Dimentions of tourist satisfaction with a destination area

Pizam, Abraham, Yoram Neumann, and Arie Reichel.. “Dimensions of Tourist Satisfaction with a Destination Area,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 3, July/September 1978, pp. 314–322. This paper empirically identifies eight factors of tourist satisfaction with Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA) as a tourist destination area; and it suggests the means to measure them. By using a factor-analytic approach based on data obtained from a survey of 685 vacationing tourist, the following factors of tourist satisfaction were derived: beach oppurtunities, cost, hospitality, eating and drinking facilities, accommodation facilities, environment, and extent of commercialization.     

An examination of the differences in retail service evaluation between domestic and tourist shoppers in Hong Kong

In recent years, the concept of customer perceived value has attracted increasing attention among practitioners and academics. Despite a growing body of literature, calls remain for more sophisticated measures of the construct. This paper investigates an expanded scale of customer perceived value among two shopper groups and its resulting impact on retail performance. Findings reveal distinct differences in the drivers of customer perceived value between local and tourist shoppers in Hong Kong. Results offer significant implications for retailers and future research in this strategically important area.     

The impact of tour quality and tourist satisfaction on tourist loyalty: The case of Chinese tourists in Korea

This study examines the causal relationship between tourist expectations, tourist motivations, tour quality, tourist satisfaction, tourist complaints and tourist loyalty of Chinese tourists in the Republic of Korea using path analysis. It was found that tourist expectations have a negative effect on the perceived experiential quality of the tour, yet tourist motivation has a positive effect on the perceived tour quality. In turn, the perceived tour quality has a positive effect on tourist satisfaction. Similarly there is an inverse relationship between satisfaction and tourist complaints, and a positive relationship exists between satisfaction and loyalty. Equally, the higher is the number of complaints, the lower are the loyalty levels. These results will provide potential guidelines for inbound tour agents who plan to attract Chinese tourists to Korea and enable them to formulate appropriate strategies. This study also seeks to contribute to conceptual and policy formation by understanding the determinants of tourist satisfaction and loyalty.     

Assessing the moderating effect of COVID-19 on intention to use smartphones on the tourist shopping journey

This work proposes the first model to examine the moderating effect of the COVID-19 syndemic on the acceptance and use of smartphones during the tourist shopping journey. The model was tested with 1800 tourists, 900 non-COVID-19 (i.e. prior to COVID-19) and 900 during the COVID-19 period. The results showed that: 1) the model has better fit for the COVID-19 period as its explanatory capacity for that stage is greater (R² = 0.773) than for the non-COVID-19 period (R² = 0.691); 2) tourists have increased their intention to use smartphones, especially to make payments for purchases; and 3) there are statistically significant differences in the impact of four of the six model variables (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and arousal). This research advances knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on the technological behaviour of tourists, has important practical implications, and raises new research questions about the future of tourism.     

A quantitative valuation of tourist experience in Lisbon

The increasing value of tourist satisfaction for tourism promotion has led to a substantial increase in research into the process of measuring the satisfaction of tourists, and various approaches and theories have been developed.This paper proposes an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach to ensure the measurements of perceptions and satisfaction of tourists. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered to tourists who had visited Lisbon. The formulation of the IRT models allowed us to determine the influence of some demographic and travel behaviour characteristics on a number of given destination attributes. We also specified georeferenced IRT models to attain geographically differentiated measures of tourist satisfaction. The main findings from the models are compared and discussed.     

The role of food service in tourist satisfaction

The paper is based on empirical investigation carried out amongst a 341-sample population visiting the Black Sea resorts of Romania in August 1997. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role and importance of food service in tourist satisfaction and to note any differences in satisfaction levels between regional groups. Analysis of the findings revealed that significant differences existed between three tourist groups’ satisfaction perceptions of value for money, quality of food, number of dishes, standard of food service, variety of dishes, presentation of food and speed of service in general; and of bread, coffee, meat and soup in particular. Overall results further indicated that quality of food, value for money, variety of dishes, attractiveness of surroundings and presentation of food were the attributes that most affected the overall food service experience in Romania. The paper concludes that food service is an important contributor to tourist satisfaction and that there are significant differences in satisfaction levels with food service between eastern and western European, and Romanian tourists.     

