The significance of tourists' satisfaction at the destinations

Contemporary forms of business in tourism impose new trends conditioned by an ever-increasing number of tourists travelling in the world today. It is an undeniable fact that tourists are increasingly demanding and that it is not a simple task to satisfy all their needs and expectations. Tourist satisfaction is an important strategic weapon on which success of a tourist destination is dependent. Customer satisfaction often results in prolonged stay in a tourist place, which is certainly dependent on a fair relationship between the service user and provider, but also on the way in which that service has been delivered. Meeting the expected level of satisfaction should be a common attitude, as the emotional reaction of the visitor is based on the difference between the expected and the delivered service. A basic indicator of customer satisfaction in tourism are revisits of a tourist destination. Guests visit many destinations several times during their lifetimes, which clearly indicates that satisfaction with time spent at a certain place leads to the intention of revisiting. On the other hand, an increasingly large share of family business in tourism, especially the accommodation sector, can be directly related to the tendency of achieving tourist satisfaction through an experience based on a direct contact with service providers. Successful hosts have already realized that their guests must not be perceived merely as numbers, but need to strive towards creating a personal relationship that would generate satisfaction. The practice of renting out accommodation in private homes and households has been present in Montenegro for decades. Moreover, that form of accommodation is numerically superior to all other kinds. The goal of this paper is to explore the satisfaction of customers with services offered on tourist destinations and to establish in what way it affects the successfulness of family business based on private accommodation facilities. Research described in this paper was conducted in the coastal town of Sutomore (Bar municipality) in the Republic of Montenegro, which has been recording a significant growth of tourist visits in the recent years. The paper demonstrates the results of survey research created according to the qualitest model, conducted on a sample of 160 tourists accommodated in private accommodation premises. The results obtained will serve to propose measures for improvement the tourism offer.