Tourists Attitude and Satisfaction of Newly Developed Coastal Tourism Destination of West Bengal, India

Tourists are the most important part of the tourism industry. Therefore, the growth and development of any tourism destination will be influenced by the tourists’ attitude and their level of satisfaction to the facilities available to that destination. This is a case study on two newly coastal tourism
destinations namely Mandarmani and Tajpur of West Bengal, India. This study provides an analysis of the visitors’ satisfaction to these destinations. The study is totally based on primary data and has been collected from tourists through structured questionnaire during holidays of the month of October, 2018 and the month of December2018 and January2019. Total 419 tourists (286 from Mandarmani and 133 from Tajpur area) were randomly selected. The responses of the tourists were received in 5 point Likert scale. Hotels and resorts were surveyed (through questionnaire and GPS) to show their spatial and temporal growth. The study reveals that maximum hotels and resorts were developed within the year of 2007 to 2012 in case of both destinations and it violating the CRZ norms in this coastal part of West Bengal. Tourists are mainly domestic in nature and coming from different parts of West Bengal (at Mandarmani 91.86 percent and at Tajpur 93.94Percent). Main motivations of the tourists to visit these destinations were to get pleasure (84.88% at Mandarmani and 93.94% at Tajpur). Analysis of the data indicate a relative moderate level of satisfaction which suggest for the improvement in some services like tourism information centre, shopping facilities, sanitation facilities, and entertainment facilities etc.

Keywords: Coastal Tourism, Domestic Tourists, Overall Satisfaction, Visitors’ Satisfaction