A system for measuring the satisfaction of railway heritage tourism: the case of Yunnan–Vietnam Railway

Abstract As a representative historical railway in Southeast Asia, Yunnan–Vietnam Railway (YVR) is of historical, technological, social-cultural, landscape, architectural, and heritage values. However, some of its remains have been closed and destroyed, waiting for further protection and developing solutions. YVR is the research object in this paper for the process of measuring tourists’ satisfaction. This paper highlights the development of an indicator system for measuring the satisfaction degree of the YVR heritage tourism, with the help of the analytical hierarchy process and the expert grading method. The basic demographic information of tourists collected from the questionnaires is systemized, and the satisfaction degree is evaluated from five indicators based on previous research: natural landscape, cultural character, transportation and facilities, safety and services, as well as the sustainable development of the region. The analysis results gained by SPSS show a high satisfaction value on the safety and service and regional sustainable development. Namely, the tourists give higher ratings on the regional cooperation, personal safety, service staff, hospitality of locals, and the technology of railway, while the aspects of environmental quality, enjoyment of exploring, accessibility by public transports, the comfort of train experience, and related facilities (accommodation/restaurants/shopping) received lower ratings, which indicates the critical points for the future tourism and urban planning related to this historical railway.