Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management

Metin Kozak · Nazmi Kozak Editors

Tourist
Behavior
An Experiential Perspective
Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management
More information about this series at [Link]
Metin Kozak Nazmi Kozak
•

Editors

Tourist Behavior
An Experiential Perspective

123
Editors
Metin Kozak Nazmi Kozak
School of Tourism and Hotel Management Faculty of Tourism
Dokuz Eylül University Anadolu University
İzmir Eskişehir
Turkey Turkey

ISSN 2510-4993 ISSN 2510-5000 (electronic)

Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management
ISBN 978-3-319-78552-3 ISBN 978-3-319-78553-0 (eBook)
[Link]
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Preface

The academic world began talking about Consumer Behaviour in the 1960s once
the book by Engel, Kollat and Blackwell was published in 1968. Almost one
decade later, the field of tourism introduced it as a part of academic activity; as a
result, the first evidence of tourism studies appeared in the late 1970s (Crompton
1979; Goodrich 1978; Pizam, Neumann and Reichel 1978; Plog 1974). Over the
past decades, the study of consumer behaviour has been widely integrated into the
body of tourism research. A large number of researchers have attempted to assess
the relevance and to test the validity of consumer decision-making models in
tourism. The number of books has increased, while there has been an incredible
amount of research papers published in tourism and hospitality journals, particu-
larly commencing from the early years of this millennium.
Consumer behaviour is a central topic to marketing because product choices and
consumption are key to a better comprehension of human beings and to maintaining
a business success regardless of the industry profile (Hoyer and Machnnis 2004;
Schiffman and Kanuk 1978; Solomon 2013). Unsurprisingly, many conferences
and organisations have established a specific track on consumer behaviour in
tourism and hospitality because tourist behaviour has a more meaning than when a
person decides to buy manufacturing products such as cars, milk or pencils. For
instance, it includes the use of services, activities and ideas such as the evaluation of
vacations, tours and leisure. It also includes the effective use of time and the
answers to questions such as where, how, how much and how often to consume in
general and to take vacations in tourism.
Consumer behaviour is one of the most explored topics by both academicians
and industry practitioners. From the academic point of view, rather than examining
a particular action or event, consumer behaviour considers itself as a target to
examine the process in a more general sense. It has been defined by Engel,
Blackwell and Miniard (1995, p. 4) as “those activities directly involved in
obtaining, consuming, and disposing of products and services including the deci-
sion processes that precedes and follows these actions”. This definition emphasises
the importance of psychological process that consumers go through during the
pre-purchasing, purchasing and post-purchasing stages. Specifically, it examines

v
vi Preface

how consumers behave at all stages, including information search, choice of

alternatives, decision-making, purchasing, consumption and post-consumption.
Therefore, understanding consumers helps to establish efficient marketing strategies
to understand why, how and when they make decisions and serve better quality of
services (Hyde and Lawson 2003).
As an human-based activity, consumer behaviour is an interdisciplinary
approach to practise. In other words, it is based on basic fields, such as economics,
sociology and psychology, and influences consumer behaviour before, during and
after purchasing. For example, psychology seeks to answer the question of why
potential consumers want to engage in particular activities such as tourist motiva-
tions (e.g. Gnoth 1997; Mayo and Jarvis 1981; Pearce 1993; Yoon and Uysal 2005)
and tourist experiences on vacations (e.g. Gross and Brown 2008; Otto and Ritchie
1996); economics seeks to investigate the cost of consumption experiences and its
distribution by product categories on a vacation (Agarwal and Yochum 1999;
Davies and Mangan 1992; Kozak et al. 2008) and answer the question that con-
sumers cannot fulfil these needs and expectations in a monetary and temporal sense;
and sociology explores the direction of possible changes in the way of life and how
or what the dialectic between service providers and consumers should be. The
outputs of such interaction appear in a form of hospitality, bargaining and
harassment in tourism (Kozak 2007, 2016), and social impacts (Dogan 1989),
among others.
As such, papers presented at international conferences have been central to the
idea of producing a book as valuable as the present volume, which has been
enriched by the inclusion of a range of international case studies. Over the last few
years, it has become traditional to contribute to the existing body of tourism
knowledge by selecting a group of papers presented at the Interdisciplinary
Tourism Research Conference and the World Conference for Graduate Research in
Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure series. These events take place annually or (bi-)
annually, in a different city in Turkey on each occasion. The fifth series of these two
conferences was successfully held in Bodrum, 24–29 May 2016, and attracted the
participation of over 100 scholars from across the world. The cluster of papers
included in this book address the issue of tourist behaviour. The earlier collections
on the same subject have also appeared in two volumes due by several publishers:
Aspects of Tourist Behaviour (Kozak and Kozak 2013) and Tourist Behaviour: An
International Perspective (Kozak and Kozak 2016).
This book examines the subject of tourist behaviour in detail, through specific
case studies in various countries. The authors of the papers selected for inclusion in
the book are from diverse locations across the world, with several countries across
three continents being represented: Australia, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain,
Turkey and USA. The chapters accommodate different perspectives to understand
the behaviour of tourists either both at domestic or international levels. As the
authors from different countries have collaborated to produce a single chapter, the
case studies are also more multicultural encompassing both the Western and Asian
nations as consumers in the tourism and hospitality industry. Case studies do not
only refer to destinations or hotel businesses, but it also consists of several specific
Preface vii

locations such as restaurants, trade shows, exhibitions, museums and hiking. If the
subject matter is tourism, speaking about tourist experiences and its intercultural
issues is inevitable.
Having said that, the book begins with an examination of experiences and
co-creation by building a model in the context of Denmark (Sørensen, Jensen and
Hagedorn-Rasmussen). Chapter “Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese Tourists
on Guided Tours” is a more practical approach to understanding the cross-cultural
behaviour by looking at Japanese tourists on guided tours in Turkey (Acar and
Tanrisevdi). Chapter “Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction in Trade
Shows and Exhibitions” represents Malaysia and examines visitor experiences
across different stands at the trade show and exhibition including expectations and
satisfaction (Alias and Othman). Chapter “Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia
Towards Behaving Responsibly” explores the influential factors shaping Italian
tourists’ inertia on how to behave responsibly (Del Chiappa and Correia). Chapter
“Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees in Istanbul and Barcelona” is a more
comparative-oriented study between Spain and Turkey in terms of tourists’ satis-
faction with hotel employees (Inelmen and Hatipoglu). Chapter “Being Good to Be
Happy? The Influence of Moral Values on Tourist Happiness” confirms the rele-
vance of moral values in shaping the happiness of domestic tourists in Italy (Pinna,
Correia and Del Chiappa).
There are seven more chapters. In this context, Chapter “Florence: Tourism,
Heritage and Consumption” looks at the issue of tourist behaviour from the post-
modern age by examining how the image of Florence influences today’s tourist
practices and political discourses (Melotti). Chapter “Conceptualising Challenging
Experiences and Post-Travel Culture Involvement” is a conceptual study trying to
challenge tourist experiences and post-travel culture involvement (Tikhonova, Kim
and Butler). Chapter “Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists Toward
Travel to China” considers the world’s biggest two powers in the context of the
possible barriers of American tourists while travelling to China (Stepchenkova,
Kirilenko and Li). Chapter “Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences of
Museums” explores the subject of tourist behaviour from cultural perspective by
looking at visitors’ experiences with museums in Italy (Gurel and Nielsen). Chapter
“Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role of Other Customers in Dining
Experience” investigates the role of other customers in creating value for a dining
experience in Turkish restaurants (Erkmen and Hancer). Chapter “The Active
Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands” examines the profile of active
senior tourists visiting Balearic Islands for sport tourism such as hiking
(Rejón-Guardia, García-Sastre and Alemany-Hormaeche). The book ends with the
understanding of the movement of Asian market to Europe that is the motivations
for Chinese travellers (Pung and Del Chiappa).
We believe that as a reference book, this volume will be a helpful resource, full
of rich materials that refer to the applications of tourist behaviour practices in the
context of worldwide case studies. As a supplementary textbook, the audience of
this book may include advanced students of tourism, hospitality, leisure, recreation
and marketing, and users of libraries in schools that run that tourism, hospitality,
viii Preface

leisure, recreation and marketing programs. A careful synthesis of the results of the
studies presented is also worthy of consideration for practitioners (such as desti-
nation managers, ministry of tourism staff and individual tourism businesses) in
order to operate better and to yield more economic and social benefits in such a
challenging industry.
Last but not least, we acknowledge and thank all the authors for their remarkable
contributions and for showing the commitment and continuous cooperation that has
been of such help in bringing this proposal to fruition. We would also like to thank
Springer for giving us a unique opportunity to publish this volume in such a smooth
and professional manner. Without their endless patience, positivity and under-
standing, we would never have been able to make this happen. Enjoy reading!…

İzmir, Turkey Metin Kozak, Ph.D.

Eskişehir, Turkey Nazmi Kozak, Ph.D.

References

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Crompton, J. L. (1979). Motivations for pleasure vacation. Annals of Tourism Research, 6(4),
408–424.
Davies, B., & J. Mangan (1992). Family expenditure on hotels and holidays. Annals of Tourism
Research, 19(4), 691–699.
Dogan, H. Z. (1989). Forms of adjustment. Annals of Tourism Research, 16, 216–236.
Engel, F., Kollat, D., & Blackwell, R. (1968). Consumer behaviour. New York, NY: Holt,
Rinehart and Whinston.
Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Miniard, R. W. (1995). Consumer behavior. Fort Worth, TX:
Dryden Press.
Gnoth, J. (1997). Tourism motivation and expectation formation. Annals of Tourism Research, 24
(2), 283–304.
Goodrich, J. N. (1978). The relationship between preferences for and perceptions of vacation
destinations: application of a choice model. Journal of Travel Research, 17, 8–13.
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gressing involvement and place attachment into tourism. Tourism Management, 29(6),
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Hoyer, W., & Machnnis, D. (2004). Consumer behaviour. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Hyde, K., & Lawson, R. (2003). The nature of independent travel. Journal of Travel Research,
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Kozak, M. (2007). Tourist harassment: a marketing perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 34
(2), 384–399.
Kozak, M. (2016). Bargaining behavior and the shopping experiences of British tourists on
vacation. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 33(3), 313–325.
Kozak, M., Gokovali, U., & Bahar, O. (2008). Estimating the determinants of tourist spending: a
comparison of four models. Tourism Analysis, 13(2), 143–155.
Kozak, M., & Kozak, N. (Eds.). (2013). Aspects of tourist behaviour. Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Kozak, M., & Kozak, N. (Eds.). (2016). Tourist behaviour: an international perspective. Oxon:
CABI.
Preface ix

