Visitor characteristics matter: how the positive impact of visit duration on visitor satisfaction at visitor attractions is moderated

Within the tourism industry is customer satisfaction creation crucial for companies’ success. As visitor attractions are operating in the highly relevant and competitive tourism industry, satisfaction generation for their visitors is a key to success and a competitive advantage. To positively affect visitor satisfaction (VS), existing research mostly suggest increasing visit durations (VD) (i.e., a positive effect of VD on VS). However, contrary findings also appeared; thus, it remains unclear why and under which conditions the positive effect occurs and is leveraged or weakened. This study empirically analyses moderating and mediating effects on the VD-VS association using a visitor survey. Visitors' previous experience with other related visitor attractions, importance of recommendations by others to the visitation decision, and visitors' personal life satisfaction were included as moderating variables, value for money was added as the mediating variable. Results indicate that the VD–VS association is strengthened, with higher levels of visitors' previous experience with other related visitor attractions, with decreasing levels of importance of recommendations by others to the visitation decision, and with decreasing levels of visitors' personal life satisfaction. Moreover, value for money mediates the effect of visit duration on visitor satisfaction. As such, this study provides practical insights into a more visitor segment-specific utilization of VD for managing VS more efficiently and contributes to the visitor attraction literature by investigating variables influencing the VD–VS relationship.