With 24 golf courses, accounting for 32% of golf courses in the country ( Portuguese Golf Federation, n.d), the Lisbon region has embraced golf as a strategic tourism product. Although the region maintains a steady growth in the number of rounds since the early 2000s, the occupancy rate of golf courses is lower than 40%, which indicates a substantial spare capacity of 60% (Lisbon Tourism Board, n.d). The growth in the number of golf courses over the years has not been accompanied by a growth in demand, with the average price per round decreasing since 2004 ( Lisbon Tourism Board, 2009). Destinations whose growth has stalled despite substantial spare capacity face the challenge of increasing demand, either through a higher number of rounds and/or the average price per round. This can be achieved through longer
stays, greater levels of re-visitation or new demand. Past research suggests high levels of satisfaction are a critical factor in influen-cing these outcomes ( Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Therefore, monitoring tourist satisfaction is an important step in implementing strate-gies aimed at improving the performance of tourist destinations through attempting to influence the levels of tourist satisfaction. This involves not only understanding golf tourists’ level of satisfaction, but also those factors that contribute to their satis-faction. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the determinants of golf tourist satisfaction, with a focus on tourists visiting the Lisbon region.