Using dummy regression to explore asymmetric effects in tourist satisfaction: A cautionary note

This research note addresses the misuse of standardized weights as measures of effect in dummy regression, which is the most frequently used technique for assessing asymmetric effects in the formation of tourist satisfaction. Unlike in regular regressions, standardized weights have no straightforward interpretation in dummy regressions, but they only carry the risk of providing misleading implications in theory building and guiding managerial action. To empirically underpin the arguments put forward in this note, an illustrative case example is used that provides insight into the underlying statistical mechanisms that cause unstandardized and standardized weights to provide significantly different implications in dummy regressions. The findings of this note should help to prevent bad practice in future studies that make use of the technique in assessments of asymmetric effects in customer satisfaction and/or the three-factor structure of customer satisfaction. However, the points put forward hold for dummy regressions in general.     

Tourists' shopping experiences at street markets: Cross-country research

Considering shopping as one of the most important motivations for travel, this study focuses on tourists' shopping attitudes towards street markets while on a vacation. Specifically, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model that assesses how price consciousness and perceived utility, as critical drivers of attitudes in street markets, may influence tourist satisfaction and future intentions. As opposed to the structure of previous research, this study is also based on a cross-national comparative study conducted among foreign tourists visiting Algarve, Portugal and Bodrum, Turkey, in the summer of 2011. Study findings confirm that price and utility perceptions are the most important marketplace cues and higher level of satisfaction moderates tourists' willingness to return or recommend street markets in both destinations.     

Destination image and tourist loyalty: A meta-analysis

Extant literature is inconclusive on the linkage between destination image and tourist loyalty, due to the multi-dimensional nature of the two concepts. The present study attempts to draw some informative conclusions about the relationship through a meta-analysis. A research framework was proposed in which 14 hypotheses were developed. A total of 66 independent studies were synthesized and analyzed. The findings reveal that the impact of destination image on tourist loyalty is significant, with varying degrees. Specifically, overall image has the greatest impact on tourist loyalty, followed by affective image and cognitive image. Cognitive–affective joint image fails to demonstrate a stable impact on tourist loyalty. Of the three levels of tourist loyalty, destination image has the greatest impact on composite loyalty, and then on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty, successively. The findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical implications for destination marketing and management.     

A critical review of research regarding peer-to-peer accommodations

The sharing economy in general and peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations have attracted the attention of academic researchers; research in this area has exponentially increased over the past few years. These researchers have come from a variety of disciplines including tourism and hospitality, business, psychology, law, and cultural studies. The P2P accommodation segment has several aspects which make it unique, even in the realm of the sharing economy. This critical review examined 107 peer-reviewed articles regarding P2P accommodations published between 2010 and 2017. Topics explored have been: consumer behavior, legal issues, conceptualizing P2P accommodations, in the sharing economy, revenue management, trust and mistrust, P2P accommodations and hotels, owner motivations, affordable housing concerns, and emerging fields. Gaps in the literature and future research topics are explored.     

A Critical Investigation of the Bargaining Behavior of Tourists: The Case of Hong Kong Open-Air Markets