Mayo, E. J., & Jarvis, L. P. (1981). The psychology of leisure travel: effective marketing and
selling of travel services. Boston: CBI Publishing Company.
Otto, J. E., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (1996). The service experience in tourism. Tourism Management,
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Pearce, P. L. (1993). Fundamentals of tourist motivation. In D. G. Pearce & R. W. Butler (Eds.),
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Pizam, A., Neumann, Y., & Reichel, A. (1978). Dimensions of tourist satisfaction area. Annals of
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Plog, S. C. (1974). Why destination areas rise and fall in popularity. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant
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Schiffman, L. G., & Kanuk, L. L. (1978). Consumer behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Solomon, M. R. (2013). Consumer behavior: buying, having and being. Essex: Pearson.
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Contents

Tourism Place Experience Co-creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Flemming Sørensen, Jens Friis Jensen and Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese Tourists
on Guided Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Vedat Acar and Abdullah Tanrisevdi
Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction
in Trade Shows and Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Zauyani Zainal Mohamed Alias and Nor’Ain Othman
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly . . . . . 49
Giacomo Del Chiappa and Antónia H. Correia
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees in Istanbul
and Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Kivanc Inelmen and Burcin Hatipoglu
Being Good to Be Happy? The Influence of Moral Values
on Tourist Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Mariella Pinna, Antónia H. Correia and Giacomo Del Chiappa
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Marxiano Melotti
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel
Culture Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Daria Tikhonova, Sangkyun Kim and Gareth Butler
Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists Toward
Travel to China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Svetlana Stepchenkova, Andrei Kirilenko and Xiang (Robert) Li
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences of Museums . . . . . 141
Eda Gurel and Axel Nielsen

xi
xii Contents

Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role of Other

Customers in Dining Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Ezgi Erkmen and Murat Hancer
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands . . . . . . . . . 173
Francisco Rejón-Guardia, María Antonia García-Sastre
and Margarita Alemany-Hormaeche
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe . . . . . . 187
Jessica Mei Pung and Giacomo Del Chiappa
Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Metin Kozak is Professor of Tourism in the School of Tourism, Dokuz Eylul

University, Turkey. He holds both master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Tourism. His
research focuses on Consumer Behavior, Benchmarking, Destination Management
and Marketing, and Mediterranean Tourism. He acts as the Co-Editor of Anatolia:
An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research.
Nazmi Kozak is Professor of Tourism in the School of Tourism, Anadolu
University, Turkey. He gained both his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Tourism. His
research activities focus on Tourism Marketing, History of Tourism and
Bibliometrics. He is the Editor of Anatolia: Turizm Araştırmaları Dergisi and the
Co-Editor of Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality
Research.

Contributors

Vedat Acar Faculty of Tourism, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey

Margarita Alemany-Hormaeche University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
Zauyani Zainal Mohamed Alias Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah
Alam, Malaysia
Gareth Butler College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders
University, Adelaide, Australia

xiii
xiv Editors and Contributors

Antónia H. Correia CEFAGE, Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve,

Faro, Portugal; Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal; University of Sassari,
Sassari, Italy
Giacomo Del Chiappa Department of Economics and Business, University of
Sassari and CRENoS, Sassari, Italy
Ezgi Erkmen School of Tourism and Hospitality, Istanbul Bilgi University,
Istanbul, Turkey
María Antonia García-Sastre University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
Eda Gurel Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Murat Hancer Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central
Florida, Orlando, USA
Burcin Hatipoglu Department of Tourism Administration, Bogazici University,
Istanbul, Turkey
Kivanc Inelmen Department of Tourism Administration, Bogazici University,
Istanbul, Turkey
Jens Friis Jensen Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Sangkyun Kim School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Perth,
Western Australia, Australia
Andrei Kirilenko Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management,
University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Xiang (Robert) Li School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Temple
University, Philadelphia, USA
Marxiano Melotti Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy
Axel Nielsen Nielsen Restauri, Genoa, Italy
Nor’Ain Othman Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Malaysia
Mariella Pinna Department of Economics and Business, University of Sassari,
Sassari, Italy
Jessica Mei Pung University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
Francisco Rejón-Guardia University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
Flemming Sørensen Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Editors and Contributors xv

Svetlana Stepchenkova Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport

Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Abdullah Tanrisevdi Faculty of Tourism, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin,
Turkey
Daria Tikhonova College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders
University, Adelaide, Australia
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation

Flemming Sørensen, Jens Friis Jensen

and Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen

Abstract The theory of experience economy argues that experiences are core
drivers of value creation in the 21st century. In relation to this, the importance and
potential of co-creating unique and personally meaningful experiences have been
emphasised. Such experience co-creation is particularly relevant in tourism because
production and consumption is inseparable and because tourists often seek to create
their own experiences that fulfil their personal expectations and desires. In this
chapter, we argue that because tourist experiences are experiences of place, place
experience co-creation is central to value creation in tourism. Adding place to the
co-creation discussion results in new and interesting perspectives. From the place
experience perspective, the extent of co-creation in tourism depends on the degree
to which place is controlled by tourism companies or co-created with tourists. This
chapter uses this argument to build a model of tourism place experience co-creation.
The role and potential of place co-creation is illustrated in a comparative case study
of tourism businesses that shows how different business strategies can facilitate
place experience co-creation. The findings suggest that place experience co-creation
has wide-ranging potential in tourism and that it may ultimately lead not only to
personal and meaningful tourist experiences but also to new business strategies,
business models, and internal and external business brands.

1 Introduction

In experience economy theory, it is argued that experiences rather than services or

physical products are core drivers of value creation in the 21st century (Boswijk
et al. 2007, 2012; Pine and Gilmore 1999, 2013; Sundbo and Sørensen 2013a).
Simultaneously, the potential of co-creating unique value with customers has been
emphasised (Grönroos and Voima 2013; Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004a, b).

F. Sørensen (&)
J. F. Jensen
P. Hagedorn-Rasmussen

Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
e-mail: flemmiso@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 1

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
2 F. Sørensen et al.

Co-creation theory argues that a company-centric strategy, in which companies

autonomously design and market products and services, must give place to a
co-creation agenda, in which value is jointly created in the interaction between
companies and users. The two mentioned theoretical approaches (co-creation and
experience economy) have been combined, and co-creation is argued to be central
to the development of valuable, personal and meaningful experiences (Boswijk
et al. 2012).
This combination of the experience economy and co-creation theories seems
particularly relevant for tourism, in which production and consumption is insepa-
rable (Baum 2005; Crang 1997; Smith 1994) and the fundamental aim is to create
experiences. These experiences arise largely through interactions between tourists
and tourism companies, other destination elements, and other tourists (Prebensen
et al. 2013). While this results in the possibility of co-creating experiences, tourism
companies in general do not seem to benefit from this (Binkhorst and Den Dekker
2009). Instead they remain locked in the traditional service paradigm (Sørensen and
Jensen 2015) in which tourist services and their related employee-tourist interac-
tions, as well as the values they aim to produce, are pre-defined by tourism
companies.
In this chapter, we investigate the co-creation potential in tourism, but to do this
we add considerations about the role of place for tourism and thus for co-creation of
tourism experiences. We argue that because tourist experiences are experiences of
place, co-creation of place experiences is central to value creation in tourism.
Consequently, we argue, the extent of co-creation in tourism depends on the degree
to which tourist places are controlled by tourism companies or co-created with
tourists. We develop this argument and discuss how business strategies facilitate or
restrict place experience co-creation. The arguments are illustrated in a comparative
case study of three tourism companies. The findings of the case study suggest that
co-creation of place experiences can lead not only to personal, meaningful and
valuable tourism experiences but also to new business strategies, business models,
and internal and external brands. The conclusions suggest new directions for
managing value-creation in tourism.
The chapter is structured as follows: first the relation between co-creation and
experiences is discussed. Experience co-creation is then related to tourism and to
tourism places, and the relevance of place experience co-creation is discussed.
Subsequently, the methodological considerations are presented followed by the case
study. The final section presents the conclusions of the study as well as its impli-
cations and limitations.

2 Theoretical Framework

According to Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004a, b) a firm-centric model has

dominated companies’ perception of value creation. In this model, companies
consider users to be ‘outside’ the company, and development, production and
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 3

marketing are fully controlled by the company. However, today consumers request
personalised products/services and it is argued that to create them companies must
escape the firm-centric thinking and instead co-create customised products and
services in personalised interactions with empowered customers. Value creation
shifts from the internal value chain to the interaction between companies and users
(Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004a, b). In a similar vein, Grönroos and Voima
(2013) suggest how value is not created by companies but by users themselves
when they use products or services. This value in use is multi-dimensional and
context-dependent. Users therefore derive different values and different ‘amounts’
of value from the same products or services. The essential role of companies in this
value-creating process is to assist users in creating value in use, and for this
co-creation in company–user interactions becomes central. It is in such interactions
that companies have the possibility of influencing individual users’ value in use
through co-creation (Grönroos and Voima 2013).
The co-creation perspective has been applied to the entire product/service
innovation process (e.g. Hoyer et al. 2010; O’Hern and Rindfleisch 2010). This line
of theorising about co-creation suggests how users may be involved in the ideation,
design, development and implementation of product and service innovation pro-
cesses. However, in this chapter we focus on co-creation processes in encounters
that occur during the ‘consumption’ of products and services. Such encounters take
place at different ‘touch-points’ between companies and users. They include ‘ser-
vice encounters’ (interactions between service employees and customers), ‘usage
encounters’ (interactions between customers and products or services) and ‘com-
munication encounters’ (different interactions during, for example, sales and mar-
keting) (Payne et al. 2008). In this chapter, we focus primarily on service and usage
encounters.
The co-creation and value in use concepts are particularly relevant from the
perspective of experience economy theory. In the context of the experience econ-
omy, experiences may be defined as the mental impact felt and remembered by an
individual caused by the personal perception of external stimuli (Sundbo and
Sørensen 2013b). Thus, they are individually perceived (but may be collective and
socially constructed) and can have many different types of values attached to them,
including negative ones. Consumers’ quest for such experiences has increased (it is
argued) as the fundamental needs in Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs have been
fulfilled (Sundbo and Sørensen 2013a, b). This has propelled a shift in Western
economies away from value creation on the basis of pure products and services
towards an economy in which the greatest potential for value creation lies in
producing and consuming experiences.
When interpreting experience economy theory from a co-creation perspective, it
can be argued that Prahalad and Ramaswamy’s (2004a, b) firm-centric model
fits with Pine and Gilmore’s (1999, 2013) perception of value creation in the
experience economy. They suggest that companies must ‘stage’ experiences for
customers, and they use theatre metaphors to suggest how experiences are plays
performed by employees for consumers. However, others argue that experiences
cannot be controlled by companies. If experiences are caused by the personal
4 F. Sørensen et al.

