Tourism Analysis, Vol. 8 pp. 205–210 1083-5423/04 $20.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2004 Cognizant Comm. Corp. www.cognizantcommunication.com 205 Address correspondence to Paul Fallon, School of Leisure, Hospitality and Food Management, University of Salford, Frederick Road, Salford M6 6PU, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 4579; Fax: +44 (0) 161 295 2020; E-mail: P.Fallon@salford.ac.uk FIRST-TIMER VERSUS REPEAT VISITOR SATISFACTION: THE CASE OF ORLANDO, FLORIDA PAUL FALLON and PETER SCHOFIELD School of Leisure, Hospitality and Food Management, University of Salford, Salford M6 6PU, UK This article compares first-time and repeat visitor satisfaction with Orlando, FL. Factor analysis (PCA) of subjects’ ratings on 22 “performance” attributes produced five factors: primary, secondary, and tertiary attractions, facilitators, and transport plus. A one-way between-groups MANOVA identified a significant difference between first-time and repeat segments on the secondary attractions. Regres- sion of overall tourist satisfaction with Orlando against the factors showed that secondary attractions were the single most influential factor affecting tourists’ overall satisfaction with Orlando. Subdivi- sion of the sample into first-timer and repeater segments showed that the overall satisfaction of first- timers and repeaters was explained by different hierarchies of factors. Key words: Visitor satisfaction; First-timer visitors; Repeat visitors; Orlando, FL tion area; interestingly, this included both popular and lesser known sites. By comparison, repeaters visited considerably fewer attractions and destina- tions even with their longer stay. Despite the im- portance of the repeat visitor segment for many attractions and destinations and the increasing at- tention being paid to repeaters in empirical re- search, the factors of significance in repeater des- tination satisfaction have been neglected. This research attempts to address this issue by compar- ing first-time and repeat visitor satisfaction with Orlando, FL, the UK’s most popular long-haul holi- day destination with 1.31 million UK visitors in 2000. A number of studies have shown that first-time visitors are more likely to seek variety and new ex- periences while repeat visitors will tend to choose familiar places (Gitelson & Crompton, 1984; Gyte & Phelps, 1989). This may reflect a variety of mo- tives, including risk reduction, emotional attach- ments, a desire to show the destination to other people, and the fact that repeaters are more likely to be seeking relaxation than first-timers. Oppermann (1997) found significant differences between the behavior of first-time and repeat visi- tors to New Zealand. First-timers appeared to be much more active than repeaters, in that they vis- ited many more attractions and sites in the destina-