Shopping has long been recognized as an indispensable tourist activity. Hong Kong's open-air markets, where a multitude of bargaining activities can be observed, ranked as the second most popular of the island territory's diverse range of attractions in 2008 in terms of tourist arrivals. To develop cutting-edge marketing strategies that promote tourists' enjoyment of their bargaining adventure and ultimately enhance the overall shopping experience, the study reported in this article was aimed at identifying the dimensions underlying tourists' perceptions of the importance of 18 bargaining motivators and 12 bargaining attitudes and types of bargaining behavior, respectively, and subsequently evaluating the predictability of these underlying dimensions on tourists' shopping contentment indicators (overall bargaining satisfaction, the likelihood of a subsequent visit, and the likelihood of recommending open-air markets to others). A non-probability quota sampling technique was used to survey 203 Asian and non-Asian tourists in Hong Kong. A multivariate approach encompassing factor analysis and multiple regression was employed: Factor analysis delineated four underlying dimensions of factors affecting bargaining intentions. “Value for money” was shown to be the factor rated most important to tourists' bargaining intention; similarly, two underlying dimensions of bargaining attitudes and behavior—“bargain for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity”—were identified. Multiple regression results indicated the statistical significance of “bargaining for psychological well-being” and “bargaining intensity” to the existence of positive relations between shopping contentment indicators.     

Mindful tourist experiences: A Buddhist perspective

This paper distinguishes between the concepts of socio-cognitive mindfulness applied in a number of tourism studies and meditative mindfulness derived from a Buddhist philosophy. An operational definition of meditative mindful tourist experiences is proposed based on forty-three semi-structured interviews involving 77 episodes of meditative mindful experiences. The paper also proposes a framework of meditative mindfulness in tourism. The framework identifies a number of antecedents to meditative mindful experience episodes and reveals several psychological and physical benefits including mental ease and response flexibility. This is the first paper to examine meditative mindful tourist experiences in tourism contexts and to explore their antecedents and consequences.     

Gambling destinations and the effect of gambling results on tourist satisfaction and loyalty

ABSTRACT

Tourists visiting gambling destinations are likely to participate, to some or to a great extent, in gambling activities. Therefore, their gambling experience contributes to the evaluation of their experience at the destination. This study investigates the effect of gambling results on the overall satisfaction and loyalty of 7431 tourists visiting Macao by estimating a set of ordered probit models. The results indicate an asymmetric effect on the overall satisfaction: the negative effect of a losing outcome outweighs the positive effect of a winning outcome. Both winning and losing gambling outcomes have a positive and similar effect on the likelihood to recommend the destination, and the likelihood to revisit is affected in a positive way only by a winning outcome. The main determinants of tourist satisfaction and loyalty are further verified and the influence of tourist profile variables is also explored. Theoretical and managerial implications are outlined based on the results.     

Toward an integrated model of tourist expectation formation and gender difference

This study aims to build and test a theoretical model of tourist expectation formation and seeks to explore the gender differences regarding how tourists form their expectations toward a travel destination. Survey data were obtained from 774 outbound Chinese tourists to Macao, and structural equation modelling was used to test the model and proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that travel motivation, advertising, and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations influence travelers' cognitive image and cognitive image interacts with affective image to form individuals' expectations toward travel destinations. Notably, the impacts of travel motivation and advertising on cognitive image, and of cognitive image on tourist expectations were significantly stronger for males than females, while the effects of WOM on cognitive image and of affective image on tourist expectations were stronger for females than males. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.     

A framework of tourist attraction research

Although tourist attractions are fundamental to the very existence of tourism, there have been few attemps to come to terms with the breadth of approaches that have been employed in their study. An examination of research methods used in the study of tourist attractions and the tourist attractiveness of places reveals that most studies can be classified into one or more of three general perspectives: the ideographic listing, the organization, and the tourist cognition of attractions. Each of these perspectives shares a distinct set of questions concerning the nature of the attractions, as expressed through the typologies used in their evaluation. At the same time, all three perspectives make comparisons based on the historical, locational, and various valuational aspects of attractions. This framework can be applied in the comparison and evaluation of tourist attraction related research.     