perceptions of external stimuli, companies cannot produce experiences but only

deliver stimuli which individuals elaborate into experiences (Sundbo and Sørensen
2013b). Also, Helkkula et al. (2012) suggest that experience value is deeply per-
sonal and contextualised, depending, for example, on earlier experiences, future
experiences, social contexts, and lived and imaginary value. Thus, experiences and
their value depends on an individualised hermeneutical circle of experiencing
(Helkkula et al. 2012), and experiential value cannot be defined by companies but
arises as phenomenological value in use. Consequently, experiences are always
co-created in some way through customers’ cognitive and sense-making processes.
However, co-creation of experiences often involves not only customers’ cog-
nitive sense-making but also their physical/embodied (corporal and verbal) par-
ticipation in encounters. When this is the case, companies can co-create experiences
with customers during encounters, as suggested by Prahalad and Ramaswamy
(2004a). In a value-in-use perspective (Grönroos and Voima 2013), these
encounters can support users in creating their desired experiential value in use. This
type of experience co-creation conforms to Boswijk et al.’s (2007, 2012) idea of a
co-creation in what they call a second generation of the experience economy [they
consider Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) approach to be the first generation]. They also
suggest the existence of a third generation of the experience economy which they
term ‘self-direction’. In this generation, users are initiators and creators of indi-
vidual as well as collective experiences, for example individual hiking trips and
user-created festivals. It can be argued that these models should not be considered
chronologically ordered and separate generations of the experience economy.
Instead they indicate how a continuum of degrees of user involvement exists, from
company-controlled firm-centric staging of experiences to co-creation of experi-
ences to users’ experiential self-direction. This is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Continuum of experience co-creation. Degree of control by company ( ) and users ( ) and
involvement of both in interaction ( )
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 5

2.1 Co-creation of Tourism Place Experience

Production and consumption of services is often intertwined with and based on

service encounters (Gallouj and Weinstein 1997). This interaction is crucial for
customer satisfaction (Bitner et al. 1990; Carlson 1989), for companies’ develop-
ment of knowledge about users and for innovation (Edvardsson et al. 2000;
Sørensen et al. 2013; Toivonen and Tuominen 2009). Also, in tourism, production
and consumption are inseparable (Crang 1997; Smith 1994) and service encounters
are crucial for tourist experiences (Baum 2005; Sørensen and Jensen 2012;
Weiermair 2000). As a consequence, it is argued that tourists and tourism
employees create tourist experiences through co-‘performances’ (Edensor 2001),
and that tourists are co-producers of their experiences (Crang 1997; Ek et al. 2008).
Additionally, as Poon (1993) stated, the ‘new’ tourists want to be in charge and, for
example, book and plan their travel independently. Thus, self-direction (cf. Boswijk
et al. 2007) is also an important aspect of tourism. Nevertheless, it is argued that
tourism companies have not embraced the concept of co-creation (Binkhorst and
Den Dekker 2009). Instead, they have been observed to remain locked too often in
an old service paradigm in which one-way standardised and cost-efficient service
deliveries dominate (Sørensen and Jensen 2012). Thus, they remain guided by a
firm-centric approach (cf. Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004b) in which the value of a
given service is preconceived by the company and in which service encounters are
staged and scripted accordingly, leaving little ground for co-creation (apart from the
cognitive sense-making of tourists).
It is not only in direct interactions between tourists and tourism front-line
employees (service encounters) that co-creation of tourism experiences may occur.
In tourism, the external stimuli of experiences can be argued to belong to the places
visited by tourists. In line with Gieryn (2000), place may be understood to consist
of: (a) physical aspects, (b) people and their activities, and (c) images and values
connected to place. Thus, place can be illustrated as a simple model (Fig. 2) con-
sisting of three layers: physical, activities, and meanings and values. The physical
layer includes tangible objects but also other physically sensed aspects that affect
experience of place. These include, for example, sight, smell, taste, touch and so on.
The activities layer includes activities carried out by people (employees, inhabi-
tants, visitors and other users of places) individually as well as collectively, such as
leisure or work activities. The meanings and values layer consists of perceptions of
place, for example that Paris is ‘the city of love’. In other words, this layer includes
the mental objects of place.
Thus, places are real but also socially constructed, sensed and imagined. When
applied to tourism, the spatial dimensions of such places can range from larger
areas, such as destinations, to smaller areas controlled by individual companies or
organisations, for example theme parks or areas even smaller such as hotels. Thus,
tourism places may be owned (in juridical terms) by a company or consist of public/
semi-public environments.
6 F. Sørensen et al.

Fig. 2 Simple model of place

Based on the above considerations, the role and character of co-creation of

tourism place experiences can be discussed. Place experiences arise within indi-
viduals who are in, and part of, places (Tuan 1977). Place and place experience is a
crucial building block of tourism in which experiencing places is a fundamental
reason for travelling from places of work and residence to other places. Thus, in
tourism research, the role and nature of tourism place production and consumption
(Bærenholdt et al. 2004; Rakić and Chambers 2012; Urry 1995, 2002), place
making (Hultman and Hall 2012) and co-performance (Giovanardi et al. 2014) have
been discussed. Furthermore, it has been argued that places are ‘performed’ through
activities of tourists and tourism employees (Bærenholdt et al. 2004; Edensor
2001).
From the co-creation perspective, such activities consist of service and usage
encounters (cf. Payne et al. 2008) of the activities layer of place. Whereas service
encounters concern interactions between tourists and tourism employees, usage
encounters include tourists’ practices when experiencing the place without inter-
acting with tourism employees. This may involve encounters with other tourists and
with local inhabitants in addition to encounters with physical and mental objects of
the place. Thus, the activities are partly determined by the physical layer, and they
are framed by and affect the meanings and values layer. Consequently, the three
layers of place are interdependent, affecting each other, and in combination affect
individuals’ place experiences.
The combination and integration of the physical, activities, and meanings and
values layers of tourist places and the individual tourist’s interaction (physically,
mentally and emotionally) with these layers create the stimuli that, perceived by the
tourist, result in tourist place experiences. The value of these experiences remains
individual and personalised, and depends on the tourist’s hermeneutical circle of
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 7

experiencing (cf. Helkkula et al. 2012) and thus, for example, on prior tourism place
experiences as well as the tourists’ social context.
From such a tourism place experience perspective, the firm-centric model of the
experience economy (first generation/staging of experiences) would suggest that the
layers of places of tourism organisations (private and public) could, and should, be
controlled by the organisations to deliver pre-designed tourist experiences. This
implies that not only should the physical layer be designed and controlled by
tourism companies but so should the activities layer (and thus service and usage
encounters), as well as the meanings and values of places. Strictly standardised
service management concepts, scripting of service encounters, organisational rules
and regulations, and effective branding may sustain such a firm-centric model of
staged tourism place experiences.
However, co-creation of tourism place experiences implies that tourists to
varying degrees act and interact in service and usage encounters (the activities
layer) in individualised ways, creating their own collective and/or individual per-
ceptions of tourist places (the meanings and values layer), even if companies
control the physical aspects of a place (the physical layer). Such individualised
tourist behaviours and company interactions with tourists may be intentionally
sustained by tourism companies by applying looser organisational strategies and
set-ups concerning, for example, service encounter concepts and user activities and
interactions. Service encounters may assist this type of co-creation when they are
not ruled by standardisation and predefined perceptions of tourists’ desired value
(Sørensen and Jensen 2015). Instead service encounters should flexibly attempt to
assist each tourist in creating their desired ‘value in use’ of the place experience.
Additionally, this type of co-creation of place experience is facilitated by increased
possibilities for communication between tourists, for example on social media,
which means that tourism companies cannot strictly control the meanings and
values layer of tourist places through branding and marketing. Users may instead
collectively create and distribute their own meanings and values of tourist places. In
addition to such processes of place co-creation, tourists may even initiate processes
of place self-direction, thus creating places (including the physical layer). Examples
of this include collectively user-driven festivals such as Burning Man (Sherry et al.
2006).
Consequently, different degrees of tourism place co-creation, in which different
layers of place are created more or less in collaboration between companies and
tourists, are theoretically possible. Because tourist experiences are essentially
experiences of place, value creation in tourism may be sustained by such place
experience co-creation. However, tourism companies, for example hotels, often
apply pre-designed strict service management concepts (Sørensen and Jensen 2012,
2015) and strong, all-embracing and coherent brands which leave little room for
user involvement and place experience co-creation. Thus, as already mentioned,
tourism firms are often dominated by traditional firm-centric models.
The model in Fig. 3 summarises the above discussions. It indicates how tourist
companies and tourists to varying degrees can define, create and experience tourist
places. If the layers of place, and thereby tourists’ activities, are fully controlled by
8 F. Sørensen et al.

Fig. 3 Model of co-creation of tourist place experience

companies through marketing, regulations and standardisation, the result is staged

places and limited co-creation of place experience. Co-creation of tourist place
experiences occurs when place layers are collaboratively defined and created by
tourists and companies. When companies perform only supporting activities, place
self-direction may occur.

3 Methodology

In the following, the findings from a comparative case study of three Danish
tourism companies are presented. They illustrate how co-creation of tourism place
experiences can occur and how companies can take advantage of and sustain such
co-creation. The cases consist of a beach hotel/apartment complex, a traditional
zoo, and a safari park attraction. The cases were chosen because they illustrate
different ways of working strategically with place experience co-creation in com-
panies belonging to different but central sectors of the tourism business (accom-
modation and attraction). The methodological approach is abductive and the
scientific approach pragmatic; data collection methods differed slightly in the
various cases.
In Case A, the beach hotel/apartment complex, data collection consisted of
observations and interviews with hotel managers and employees. Observations
were made on several occasions during stays at the hotel and focused primarily on
the hotel design itself (i.e. its physical layer), as well as guests’ behaviour in the
hotel and in the interaction with employees in the hotel (i.e. usage and interaction
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 9

encounters of the activities layer). Observations were transcribed as field notes and
discussed with the management of the hotel. The semi-structured interviews with
employees and the managers focused mainly on their perception of the hotel (i.e.
the physical as well as the meanings and values layers) and its potential, on their
perception of the hotel’s guests, how the guests used the hotel, and how interactions
between employees and guests were structured (i.e. usage and interaction
encounters). The interviews with managers also focused on their strategic approach
and on the development potential of the hotel. The data collection occurred over
two years, during which there was regular contact with the hotel management with
whom findings were discussed in interviews as well as in less formal conversations.
In Case B, the zoo, observations at a workshop were combined with observa-
tions in the zoo, interviews, and conversations with employees and managers. The
workshop involved a number of front-line employees and was aimed at developing
ideas for co-creation in different parts of the zoo. Some of these ideas were later put
into practice, with observations made of these new practices and of how they
resulted in new ways of using the place in processes of place experience co-creation
between employees and visitors to the zoo. The interviews with employees focused
on their workspace (the physical layer), their work, duties, the interactions they
have with visitors, and the actual behaviour of the visitors (the activities layer). The
interviews with the managers focused on the challenges for the zoo in general, the
organisation of the zoo, their visions regarding interactions between front-line
employees and visitors, and their knowledge of visitor and employee behaviour.
Data collection took place over a period of more than one year and also included
later conversations with managers about the results of the new practices and future
visions.
In Case C, the safari park, data collection included interviews with visitors,
observations, and interviews with top management. The study formed part of a
larger study in which GPS tracking of visitors was also carried out (see Sørensen
and Sundbo 2014). All in all, fifteen brief semi-structured telephone interviews
(approximately 15 min each) and five longer face-to-face semi-structured inter-
views (between 45 and 90 min) were carried out with visitors to the park after their
visit. These interviews focused on the visitors’ activities in the park (i.e. the
activities layer); their reasons for choosing these different activities, for example in
relation to the physical aspects of the park (i.e. the physical layer); and their
perceived value of the park and of their visit, such as learning, pleasure, excitement
and sociability (the meanings and values layer). The observations made in the park
focused on identifying different strategies used by visitors in constructing experi-
ences (e.g. letting children steer the car while sitting on their parent’s lap, relaxing
while children played on the playground, etc.). Interviews with the management
before and after the other interviews focused on their knowledge of their visitors; on
how visitors use the park; and about what innovative, strategic and other impli-
cations this and the new findings from our study could have for the park.
Subsequent meetings and conversations held with the manager of the park resulted
in more information about new development processes and strategic choices made
by the company. Data collection was done during a two-year period.
10 F. Sørensen et al.

