Tourists’ perceived value of wildlife tourism product at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya

Although literature has documented many destination attributes that determine attractiveness of tourism destination, the magnitude and strength of each attribute has not been explored, especially in relation to a single wildlife tourism product. This study provides an insight into the level of tourists’ perceived value on wildlife resource attributes at Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, with a further comparison between the international and domestic tourists. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey and collected primary data using self-administered structured questionnaires. A total of 402 respondents duly completed the questionnaires, which were disseminated through simple random sampling. Data was analysed descriptively and through independent sample T-test. The results showed that unique wildlife attractions were most valued by tourists (M = 2.26, SD = 0.99), followed by the variety of attractions (M = 2.53, SD = 1.08) and their abundance (M = 2.59, SD = 1.19) respectively. Majority of international tourists highly valued the attributes [M = 2.30, SD = 0.88; t(400) = 4.18, p < 0.001] as compared to the domestic tourists (M = 2.67, SD = 0.88), but with a small magnitude (η = 0.04). The study provides an insight that tourists value the park because of its uniqueness due to a variety of wildlife attractions. As park ecological challenges persist, park managers may re-brand the park by creating more emphasis on other key wildlife products like rhinos in order to maintain visitor value and satisfaction in the future.