Host perceptions of tourism: A review of the research

It has long been recognised that it is incumbent on those responsible for the planning of tourism to seek to optimise the well-being of local residents whilst minimising the costs of tourism development.It is not surprising, therefore, that academic attention has long been paid to the social impacts of tourism in general and to the understanding of host communities' perceptions of tourism and its impacts in particular. Nevertheless, despite the significant volume and increasing scope of the research, the extent to which understanding of residents' perceptions of tourism has been enhanced remains uncertain. Thus, the purpose of this Progress Review is to explore critically the development of the research into residents' perceptions of tourism. Highlighting key themes and trends in the literature, it identifies a number of limitations in the research, including a narrow case study base, a dependence on quantitative methods, a focus on perceptions as opposed to responses, and the exclusion of the tourist from the majority of the research. Consequently, it argues for a multidimensional approach to the research.     

Deconstructing tourist scams: A social-practice-theory perspective

Tourist scams have been somewhat overlooked due to definitional ambiguities. By focusing initially on conceptual distinctions among a family of related terms, and by introducing the theory of social practice, we considered tourist scams as a practice bundle. Through content analysis of online tourist-generated information and 40 key-informant interviews, we found that this bundle is composed of two interactive practices typically enacted by two parties. Furthermore, we applied the zooming-in technique to deconstruct tourist scams into five crucial elements: materials, meanings and competences in practising scams, meanings and competences in being scammed. By zooming-out, we also discussed the inter-practice relationships surrounding tourist scams. Our work contributes theoretically to tourist safety and security by clarifying conceptual confusions, as well as to tourist behaviour research by depicting the behavioural pattern of tourist scams, and to future studies by revealing opportunities to offer protection to tourists against scammers.     

旅游地居民环境行为研究综述

旅游地居民环境行为研究是旅游情境下环境行为研究不可或缺的环节。本文从研究进展、研究内容和研究方法3个方面出发,对旅游地居民环境行为的国内外研究进行梳理和分析。研究发现：（1）旅游地居民环境行为研究起步较晚,大致经历了萌芽（2002—2004年）、起步（2005—2013年）和发展（2014—2020年）3个阶段,国内外研究成果均较少,国外研究成果领先于国内;（2）旅游地居民地环境行为的概念界定尚未统一,测量量表的开发也较为薄弱;影响因素探究是旅游地居民环境行为的研究热点,但形成机制探讨相对匮乏,并缺少旅游地居民环境行为的预测研究;（3）旅游地居民环境行为研究方法较为单一,数据搜集方法以问卷调查为主,半结构式访谈为辅,数据分析方法以结构方程模型为主。基于此,分别从研究视角、研究内容和研究方法上剖析现有研究不足,指出旅游地居民环境行为未来研究方向,以期为旅游目的地环境管理提供有益指导。     

Resort mystery shopping: A case study of hotel service

ABSTRACT

Mystery shopping is a common mode of improving customer service in retail and hospitality businesses, but researchers rarely utilize the methodology in academia. In these business entities, high-level quality standards are paramount to customer satisfaction, and mystery shopper reports have been found to be indicative of an organization’s service quality. This study employed a mixed-method approach, utilizing qualitative and quantitative procedures to examine a mystery shop program from within a resort hotel in the Southeastern US. The researchers used seven service principles which were established by the resort hotel. Mystery shoppers surveyed this specific service culture for a span of 13-months. The results suggested that managers need to re-examine service principles to ensure consistent employee performance and guest experiences.     

Local impression of tourist photographing: A perspective from Iran

The current study discusses the impression of local people towards tourist photographing in three heritage villages of Iran. A qualitative face-to-face interviews were undertaken of 65 respondents through snow-ball sampling technique. Unlike previous tourist photography literature where photos taken by tourists were analyzed (photographers' perspectives), in the current study authors brought up the impression of local residents in tourist photography. The results showed that locals had disgust feeling when they have been photographed without permission. They, moreover, were afraid of photo misuse and called for application of ethical codes in tourist photographing. Locals were not happy of their heritage commodification, although some advocated of earning revenue through tourist photographing. The findings also cleared out that locals felt proud when they appeared in tourist-local shared photos. The study enhances knowledge and understanding of local impression in tourist photography specifically in a part of the world which has been relatively neglected.