In all cases methodological triangulation (Denzin 1970) was used. However, the
analyses of all the cases are based on an interpretive approach. Securing trust-
worthiness of findings in such studies is crucial (Lincoln and Guba 1986). In the
cases analysed, the methodological triangulation, as well as the prolonged
engagement and interaction with the managers of the cases, and the formal and
informal testing of findings by soliciting reactions from the managers, aimed to
sustain the trustworthiness of the findings (Lincoln and Guba 1986). Thus, in all
cases a development process was followed longitudinally and interpreted
inter-subjectively (Morgan 2007) by involving interpretations of several researchers
as well as managers of the companies.

4 Case Study

In the following we introduce the three cases and present the findings about how
tourism place experience co-creation took place in each of the cases and with what
results. Subsequently we present the conclusion of the chapter based on the findings
of all three cases.

4.1 Case A: Balka Søbad

Balka Søbad is a hotel/apartment complex on the Danish island of Bornholm. The

hotel was built in the 1970s and consists of a number of buildings with apartments;
a main building with amenities (reception, restaurant, bar and rest area); and an
outdoor area with swimming pool, tennis court and playground. The hotel is sep-
arated from a sandy beach by a narrow strip of forest. For years the hotel’s image
was one of low service levels and insufficient cleaning, renovation and innovation.
In 2013, the hotel got a new management team consisting of two experienced
managers from the island. Initially, they had little pride and lots of concerns about
the place—it was the last hotel that any manager would want to manage on the
island. However, they perceived it as a challenge: ‘If we can make this hotel
attractive we can manage anything’ (interview, manager).
First of all, the managers needed to keep the place alive by upgrading the
cleaning and service level, using a bit of paint, and raising prices slightly.
Nevertheless, they did not make any further immediate changes to the place’s
physical appearance. Instead their approach was ‘to see what the place was capable
of’ (interview, manager). Consequently, they did not immediately make changes
according to their own understanding of what the place should be like, but instead
wanted to let the place show them its potential and to try to understand how the
different guests used the hotel. As a result, they did not formulate strict service
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 11

encounter procedures. They made few rules and were flexible concerning, for
example, the interaction between employees and guests. Thus, they did not strictly
define and control the activities layer.
This approach has resulted in a different understanding and development of the
place. Initially, the management considered that it was attractive for the segment
aged 50+. However, they observed how the place was capable of embracing wider
segments and actually represented a perfect place for family holidays. This is
possible, among other reasons, because of the relatively large outdoor area which
allows different segments to perform a variety of desired activities in different
preferred areas without disturbing each other. The management also learned to
manage the place so that the activities of different age segments are distributed in
place and time so that, for example, less peak pressure is put on the restaurant. In
this way, they learned how the physical and the activities layers were connected by
the guests, how the layers could interact synergetically, and how to manage this by
developing the business strategy.
The guests include, among others, a particular type of family seeking tranquillity
and immersion. The management has learned how the place, including its per-
sonnel, can function well in relation to this. Thanks to the complete lack of reno-
vation over the years, the 1970s interior and the original furniture and décor of the
hotel creates a kind of safe feeling, a ‘grandma effect’—a place as it originally was.
This is now an element that the management focuses on. They emphasise it by
using small and simple ‘indicators’ (such as different decorations) that sustain the
authenticity of the place, and by continuing to interact with the guests in a way that
supports the feeling of tranquillity and safety. The management sees it as a way to
help the guests create their desired experience. Thus, the lack of renovation of the
physical layer has been turned into an advantage rather than seen as a problem. The
management now has pride in the place which creates self-confidence and new
ambitions, and also affects the way guests are treated. All in all, the internal brand
of the place has changed, becoming stronger and more evident in the minds of the
managers.
Place experience co-creation in this case includes the creation of a place which to
some degree is directed by the guests. While the physical layer of the place was
more or less given, the flexible non-scripted interaction with guests and the lack of
strict rules and routines mean that the guests can partly define the activities layer.
Observations of how this happened changed the meanings and value layer in the
minds of the managers. Thus, the management let the guests set the agenda and
their activities have influenced the management’s experience of the place and
affected their choices and ambitions about its future development possibilities, the
internal branding of the company, and its business model—in other words, ‘what
we as management feel about the place and what should be done with the place’
(interview, manager). Consequently, while the guests themselves created their place
experience they also co-created the management’s experience of the place.
12 F. Sørensen et al.

4.2 Case B: Copenhagen Zoo

Copenhagen Zoo has about 1.2 million visitors per year and is the fourth most
visited attraction in Denmark as well as the largest zoo. The zoo employs
approximately 200 full-time employees. It is a traditional-style zoo inaugurated in
1859, but it is currently in a process of modernisation. This includes, first of all, the
development of novel and architecturally innovating animal enclosures that mimic
the animal’s natural environments, providing them with better living environments
and resulting in more realistic visitor experiences.
In addition to the development of the physical layer, the zoo has also been
working on developing the activities layer of the zoo—for example, by designing
scheduled activities related to the animals in order to improve the zoo experience.
However, the management also had other ambitions of improving the guest
experience by engaging the visitors through interactions with employees whenever
possible. This ambition was based on recognition by the management of the
potential value of co-creating experiences with the visitors. Furthermore, they
aimed to develop co-creation processes as a bottom-up process based on the ideas
and experiences of the service employees and zookeepers on how to make
co-creation part of their daily work in their particular workspaces within the zoo.
These ideas were further developed at the mentioned workshop and later applied in
practice.
In general the employees—both service employees and zookeepers—had a
tendency to focus on their daily workspace and activities as separate from the
visitor space and visitor activities. The employees would give priority to their own
work and did not perceive the visitors as an integral part of this. They only inter-
acted with visitors when they were directly addressed and would normally see this
as an interruption and distraction from their primary work activities. In this way, the
employees’ place was distinct from the guests’ place and the two were hardly
integrated.
The goal of the management was to see whether and how they could change the
attitude of employees and of the organisational culture to empower the employees
and change their working habits and routines. The ambition was to make the
employees open up and invite the visitors into their workspaces and involve them in
their daily activities and practices whenever possible.
The ‘experiment’ resulted in the employees developing a different perception of
the possibilities of interacting with visitors and of co-creating experiences. The
visitors were allowed to use the space in a different way by participating actively in
employees’ daily activities. Thus, visitors were transformed from passive spectators
to active co-creators. Examples of this include the zookeepers who were responsible
for the care of elephants opening up part of the elephant enclosure when they were
preparing to feed the elephants. This resulted in many questions from the visitors
who clearly enjoyed the sensation of being in the enclosure. When some of the
visitors asked if they could help distributing the elephants’ food, the children were
invited to hide carrots in the sand. The zookeepers explained how elephants in the
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 13

nature look for their food, which often has to be ‘dug out’, and that they also like to
do that in the zoo. The zookeeper asked the children to come back when the
elephants returned, so that they could see the elephants finding the carrots they had
hidden. In this way, unused space (by the visitors) was turned into used space and
passive visitors were changed into active visitors. Another example is service
employees inviting visitors into the maintenance/service area/building to see how
they worked with maintenance issues. The invitation led some visitors to start
participating in the work of the service employees. For example, children from a
kindergarten helped to remove autumn leaves so that ‘the animals had a nice clean
zoo’.
Thus, by encouraging the employees to open up their work space for visitors and
being ready to interact with them and involve them in the daily work activities,
co-creation processes were developed. In this case, the co-creation processes
resulted in zoo places getting used in new ways and new sub-places (of the physical
layer) being included as part of the visitor experience. This led to new activities in
these and other sub-places (i.e. the activities layer), including both new service and
new usage encounters. From the empirical data, we do not know how this changed
the visitors’ perceptions of the place (i.e. the meanings and values layer). However,
the employees who participated in the project changed their perception of the zoo
experience and, not least, of their role in this experience, thus influencing the
organisational perception of the meanings and values layer.
Overall, the earlier distinct places of the employees and the visitors merged in
the co-creation process and resulted in new place experiences. Additionally, the
employees’ new role and closer interaction with guests resulted in increased job
motivation and pride. Based on the experiences made with the bottom-up process
involving only a limited number of staff, the challenge for the management is now
to organise and roll out the new co-creation practices to the entire organisation to
develop the idea of co-creation of the zoo place experience as a general principle
and philosophy of all employees.

4.3 Case C: Knuthenborg Safari Park

The experience of the safari park differs from the zoo experience described above
because the main attraction, like in other safari parks, is for visitors to drive their
vehicles among animals roaming freely within large fenced areas. Apart from areas
with dangerous animals, visitors can also leave their cars and walk among the
animals. The most important animal attractions in the park are tigers, wolves and
monkeys, as well as animals living on an ‘African Savannah’. Another attraction of
the park is a large nature playground. The dominant visitor segment in the attraction
is families with children. The company has approximately 100 (mostly seasonal)
employees and the park about 250,000 visitors per year.
Service encounters are of limited importance in the park; they are quick and
superficial, happening mainly in souvenir shops, fast-food restaurants and during
14 F. Sørensen et al.

animal feedings. Conversely, usage encounters are crucial for visitors’ place
experiences. The set-up of the physical place layer means that users can combine
and connect different physical elements in individual ways. However, little
knowledge existed in the company about how visitors created their safari park place
experiences and for what underlying reasons.
The GPS data (Sørensen and Sundbo 2014) mentioned above showed that, while
some visitors visit all or most of the park, others visit only a selection of the
attractions and that visitors generally spend the most time in areas where they can
be out of their vehicles and where different amenities are found (especially at the
playground area). Less time is spent inside cars at the main attractions of the park:
areas with freely roaming dangerous animals.
The interviews provided several explanations for these patterns. Most impor-
tantly, visitors seek and value composite experiences which include fun and
excitement but also relaxation and tranquillity; children’s experiences are of crucial
value for the parents’ experience; and participatory experiences are highly valued.
The interviews indicated that the visitors’ fundamental desire is not to see animals
but to be with and enjoy a nice day with their family, which is achieved by making
sure that the children have a pleasurable experience. This explains why most time is
spent out of vehicles in areas with pet animals, amenities and, not least, in the
playground area.
The findings were partly surprising for the company and showed how visitors
created place experiences other than those imagined by the company. Though the
physical layer of the place is given and controlled by the company, both the
activities and the meanings and values layers are co-created. However, this
co-creation had not yet been fully acknowledged by the company. The activities of
the visitors focused on, and resulted in, place experiences different from the ‘driving
among dangerous animals experience’ that the company mainly aimed to stage.
Furthermore, visitors’ perception of the meanings and values layer is that the park is
primarily a place to have a pleasant and active time with your family. This is
somewhat different from the company’s own image of the place. Thus, in the minds
of the visitors, the value in use of the place is different from what the company had
in mind.
The knowledge about the value in use of their visitors and of how they co-create
their place experience has led the company to focus more on the development of
‘out-of-car’ and interactive experiences. This first resulted in an expansion of the
playground area. The expansion includes traditional playground elements, but also
a water playground and a large flume ride have been built. In this way, the company
aims to support the co-creation of the place experience desired by visitors and their
desired value in use. Thus, the new knowledge of the activities layer and the
company’s new perception of the meanings and values layer (which is now better
aligned with the visitors’ perceptions) have induced a development of the physical
layer that brings all layers in better harmony and facilitates co-creation of the place
experiences desired by visitors. The process has resulted in another internal per-
ception or brand of the company. As the manager stated, ‘I love my tigers but the
guests want something else’. The value proposition of the company has changed
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 15

and a new business model is emerging which focuses on a more active and fun
place experience rather than a traditional, more passive ‘drive through safari park
experience’.

