Measuring Attribute Levels Influencing Tourists' Preference for Restaurants in Tourist Area and Marginal Willingness to Pay: Among Tourists in Jeonnam Area
The purpose of this study was to measure the tourists' preference for alternative restaurants with different combinations of 4 attribute levels: origin description, food type, price and service guarantee. A total of 210 questionnaires were completed from tourists who visited Kwangyang, Suncheon and Yeosu during Jan. 2 - Jan. 15, 2007. Conjoint experiment method was used to develop hypothetical restaurants. Ordinal probit model was used to measure the effects of attribute levels on the tourists' preference. Results of the study demonstrated that the ordinal probit model analysis result for the data indicated excellent model fit. The effects of attribute levels (origin description, traditional food, fusion food, price, service guarantee) on the tourists' preference were statistically significant. As expected, estimates of marginal willingness to pay for origin description(3.063), food type(2.349), and service guarantee(2.356) were statistically significant. Moreover, tourists were more willing to pay for origin description than other attribute levels. Tourists also considered the origin description as the very important attribute. In conclusion, based on conjoint analysis, a model was proposed of marginal willingness to pay of attribute levels. It should be noted that the original model was modified and should, preferably, be validated in future research.