontas county. Relevant recommendations were also provided to the county as means to improve their already high satisfaction scores amongst tourists to this area.

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