5 Conclusion

This chapter has argued that because tourist experiences are experiences of place,
co-creation of place experiences is crucial for value creation in tourism. Tourist
places have been conceptualised to consist of three interdependent layers: a
physical layer, an activities layer, and a meanings and values layer. Depending on
the influence of companies and tourists, tourism place experiences can be staged by
tourism companies, co-created or self-directed by tourists. By considering the role
of place in co-creation of tourism experiences, new insights about such co-creation
can be developed. This has been illustrated in the comparative case study presented.
In all three cases of the study, place experience co-creation is seen to result in
new place experiences. However, the cases also indicate how different strategies
may be applied to facilitate such co-creation and how this may lead to varying
results, as follows:
First, the three cases illustrate different strategies that can lead to place experi-
ence co-creation. In Case A, the strategy was to let loose and flexible encounter
routines, combined with observations of visitors’ use of the place, guide the
development of the place. In Case B, the strategy was to involve front-line
employees in a bottom-up idea-generating process on how to involve users in the
employees’ activities and spaces in the zoo. In Case C, the strategy was to collect
data about visitors’ activities, perceptions of the place and experiential value in use,
and then sustain these by developing new attractions in the park.
Second, these different strategies led to varying results. In Case A, the process
resulted, for example, in the identification of a place experience (characterised by
values such as tranquillity, immersion and safety) that the managers themselves had
not envisioned. The management then sustained this place experience by adjusting
the physical and activities layers accordingly. In Case B, the process resulted in the
conversion of a place that was earlier divided between visitors and employees. This
conversion included all place layers (physical, activities, and meanings and values),
resulting in new place experiences in which visitors were no longer passive spec-
tators but active participants in the zoo. In Case C, the results included a new
development trajectory of the physical layer from drive-through animal enclosures
to more ‘out-of-car’ attractions. This sustained the place experiences valued by the
visitors which were not aligned with the management’s value perceptions.
Third, in all cases, the processes resulted in managers (as well as employees,
especially in Case B) forming new perceptions of the meanings and values layer of
the place. Thus, these cases show how place experience co-creation processes can
lead to a more profound type of co-creation that results not only in new tourist place
experiences, but also in new company strategies, internal brands and even new
16 F. Sørensen et al.

business models. Thus, it may lead to a kind of deep co-creation which affects
companies’ organisational self-understanding and their internal brands.
The findings suggest that companies can beneficially loosen control of the dif-
ferent place layers by, for example, incorporating less strict service management
concepts and avoiding the development of brands which are too strong and
all-embracing, as well as concepts that are staged and controlled through strict
scripts and procedures. By observing how tourists create their place experiences
under such conditions, companies can gain new understanding of the potential of
places and develop them accordingly.
It is not a new insight that tourism companies should be alert to their guests’
well-being. For any tourism company aiming at a certain level of quality, such
alertness is a basic prerequisite. However, the place co-creation perspective sug-
gests that a higher level of awareness of users’ desired value in use should be
combined with, and achieved through, co-creation processes. Such processes
should aim at assisting users in deriving value in use of flexibly co-created places,
rather than aiming at delivering pre-defined value in controlled and inflexible
places. Companies may therefore strategically focus on place experience
co-creation, which may take co-creation to a new level, as the cases illustrate. The
fundamental driver is the guests’ search for place experiences that fulfil their
desired value in use, and the companies’ quest to observe such needs, desires and
values, and then to support users in fulfilling them. Additionally, as an analytical
tool, the place experience co-creation perspective provides new understanding of
the potential role of tourists and companies in tourism co-creation processes.
It is not the aim here to suggest that generalisation (in a positivist sense) can be
made from the case study. However, other companies may learn from the findings,
as in the concept of transferability (Morgan 2007) or analytical generalisation (Yin
2003). However, the findings may not be equally relevant for all tourism compa-
nies. Large hotel chains who benefit from strong brands, and thus mainly from
standardised service encounters and chain-wide similarity of hotels, may find place
co-creation less relevant than smaller and/or independent hotels. To this may be
added the potential limitations and negative consequences of place experience
co-creation processes, which may arise when different segments seek different place
experiences in the same places. This can result in different place experiences being
co-created simultaneously and conflicting each other. Examples could include
accommodation of families (with often highly active children) and tourists seeking
relaxation and tranquillity in the same hotels, or ‘serious culture tourists’ visiting
big city centres which are today often turned into mass tourist destinations in which
local culture is suppressed by the co-creation of places by other tourist segments
and local tourist entrepreneurs. The solution in such cases may be found in
understanding how co-creation can lead to co-habitation of potentially conflicting
segments. Nevertheless, the findings of this chapter suggest a potential for place
co-creation, but future studies should be carried out to further investigate this
potential for different sectors and types of tourism companies.
Tourism Place Experience Co-creation 17

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Understanding the Behaviors
of Japanese Tourists on Guided Tours

Vedat Acar and Abdullah Tanrisevdi

Abstract This chapter aims at investigating the behaviors of Japanese on guided

tours in Turkey. In accordance with this purpose, firstly, researchers attempted to
observe Japanese cruise passengers’ behaviors on three daily guided tours con-
ducted at different occasions in Kusadasi. Then, three tour guides, not only having
at least five-year experience with Japanese groups with regards to administrating
and operating excursions but also having sales experience in the field of shopping
centers serving to Japanese tourists, were invited to a focus group, and asked them
to evaluate typical behaviors of Japanese tourists during guided tours.
Consequently, it is revealed that Japanese have a tendency to take much more
pictures, to abstain from other nationalities during guided tours, to bargain a bit
while shopping in Turkey, although they are unaccustomed to bargain in their
country. It is also found that they have influence on each other while shopping, that
punctuality is utmost importance and that they keep complains until they return
home.

1 Introduction

International tourism traffic is steadily increasing and changing, and points to the
importance of understanding cultural differences within the tourism experience.
Understanding the typical cultural reasons makes possible more efficient efforts for
tourism and hospitality. Yet, researchers seem to rely on quantitative designs and
developing scales for understanding behaviors, and that seems logical, since tour-
ism experience is multi-faceted with hybrid dimensions. Although there is con-
siderable literature on tourist behavior, the majority of scholars have attempted to
focus on segmentation (Andersen et al. 2000; Kim and Agrusa 2008; Lang et al.
1994; March 2000; Sırakaya et al. 2003) and motivation (Cha et al. 1995; Kamata
and Misui 2015; Kim and Lee 2000; Nishio et al. 2016) of Japanese tourist market.

V. Acar (&)
A. Tanrisevdi

Faculty of Tourism, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey
e-mail: acrvedat@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 19

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
20 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Of course, these results are helpful for industry professionals in setting goals and
developing marketing strategies, qualitative designs still remain to be administered.
Hence, this study is exploratory in nature. We attempt to answer questions such as
‘how’ and ‘why’ with respect to the culturally differentiated tourism experience
process.
Furthermore, in today’s competitive tourism marketplace, Turkey has to com-
pete with many other destinations. This is true especially for the Japanese tourists,
with their outbound traffic increasing globally (JNTO 2017). The growth rate of
Japanese arrivals to Turkey has been increasing since 1990, and the percentage
visiting this country reaches its high point in the year 2012 (TUIK 2017). But 2015
numbers show a 57% decline. There are various important factors involving Turkey
being exposed to many security and safety risks, and political turmoil. Thus, it is
worth noting that more attention needs to be given to international markets, such as
Japan, so culturally different from Western markets.
The aim of this chapter is two-fold. First, we attempt to seek key characteristics
of Japanese’ behaviors on guided tours to provide hospitality scholars with direc-
tions in identifying key variables. Second, this research makes a contribution in the
field of tourism and hospitality so that industry practitioners can make proper
decisions and predictions about future tourist behaviors, when determining target
markets and serving Japanese tourists.

2 Literature Review

Understanding typical patterns or characteristics of tourist behavior is of important

in developing existing knowledge. As such, tourism and hospitality scholars are
conducting research of various aspects of tourist behaviors, so that the results may
be useful for implementing marketing strategies. Indeed, understanding the cultural
reasons that tourists react as they do, makes possible more efficient efforts for
tourism and hospitality. In this section, typical characteristics of Japanese tourist
behavior is discussed through ten behavioral patterns (e.g. shopping, customs,
bargaining, planning the travel, tipping, interaction with local culture) in the light of
previous studies.

2.1 Shopping Behavior

There are number of studies pointing out that Japanese tourists have higher
propensity to shop (Jang et al. 2004; Kim et al. 2011; Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and
Reichel 1996; Pizam and Sussmann 1995; Rosenbaum and Spears 2006).
Nishiyama (1996) states Japanese government systematically promotes the
Japanese taking overseas trips. Japanese are unique in devoting their leisure time to
shopping. For instance, about 80% of Japanese visiting Hawaii spend more than 5 h
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 21

for shopping; 30% of their purchases are for themselves and 60% are for their
families, friends, and co-workers (Kim et al. 2011 citing Keown 1989).
Another study reveals that, Japanese spend about $900 on gifts for themselves
apart from the amount they spend buying gifts for others. Souvenirs, chinaware,
food, flower seed or bulbs, diamonds and jewelry are ranked among the shopping
items for Japanese visiting the Netherlands (Jansen-Verbeke 1994: 442). The author
draws attention to the clear differences by gender, age, and travel patterns, in the
types of products purchased. For example, older men have a higher propensity for
purchasing diamonds and jewelry, whereas women spend more on souvenirs, and
younger Japanese spend more on food products. Additionally, the longer the stay,
the higher the tendency to purchase, so Japanese focus on buying souvenirs during
short stays, while they buy such items as, bulbs, diamonds during longer visits.
In a study by Kim et al. (2011) on Japanese visiting Korea, it is observed that
shopping expenditures comprise thirty-six and two-tenths percent of their total trip
expenditures. Jang et al. (2004) notice that most of the expenditures by Japanese
pleasure travelers to the United States are for lodging, followed by gifts and
souvenirs.

