LEVELS OF SATISFACTION AMONG THE FOREIGN TOURISTS IN ETHIOPIA: IN THE CASE OF GONDAR HERITAGE TOURIST CENTER, AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the African countries that possess the highest number of United Nations Education, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites in Africa and Gondar is the historical city that registered on UNESCO World heritage sites. where tourist satisfaction varies from one region to another. The main objective of the study was to measure the elements satisfaction levels among the foreign tourists of Gondar. The primary dat a collected through questionnaire. So, 160 questionnaires have been prepared and distributed. Secondary data was also used in this study through reviewed books, magazines, broachers and web pages for the use of tourist’s satisfaction levels. The purposive, convenient sampling was applied on those tourists visiting historic city of Gondar. The result showed that their origins or place of residence in terms of Continent 83.33% of respondents came from Europe and 16.67% were from Asia. Regarding enjoyment level, the majority of respondents (50%) agreed with their level of enjoyment and about 16.67% were strongly agreed with their enjoyment. This indicates that, most of the tourists who were visiting the Gondar were enjoyed with their visit. Regarding the satisfaction with the decision to visit the country 16.67% of the respondents disagreed and about 16.67% were undecided with their satisfaction level. About 58.33% and 8.33% of the respondents were agreed and strongly agreed with the satisfaction level from t heir visit respectively. Regarding degree of knowledge of foreign languages from the service personnel and convenience and access to local transport, the majority of respondents rate these as bad and very bad. These indicated that, in Gondar city the service personnel and access to local transport to destinations are not developed. In order to increase the satisfaction levels for tourists visiting Gondar different stakeholders should work cooperatively so as train the service personnel in the area of tourism and hospitality.