THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONALITY ON THE GENERATION OF TOURIST SATISFACTION WITH A DESTINATION

Academic literature and empirical studies have demonstrated that consumer satisfaction is a good indicator of the financial results of businesses and tourist destinations. An analysis of tourist satisfaction and how to improve satisfaction levels is therefore crucial, not just for business profits but also for a destination's economic development, especially in the case of resorts that have reached a mature stage of development where visitors must be conserved in order to remain competitive. The aims of this article are to analyze and measure tourist satisfaction with one of the most popular, mature resorts in the Mediterranean, the Balearic Islands, and, from these results, to detect differences in tourist satisfaction depending on their nationality. The results show that by measuring satisfaction as a multidimensional construct, it is possible to identify the key variables in generating overall satisfaction. At the same time, the results also help decision makers at destinations to improve satisfaction levels by prioritizing how they invest, concentrating on aspects that play a key role in generating satisfaction. The results also reveal differences in the generation of satisfaction depending on the tourists' nationalities. This finding is crucial in understand tourists' buying behavior and it may become a basic tool in helping destinations to adapt and improve their commercial facilities and infrastructure to meet the specific expectations of each nationality.