Assessing Tourist Infrastructure of the Satara District: The Views of Visitors

Abstract

Satara district is getting popular among the weekend tourist within the vicinity. The construction and development of tourist infrastructure is a necessary prerequisite for confronting competition from other, equally popular destinations. The objective of this paper is to assess problems of tourist infrastructure in district and find the perceptual gap in between existing status of tourist infrastructure and its importance. Data was collected from 326 tourist samples selected approached conveniently and executed structural schedule containing 33 variables. Five point Likert scale was used to seek opinion on existing infrastructural status and its importance. The variables taken from market research report published by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The schedule was implemented on 326 tourist samples of the 10 different locations of Satara, viz., Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Wai, Pratapgarh, Aundh, Thoseghar, Kas , Sajjangarh and Ajinkyatara where the tourist are coming to see those sites. The study concluded that tourist flow is mainly within the reach of 100 to 325 km. The age group 25-45 visited almost all the locations of Satara. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between perception of satisfaction and importance level is 0.662, which is moderate. Tourist Infrastructure, viz., Condition of city roads', 'traffic management', 'public utilities at tourist attraction', 'parking facility at the tourist attraction', general cleanliness at tourist attraction and area around', 'quality of roads', 'condition of traffic and transport signage' and 'condition of signage within the tourist attraction' need to develop since tourist were strongly dissatisfied with those tourist amenities which are highly important to them.

Keywords: Tourist Infrastructure, Tourist Services, Tourist Amenties, Traffic and Transport Signages and Infrastructural Gap