| dc.description.abstract | Over the past two decades, the significance and contribution of the tourism industry to the world economy has been widely acknowledged and discussed. To date, not many studies have been conducted to understand tourists’ loyalty. Investigating destination loyalty is a challenging task due to the paucity of research in this area. This study investigated the drivers of brand loyalty that influence tourists’ choice of tourism destination in Kisumu County, Kenya. To achieve the objective of the study, primary data was collected from a sample of 196 tourists, out of whom 178 responded successfully. Data was collected using as structured questionnaire and subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics. These included tables, pie charts, percentages and frequency tables Differences in observed responses from different groups of tourists based on gender, age, and level of education, employment status and country of origin were tested using Chi-square. The perceived factors influencing destination brand loyalty, derived from the Theory of Multidimensional Brand Loyalty, were weighted and ranked on Likert scale. The tourists sampled represented 29 nationalities. The majority were from the United Kingdom. These were followed by United States, Uganda, Italy and Tanzania in that order. About four out of every ten respondents (mostly from Uganda) were doing a repeat visit and were generally satisfied with their choice of destinations. The study found out that achievement of satisfaction, risk avoidance and buyer inertia were the most important factors influencing destination brand loyalty of the respondents scoring 4.47, 4.26 and 4.14 respectively on a Likert scale. Results from this study demonstrated existence of destination brand loyalty among interviewed tourists. Further empirical research to examine specific steps within the destination branding process may prove beneficial to destination marketing organizations and therefore is warranted. Other researches may include an examination of more than one tourist region with almost similar geographical and demographic make up to determine if the same factors influence destination brand loyalty and ultimate destination choice | en |