2.2 Omiyage & Senbetsu (Gift Giving Customs of Japanese)

Japanese are likely to give particular importance to shopping. They have a high
propensity to shop that stems from the tradition of senbetsu-omiyage (Ikkai 1988;
Nishiyama 1996: 10; Pigliasco 2005; Watkins 2008).
Seventy percent of shopping expenditures of Japanese involve omiyage gift
purchasing for others (Hobson and Christensen 2001 citing Keown 1989: 33).
Senbetsu refers to gifts (cash money), given to a Japanese traveler prior to overseas
travel, to help a tourist, spend a vacation in tranquility and to return safely (Ahmed
and Krohn 1992 in Graburn 1983). In return, a Japanese traveler arrives home with
gifts called omiyage representing the country visited. Senbetsu is given to indi-
viduals traveling overseas, in the form of cash money, such non-monetary things as
cameras, watches, candies, stuffed animals, and travel accessories (Ikkai 1988;
Hobson and Christensen 2001).
There are also unwritten rules determining the amount of money to be spent for
souvenirs. Souvenirs, in exchange for senbetsu, must cost approximately half of
what was received as senbetsu (Ikkai 1988; Spears and Rosenbaum 2012). Similar
to omiyage, some souvenirs are bought as orei for friends or family members who
look after their children, flowers, or homes, during the tourist’s oversea travels
(Rosenbaum and Spears 2006). Moreover, souvenirs can act as a means of
enhancing social communication and as a way of pleasing those people who do not
have an opportunity to go on the vacation (Park 2000).
22 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

2.3 Bargaining

Japanese are less likely to bargain while shopping compared to other nationalities
(Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and Sussmann 1995). But, some studies indicate they
have a tendency to bargain (Özdemir 2014: 49). According to Kozak (2016),
bargaining is a traditional form seen in Africa, the Middle East and in Asian
countries, where economic structures are not fully established.

2.4 Group Oriented Travel Patterns

Japanese desire to travel in groups (March 2000; Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and
Jeong 1996; Pizam and Sussmann 1995). There seem practical and cultural reasons
why Japanese travel in group. Nishiyama (1996: 12) states Japanese become
accustomed to group travels at an early age, and that it is a requirement for students
from kindergarten to high school to take part in annual school excursions, known as
shuugaku ryokoo.
Anshin kan or sense of comfort, that encourages Japanese to take group travels to
overseas countries (Nishiyama 1996: 13) can be regarded as another reason.
Japanese are also known as social and gregarious people who care about collec-
tivism and do not wish to be left out of collectivist activities (Ahmed and Krohn
1992). Japanese, thus, feel comfortable being together with others and even new-
lyweds prefer organized package tours that include several dozen couples on their
honeymoons.
Dace (1995) points out that typically older generations are likely more
conservative/traditional and prefer participating in group activities. According to
Yeung et al. (2016), Japanese in their twenties visiting Hong Kong, had higher
propensity to travel in groups and join package tours as compared with other age
groups. But, Kim and Agrusa (2008) note that sport tourists have tendencies to visit
new destinations, rather than routine itineraries and mostly opt for individual tours
rather than group tours.
Shopping is more enjoyable and satisfying when accompanied with family and
friends, rather than alone (Kim et al. 2011). From a cultural point of view, it is
possible to define Japanese as a collectivist society, where high uncertainty
avoidance dimension is dominant (Hofstede 2001: 249, 252, 263). Societies where
uncertainty avoidance dimension is high are likely more inclined to purchase
prepackaged tours and travel in larger groups (Money and Crotts 2003).
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 23

2.5 Polite Inexplicitness

Japanese have a behavior trait of polite inexplicitness, and they rarely show dis-
satisfactions (Ziff-Levine 1990). They keep all the complaints secret, until they
return home (Ahmed and Krohn 1992). Ziff-Levine (1990) remarks that Japanese
will respond indirectly to questions addressed to them, because they do not want to
humiliate, offend, or disturb the harmony of the group. Moreover, it is hard to ask
Japanese to indicate their satisfaction levels, because this is uncommon in Eastern
cultures, especially in the Japanese culture, where complaints or criticisms are kept
secret for the purpose of not causing conflict or losing face (Reisinger and Turner
2000).

2.6 Planning the Travel

There is a rule to prepare the trip carefully prior to overseas travel. This involves
acquiring all the information available, even a shopping guide. Compiling a
shopping list prior to departure is customary for Japanese (Iverson 1997).

2.7 Photography

There are number of studies emphasizing that Japanese and Korean tourists are the
nationalities taking the highest number of pictures, compared with other national-
ities (Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and Jeong 1996; Pizam and Sussmann 1995). Kinen
shashin meaning to take photographs of oneself in front of well-known tourist sites
is of important role in Japanese culture (Hobson and Christensen 2001; Watkins
2008). It consists of two forms. One form is arranging for official photographs to
take formal group portraits of larger tourist groups, or second form is handing one’s
own camera to someone else, such as another tourist, a merchant, or a taxi driver,
etc. to take similar photographs of smaller groups, couples or individuals (Ahmed
and Krohn 1992).

2.8 Tipping Behavior

Li (2011) points out that most Japanese people do their best to give service without
expecting any tip and will be displeased with the tip offered. As such, Mariani
(2008) emphasizes travelers visiting Japan, where tipping is perceived unfavorable.
Wright (2017) states that tipping is not acceptable in any service premises in Japan.
24 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Tipping, thus, is considered an insulting behavior by Japanese, who believe that the
price paid should cover all the service.

2.9 Interactions with Local Culture

A research conducted by the Japanese government in 1987 reveals that overseas

Japanese wish to travel to see aesthetic landscapes and historical sites, rather than to
understand local cultures (Andersen et al. 2000 citing Nozawa 1992). But, inter-
action with local communities could be associated with the purpose of traveling.
Kim and Agrusa (2008) found that honeymooners visiting Hawaii show a tendency
to avoid meeting with Hawaiians and experiencing aboriginal Hawaiian culture.
Furthermore, Japanese are categorized into three groups: careerist, collectors, and
mainstreamers. It is revealed that both careerists and collectors exhibit strong
motivations for learning new cultures and meeting local people (Andersen et al.
2000).

2.10 Local Food and Beverage Experience

Japanese are adventurous people in terms of local food and beverage preferences
(Pizam and Jeong 1996). Yeung et al. (2016) reveal that Japanese visiting Hong
Kong three times or more have the highest mean scores in terms of purchasing local
food and beverage. However, Kim and Agrusa (2008) find honeymooners prefer to
eat Japanese cuisine during their Hawaii visit. As such, hotels offer Japanese
breakfast (e.g. steamed rice, miso soup), and they also add to the menu various
traditional food (e.g. tofu, boiled vegetables, tsukudani or fruit), with items often
written in Japanese (Yamaguchi et al. 2000).

3 Methodology

This study is designed to be exploratory. The approach taken is first to review

secondary data on Japanese tourists. The most useful insight for this research seems
to be the study by Pizam and Sussmann (1995). Through focus group, they listed
typical tourist behavior patterns, ultimately, emerged twenty items. The scale
applies respectively to tourist guides in different countries (Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam
and Jeong 1996; Pizam 1999; Pizam and Reichel 1996; Pizam and Sussmann 1995;
Özdemir 2014).
Items derived from Pizam and Sussmann (1995)’s study are used in developing
research constructs, so that a group of parameters and questions for participant
observations and a focus group can be administrated. We subsequently integrate
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 25

those items into Japanese overseas visitors in guided tours. In doing so, the authors
receive industry professionals’ (e.g. such as salespeople, tour guides) opinions
about tourist behaviors separately. One of the researchers becomes involved in
excursions, as an observer, to make sure that the parameters are applicable for this
type of tours. These efforts served as pilot test.
It is recognized, after the pilot test, that several variables seem impossible for
observation on guided tours; whereupon, five variables are removed, two variables
are transformed into a single variable, and fourteen variables are added onto the
observation list. After developing fourteen items, we attempt to make sure that all
items are applicable to specific tourist behaviors. Then variables are checked to
prevent ambiguity and confusion by referring to questions from experts.
In this study, first, we observe Japanese tourists’ behaviors on guided tours
through three separate occasions, in different time periods. ‘Participant observation
is accepted almost universally as the central and defining method of research in
cultural anthropology’ (DeWalt and DeWalt 2011). Observations help to imagine
the subject of other tourist behaviors (Bowen 2002).
The purpose of participant observations is to understand the qualitative param-
eters of Japanese behaviors on guided tours so those can be useful for the second
part of research (focus group discussions). Throughout the tours, one of the
researchers acts as an intern, who is along to gain industry experience, and is
introduced as such to the Japanese groups to make sure that group members exhibit
more natural behaviors, and not those of people being observed.
The reason for using this approach is a problem a researcher encounters in one of
the pilot tests. This seems in line with the arguments with respect to deception. We
decide upon the apprentice approach for the sake of practical outcomes and
advancing scientific knowledge (Johnson 1992). In this term, the role of the first
author may be defined as that of ‘observer participant’ (mainly observing) outlined
by Gold (1969) in Bowen (2002), or passive participation, according to another
classification by DeWalt and DeWalt (2011), indicating the researcher does not
interact with people and acts only as an observer.
We obtain official permission to make participant observations from travel
agencies in Kusadasi, operating Japanese overseas tour packages. Kusadasi is
selected because it is one of the most attractive destinations for cruise vacations in
Turkey. Another reason is that travel agencies operating Anatolian tours do not
allow research. Once we obtain permissions, one researcher makes three participant
observations of Japanese groups being administered by nationally licensed Japanese
tour guides. Each program differs, since travel agencies develop tours according to
their business capabilities, and to meet visitors’ expectations, such as excursions
involved in visiting historical places (e.g. Ephesus, Virgin Mary House), and those
involved in shopping.
The Japanese groups visiting Kusadasi by way of Celestyal Cruise Co., are
observed by the first author and consist of nineteen participants. The typical four
days long cruise package includes the Greek Islands and Kusadasi. Out of nineteen,
five are male and fourteen are female. Participants are between the ages of
thirty-five and sixty-five. A total of 14 h is spent with Japanese groups.
26 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Out of five participants in observation 1, on 09-06-2016, duration around four

