01473676

Component

The presented research addresses the topic of mobility management and in particular customer satisfaction in touristic destinations that suffer from the seasonal variations of transport demand. The paper demonstrates that the research conducted so far addressing the factors that affect the transit choices of tourists, residents and other target groups in touristic areas is very limited. In this respect, the research aims to contribute to the existing knowledge by investigating the underlying unobserved factors that influence transit ridership as well as the levels of satisfaction when using transit services of both tourists and residents in touristic areas in the peak summer period and in winter. The popular tourism destination of the Island of Kos in Greece was used as the case study for this research, while two appropriate statistical methods were employed, Factor Analysis and Ordered Probit models. According to the analysis, the most significant factor for the tourists when deciding to use public transport is service production, reflecting route frequencies and reliability of service. On the contrary, residents place more focus on qualitative aspects such as comfort, safety and information. Furthermore, a common factor that holds a high position in the preferences of both tourists and residents is transfer quality, comprising attributes related to transfer coordination. The paper presents in detail the results derived from the two analyses and discusses the use of these results by local authorities in order to adjust their policy plans accordingly and to define actions that can better tackle the residents and tourists’ needs and expectations.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP025 Public Transportation Planning and Development

01470560

13-2093

English

20p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References (24) ; Tables

Mobility; Passenger comfort; Peak periods; Planning methods; Public transit; Ridership; Routes and routing; Seasons; Strategic planning; Tourism; Tourists; Travel demand management; Traveler information and communication systems

Greece

Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-2093

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:28PM