Analyzing tourists' expected quality factors within a destination: a survey conducted in the province of Verona

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between travel motivations and the importance given to quality factors within the destination. A survey was conducted on a sample of 455 domestic and international tourists intercepted at the Tourist Information Offices in the Province of Verona in 2006 and 2007. The findings reveal significant differences between mountain tourists and other types of tourists in terms of expected quality factors. For example, business travellers pay specific attention to technical aspects and to efficiencyin the accommodation. Lake tourists are concerned about the presence of car parks near tourist attractions, while cultural tourists expect to find typical menus and food. This paper represents the first attempt to study the tourist’s global quality expectations towards the destination Verona. An effort was made to connect the tourists’ expected quality factors to travel motivations and indeed significant differences have resulted between groups of tourists. The main limit of such research is due to the sample dimension and to the fact that only a certain type of tourists was included, i.e. individual tourists that went to Tourist Information Offices. Therefore, organized tourists were not included in the sample. However, the results encourage us to suggest the Veronese operators to start reasoning not about tourism and tourist in general, but on tourisms and tourists in a way which is surely more complex but also nearer to the manifold richness of the territory.