and one half hours from 07.10 a.m. to 11.37 a.m., two are male, three are female; a
couple are over age sixty-five, a single is around thirty-five years of age, and a
couple is around age forty.
In observation 2, on 10-01-2016, 5 h long (between 06.45 a.m. to 11.33 a.m.),
out of six Japanese excursionists, two are male, four are female, including a young
couple around twenty-five years old, another couple over sixty, an elder woman
over sixty-five, and a woman about thirty years old.
Lastly, in observation 3, on 10-08-2016, about four and one-half hours long,
06.40 a.m.–11.26 a.m., there are eight Japanese visitors (seven female, one male;
all seem over sixty-five).
Content analysis is made throughout the eighteen-page document (6,308 words
in total) recorded in a computer. This information is analyzed based upon the
handwritten notes of the observer. Typical notes, for instance, begin with such as:
‘07.10 a.m.: I am at the port, waiting for the group’… ‘07.11 a.m.: the visitors start
coming to the tour bus from cruise ship’. ‘07.52 a.m.: … At the entrance to the
House of the Virgin Mary, photographs are taken…’ ‘10.17 a.m.: The group enters
a Fashion Show Salon. They are sitting directly opposite the showroom. Group
members sit side by side …. The old man and his wife do not join the shopping.’
‘11.33 a.m.: Group applauds the driver…’.
Once handwritten notes are converted into MS Word documents, we organize
the information into a summary table, and then begin to analyze the content. In
doing so, the research uses various key words such as ‘interaction,’ ‘souvenir,’
‘tipping,’ so that these efforts allow us to create sub-categories (e.g. interaction with
other nationalities, purchasing souvenirs and gifts, tips, buying local products). We
then attempt to merge upper categories with subcategories. The typical upper cat-
egories seem to be consistent with previous research.
Secondly, three tour guides are invited to a focus group. It is undertaken at
Adnan Menderes University, School of Tourism premises, on 12-29-2016, mod-
erated by the first author, and lasts 3 h from 09.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. The most
important advantage of the focus group is the emergence of new and different ideas
and opinions as a result of intra-group interaction and group dynamics (Krueger
1994; Aaker et al. 2004). Method, research purpose, and scope are described in
detail to the participants who introduce themselves before beginning the discussion.
The focus group schedule is constructed so research objectives may be opera-
tionalized and it is conducted using a schedule of questions that are a mixture of
open-ended questions derived from outcomes of three participant observations and
previous research. Then these are pretested once, to ensure that they will be
applicable for the focus group. One of the typical questions was as ‘how would you
evaluate shopping behaviors of Japanese tourist under your guidance?’
The mean age of the tour guides is thirty-eight and all but one is male. They have
at least eight-year experience with Japanese groups (mean experience = 13,5 years).
Two of them are also experienced in doing long haul tours. Besides, all guides have
sales experience in the field of shopping centers (e.g. leather, carpet) which allows
authors to merge opinions with respect to Japanese shopping behaviors. Speeches
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 27

during the focus group are recorded by a student who studies tourist guidance. The
conversations are converted into a single MS Word document (forty-four pages
long; 18,067 words). The data are first described systematically and explicitly. The
association of the emerging themes, their interpretation, and projections for future
research are among the efforts for analyzing content of this document.

4 Results

In this section, we discuss the findings by two studies. Study-I includes the findings
from participant observations, and yields about eighteen-page document. One of the
researchers became involved in three half-day excursions as a participant observer.
Each observation was employed in separate occasions and different time periods.
Study-II comprises a focus group. To do so, three experienced tour guides, whose
expertise on Japanese groups, were invited to discussion. It was administrated by
one of the researcher, and ultimately yielded forty-four-page long document. Thus,
the results were tried to be revealed by comparing the findings of the three par-
ticipant observations with those of a focus group discussion.

4.1 Study I

Japanese participating in all guided tours do not interact with other tourist groups,
both inside and outside of Ephesus, and that there is no one tending to communicate
with any other during the tour. They tend to move in groups, and show interest in
cats and dogs during their visit in the Ephesus.
‘06 September 2016 … 09.00 a.m.: We have passed the Hercules Gate… the
woman (about 35 years) takes a picture of a cat. Then, the old man (over 65 years)
in the group comes closer to the cat and he also takes one as well. After that,
another group member (about 40 years) also approaches and takes a picture of the
same cat. And then, the wife of that man comes and takes a picture of the cat just
like the others…’.
It is also revealed that they influence each other while taking pictures: ‘01
October 2016… 08:31 a.m.: A woman (about 25 years) takes the picture of the
Mercury Relief. Then, the husband of the woman also takes the picture as well by
standing at the same place. After a while, the old couple (over 65 years) come
closer and take a picture just like the others…’.
While shopping in the leather store, there are no other tourist groups. Therefore,
interaction with other tourist groups is not observed in the shop as well as on the
tour. Of all the tourists observed, there is only one participant (old man) buying
souvenirs from the Virgin Mary. However, seven out of nineteen Japanese (four
female, three male) buy leather jackets from the shop. The salesclerks of the shop
say that there will be some discounts. As such, one woman asks for more discounts.
28 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Then, the salesclerks use various selling tactics. For example, when the salesclerks
realize some members of the group will not buy anything, then they try to ease
those out of the shop without being noticed by the other group members.
Except for two couples, there is no one tending to evaluate with each other the
things they bought. All participants act in harmony with the guides, following the
instructions from them and giving utmost importance to timing. The researcher
could not observe the local food and beverage experience since lunch is not
included in the tour program. However, one (the woman wearing red trousers) buys
six boxes of Turkish Delight and seven out of nineteen (six females and one male)
buy pomegranate juice at the lower gate of Ephesus.
None of them make any attempt to take pictures in The Virgin Mary House
where photographing is forbidden. Moreover every one tends to stick to the
schedule. From the beginning to the end of the tours, all of them seem to take care
of hygiene, thus there is no one leaving garbage behind when leaving the tour bus.
It is also observed that they applaud both guides and drivers and that they treat both
guides and salesclerks with respect. They complain about nothing. There are also
tour leaders apart from tourist guides in two of the observed tours. Both of the tour
leaders are observed to leave some tips to guides at the end of the tours. But, there is
no one tipping individually.

4.2 Study II

All participants underlie the fact that there are no other tourist groups in the sales
hall while Japanese are shopping. However, the ‘herd behavior’ of Japanese is so
obvious that they cannot help, but to influence each other while shopping. They do
not tend to have a conversation with each other. At this point, 2nd participant
suggests that Japanese rarely travel individually so even if they travel by them-
selves, they are not prone to socialize with other nationalities in the group. 3rd
participant indicates that the first thing to do before getting the tourists to shop is to
allow them to make their toilet:
…Japanese always make their toilets when they first enter a shop. That is a way to cause
them to enter the shop. Vendors do not want tourists to leave the sales hall for any reason,
because if someone leaves, others may also leave….

By drawing attention to the interaction between Japanese during shopping, all

the participants assert that they will not purchase at all if other Japanese say that, for
instance, a jacket does not fit. So, if someone buys something, others also buy, if
not, others may not as well. Furthermore, by taking attention to the importance of
the first sale, salesclerks should hurry to finish the first sale in cash because this has
significant influence on others whether they purchase or not. Also, speaking
Japanese is likely contribute positively to the shopping experience. Carpet is of top
priority for Japanese and follows leather, jewelry, pottery, turquoise, and cloths
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 29

made from cotton, respectively. Additionally, it is not the tourists, but the guide
determines which products to buy.
Japanese show a tendency to bargain when they have been to Turkey, although
there is no bargaining in their own culture. At this point, the importance of Japanese
guidebooks explaining it is customary to bargain, while shopping in Turkey, needs
to note 3rd participant claims:
… Because the prices are unreasonable, for example, a product to be sold at 10 Turkish
Liras is always asked for 20 Turkish Liras in this country, guide always uses the word of
“definitely bargain”. However, as the 1st participant indicates, there is no bargain in Japan.
Everything is sold at fixed prices. But everybody keeps pace with the conditions of the
countries they visit. That is to say, when a Japanese person, even not knowing how to
bargain, comes Turkey, he asks for discount while shopping…

Japanese take a lot of pictures during a tour; moreover, they tend to purchase
pictures taken by photographers. At this point, 3rd participant states: ‘… I wit-
nessed a Japanese purchasing twenty photographs. A Japanese and twenty
photographs!’
By pointing to the gift giving custom of Japanese, they sometimes give such
things as candies, crackers, origami cranes, and pencils from their country as gifts to
the guides. They are also so delighted to receive an ‘evil eye talisman’ as a gift from
guides.
Japanese may make complaints about everything, even the smallest problems.
Sometimes unimagined complaints are written in comment cards/complaint forms.
On the other hand, Japanese may be criticized for not ‘saying anything right to
one’s face’, with an exception, if there is no ‘bathtub stoppers’ in the bathrooms.
Japanese attach great importance to hygiene and that may be the reason at times
for entering a shop. 3rd participant states that there are no unpleasant odors during a
tour with Japanese, since they take shower every day. In this regard, 2nd participant
expresses the conversation she made with a Japanese as:
… we wash our clothes at night… The socks… If necessary, we use hair dryer to dry our
clothes…

Furthermore, Japanese go to the toilets a lot because of their eating and drinking
habits. They like clean toilets in the leather shops.
There is no rule about the seats in the bus, Japanese will go on sitting in the same
seat where they first sat. Moreover, Japanese groups get to a shop as scheduled, no
exceptions break the rule. In this term, all the participants point out that everything
from the beginning to the end of the tour is well planned, even where to stop for
toilets, so guides adhere to schedules. 3rd participant explains about punctuality:
…It is clear. Japanese are the most punctual people in the world. For instance, we depart the
hotel at half past seven, they wake up at six o’clock, then put baggage in front of the room
at six-forty-five… I sometimes listen… all the doors are opened at six-forty-five. I mean it
may be six-forty, but not six-fifty as you told them six-forty-five. Everyone sets their
baggage in front of the door and gets on the bus at half past seven….
30 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Questions asked by Japanese during tours are so superficial that guides have no
difficulty in answering. These tourists differ from French, German, and Americans,
in terms of this characteristic. Then 3rd participant expresses:
… Japanese do not want more… They ask such simple questions… For instance, there is
snow at the peak of the mountain. I mean this is white… They ask in this manner: Is that
snow at the mountain peak? ….

Japanese are not accustomed to leaving tips in their daily lives and for this
reason, they do not tend to leave tips while traveling. Then 2nd participant suggests
that only tour leaders leave tips and adds:
I asked an old Japanese, seven years ago, why Japanese do not leave any tips. I said that
Americans leave tips but Japanese do not, not even once. He said that Japanese, without
knowing other cultures, will not leave tips so as not to humiliate, but to spare your
blushes…

About local food and beverage experience, 3rd participant indicates that an
optional menu is offered to Japanese tourists and lunches are open buffet in the
Anatolian tour, while 2nd participant states that the Japanese eat whatever meal is
offered to them.

