Influence of Cognitive Destination Brand Image on Wildlife Park Attractiveness: A Case Study of the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem, Kenya

Abstract

The attractiveness of a holiday destination motivates the development and growth of tourism in terms of tourists’ perceived value; however, the attractiveness of wildlife protected places, such as game parks, is little understood in previous tourism literature. The paper therefore explores the role of cognitive destination brand image on the attractiveness of wildlife parks in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem. The results showed a significant positive relationship between cognitive destination image and park attractiveness (β = 0.446, t =6.661, p = .001). The study concludes that tourists exhibiting higher levels of cognitive destination image are more likely to perceive a tourist destination as being attractive. An embedded mixed-method research design was adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 440 park visitors and 28 tourism experts. Simple and linear regressions were used to test the hypotheses, whereas qualitative data were analyzed using content analyses. This study aims to add to knowledge to tourism marketing literature on wildlife park attractiveness as perceived by tourists and gives recommendation on policy of controlling the provision of accommodation, attractions or activities within the protected parks to safeguard the ecosystem.