Hotel choice attributes and demographic characteristics of tourists in North Rift Region, Kenya

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to establish the effect of hotel choice attributes on demographic characteristics of tourists. The attributes used in this study were state of hotel facilities, helpfulness of employees, perceived value for money, perceived quality of service, accessibility of hotel and services, service delivery and physical attractiveness. The demographic characteristics in this study included gender, marital status, level of education and employment status. The study also established the significance of how previous visits made or no visit at all on the hotel choice attributes. Six hotels in three counties in Kenya (Uasin-Gishu, Elgeyo-Marakwet and Baringo) located in the North Rift region of Kenya were selected for the study. Descriptive and causal research designs were utlized in the study. The target population comprised 240 tourists who visited the hotels, out of which only 191 structured questionnaires were returned for data analysis. Simple random sampling was used to identify the respondents. An independent sample t-test was used to test the five hypotheses. The results indicate that attributes that inform hotel choice decisions seem not to depend on all demographic characteristics. Physical attractiveness is primarily considered based on marital status, repeat guests considering the accessibility of the hotel, and physical attractiveness is also considered. These are dependent on education and employment status which appear to view quality of service and delivery of the service as crucial elements in deciding where to stay.