5 Conclusion

Considering the importance of understanding tourist behaviors, this chapter

attempts to reveal Japanese tourists’ behavior on guided tours through three par-
ticipant observations and a focus group discussion. With respect to salient behav-
ioral patterns and cultural factors, the findings show consistency with previous
research, indicating Japanese’ tendency to take more pictures during vacations in
comparison to other nationalities (Ahmed and Krohn 1992; Hobson and
Christensen 2001; Mok and Lam 2000; Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and Jeong 1996;
Pizam and Sussmann 1995; Özdemir 2014; Watkins 2008).
The findings confirm ‘collectivist’ characteristics of Japanese (Ahmed and
Krohn 1992; Dace 1995; Hofstede 2001; Jansen-Verbeke 1994; Kim et al. 2011;
Nishiyama 1996; March 2000; Pizam et al. 1997; Pizam and Jeong 1996; Pizam
and Sussmann 1995; Rosenbaum and Spears 2005). Additionally, all the focus
group participants point to the fact of ‘the custom of gift giving by Japanese’, which
shows consistency with previous studies (Ahmed and Khron 1992; Hobson and
Christensen 2001; Ikkai 1988; Nishiyama 1996; Park 2000; Pigliasco 2005;
Reisinger and Waryszak 1994; Rosenbaum and Spears 2006; Spears and
Rosenbaum 2012; Watkins 2008).
Another important result is about socialization. Japanese do not tend to socialize
with other nationalities during a tour. Research findings support the studies sug-
gesting that Japanese take low values in terms of socialization (Pizam et al. 1997;
Pizam and Sussmann 1995).
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 31

According to Pizam and Jeong (1996), the reason why both Japanese and
Koreans take low values in terms of interaction could be about language barrier.
Yagi (2001) indicates that it is difficult for Japanese to communicate with other
international tourists, unless the Japanese speak other languages. Gilbert and
Terrata (2001) suggest that being free from fear of communicating with foreign
people, speaking English, or any other languages, and avoiding the stress to do
incorrect things or to cause embarrassment may be ranked among the underlying
causes of Japanese package tour preferences. Timothy (2005: 87) suggests ‘limited
fluency in foreign languages’ may be ranked among the nine factors having impact
on Japanese shopping behaviors and satisfaction levels.
Furthermore, Lin (1990) shows finding a similar lifestyle and having almost no
communication problem, among the reasons why first-time Japanese prefer Taiwan
as a tourist destination. On the other hand, Yagi (2001) reveals that Japanese having
proficiency in English are often eager to communicate with tourists from other
countries and have a tendency to confidently express their experiences in their
travelogues. The participants of the focus group discussion state that they some-
times come across some Japanese trying to speak English while shopping, although
salesclerks may emphasize that they could speak Japanese.
Guidebooks are of great importance for Japanese (Nishimura et al. 2007). In this
chapter, Japanese tend to bargain a bit while shopping in the leather shops. This
may be due to Japanese guidebooks, warning travelers for bargaining.
Both the participant observations and the focus group discussion illustrate that
punctuality is of the utmost importance for Japanese. This supports other studies
suggesting that Japanese are precise at that planning (Jansen-Verbeke 1994; Kim
et al. 2011; Moscardo 2004; Pizam and Jeong 1996; Pizam and Sussmann 1995;
Timothy 2005). This may be due to package tours designs, which are planned so
rigidly that everything, from restaurants to toilets are determined prior to the trip
and that there is no flexibility in the program.
Yet, we do not observe any group member complaining about anything. But, it is
interesting to note that Japanese will definitely complain unless there is a ‘bathtub
stopper’ in the bathroom. Except for this specific issue, focus group participants
suggest that Japanese will not say their complaints directly to tour guides, but rather
almost everything becomes an issue of complaint after going back home. This is
also consistent with previous research, indicating Japanese keep their complaints
secret until they return home (Ahmed and Krohn 1992; Reisinger and Turner 2000;
Ziff-Levine 1990).
However, the researchers were not able to observe the local food and beverage
experiences because half-day tours did not include lunches. Nonetheless, we
observe that one female brings six boxes of Turkish delight, six females and one
male buy pomegranate juice under the influence of their group leader at the lower
gate of Ephesus. According to the focus group discussion, optional menu or open
buffet is offered to Japanese during the tours. In this respect, the research differs
from the study of Kim and Agrusa (2008), suggesting that Japanese prefer to eat
Japanese food even where they visit.
32 V. Acar and A. Tanrisevdi

Finally, both the participant observations and focus group discussion reveal that
Japanese place great emphasis on hygiene. There is no unpleasant odor during the
observation of tours. This finding is also supported by the opinions of the partic-
ipants of the focus group.
In general, this chapter contributes to an understanding of how Japanese tourists
behave on guided tours. But, it is not possible to detect some behavioral charac-
teristics through participant observations. In this respect, we suggest six hypotheses
based on the results of this study for future research:
H1 Demographics (e.g. age, gender, employment status, household) relates to
Japanese tourists’ behavior.
H2 Travel frequency significantly effects Japanese tourists’ behavior.
H3 Japanese tourists’ purchasing behavior would be effected by tour guides who
deliberately direct group for shopping.
H4 There is a relationship between polite inexplicitness and Japanese’ not
complaining during the guided tours.
H5 There is a significant relationship between Japanese’ bargaining behavior and
information sources (e.g. guide books) they utilized prior to participating to
package tour.
H6 Pattern of high uncertainty avoidance with regard to Japanese tourist
behaviors relates to package tour content.
The results imply several insights about future research and hospitality industry.
First, observing Japanese tourists from the beginning to the end of the package tours
in which they participate may reveal useful results. Second, it would be useful to
test our proposed hypotheses with a quantitative research design.
On the other hand, it has been found that there is great gap between the prices
offered at the first attempt and second or more attempts after bargaining. Another
problem is about sales pressures towards visitors. Hence it is necessary to take
measures and implement training programs for salespeople, to eliminate these
imbalances and inconsistencies with vendors.
In addition to these insights, the research has several limitations. It is crucial to
state that the number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey is decreasing drastically
because of security concerns resulting from the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. In
turn, Anatolian tours almost come to an end during the summer period.
The researchers are unable to participate in full package tours, only in half-day
Ephesus tours, in which cruise passengers participate in September and October.
Furthermore, the leading travel agent, providing services to far-east overseas
markets, refuses to allow the researchers to join their tours and observe the Japanese
tourists. Then, the researchers make contact with another travel agent organizing
daily tours to cruise passengers in Kusadasi and obtain permission to join their daily
tours, as participant observers.
It is observed that only leather shops are visited during the three tours. The
results may be different if such shops as duty-free, jewelry, pottery, etc., are visited
along with leather shops.
Understanding the Behaviors of Japanese … 33

By using participant observation, nineteen Japanese tourists in total are observed

on different dates. When most of the Japanese cruise passengers prefer, for security
purposes, to stay on board instead of taking half-day tours to Ephesus, (e.g. about
5–10 out of 100 Japanese tourists) is taken into account, the number of tourists
under observation seems reasonable. Although the researchers contact all the
Japanese tourist guides in Kusadasi, only three out of twelve guides are able to
attend the focus group discussion. In addition, the participant observer does not
know the Japanese language, so a language barrier may also be ranked among the
limitations.

Acknowledgements This research has been derived from the ongoing doctoral dissertation
entitled “Investigating international tourist behaviors: A research on tourists taking part in guided
tours in Turkey”, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin,
Turkey.

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Visitors Experiences, Expectations
and Satisfaction in Trade Shows
and Exhibitions

Zauyani Zainal Mohamed Alias and Nor’Ain Othman

Abstract A trade show and exhibition is an important promotion tool for com-
munication which includes information exchange. Participating in international
trade shows and exhibitions is an approach that facilitates global expansion.
Achieving better trade show and exhibition performance should be a vital issue for
participating companies because they dedicate budgets and time for the participa-
tion. The purpose of this chapter is to examine visitor experiences across different
stands and other event areas at the trade show and exhibition; to identify visitor
expectations with the different exhibitors and with other visitors; to identify visitor
satisfaction through their evaluations of different experiences at the trade show and
exhibition; and to propose a new perspective to see business visitor behavior from
an experiential standpoint. Ethnographic methods are adopted based on extensive
study and an immersion in a selected trade show and exhibition in Malaysia. This
chapter provides an initial understanding of the nature of the experiences provided
at trade shows and exhibitions. In reporting corresponding visitor responses, this
chapter will also contribute to research on trade show and exhibition performance.

1 Introduction

Customer experience has become a very commonly used phrase in recent years, but
like “innovation” and “design” it is actually difficult to find a clear, commonly held
definition, even though many businesses see improving their customer experience
as a competitive differentiator. Customer experience is the practice of designing and
reacting to customer interactions for the purpose of meeting or exceeding customer
expectations, thereby, increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. In

Z. Z. M. Alias (&)
N. Othman

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Malaysia
e-mail: zzml_1909@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 37

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
38 Z. Z. M. Alias and N. Othman

consumer goods markets, many companies have recently adopted marketing

practices centered on a more holistic view of consumers and their relationships with
brands based on an emotional rather than a rational approach to consumption and
marketing stimuli. This new approach, which puts consumer experiences at the
centre of marketing practices, gained momentum at the end of the 1990s thanks to
the publication of some best selling management books. Specifically, the per-
spective considers experiences as a new category of supply as different from ser-
vices as services are different from goods (Gilmore and Pine 2002; Pine and
Gilmore 1998, 1999).
Creating an experience that truly impresses customers and exceeds expectations
ensures that they will want to continue doing business with you. Proponents suggest
that by creating memorable and complex customer experiences comprising different
but interrelated elements (e.g. cognitive as well as emotional, behavioral as well as
relational), marketers can obtain a competitive advantage over rival firms (Prahalad
and Ramaswamy 2004; Schmitt 1999). Moreover, monitoring and managing these
experiences may increase customer satisfaction considerably (Berry et al. 2002).
From the ivory towers of academic debate, this experience centric view of
consumption started to influence managerial practice when a few best selling
management books popularized the implications of such research on effective
marketing. Pine and Gilmore (1998, 1999) and Gilmore and Pine (2002) suggested
that experiences are a new supply category, as distinct from services as services are
distinct from material goods. Schmitt’s (1999) synthesis of basic findings in con-
sumer research provided marketers with a “how to” handbook on creating expe-
riences. By deploying “experience providers” such as product design and
packaging, store atmosphere, human resources’ behaviour, advertising, etc., firms
can create a competitive advantage in terms of product differentiation, brand image,
customer satisfaction and loyalty (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004; Schmitt 1999).
The purpose of this chapter is to examine visitor experiences across different
stands and other event areas at trade shows and exhibitions; to identify visitor
expectations with the different exhibitors and with other visitors; to identify visitor
satisfaction through their evaluations of different experiences at Malaysian trade
shows and exhibitions. Finally this research would also like to propose a new
perspective to see business visitor behavior from an experiential standpoint.

2 Literature Review

The meeting, incentives, convention, and exhibition business (MICE) generally

comprises small to medium sized organizations, and is not as formally integrated as
many other industries. The sector does, however, maintain a high degree of con-
tinuity and consistency in what is a complex and diverse area of business activity
through ongoing exchanges among industry organizations and via regular forums.
Tradeshows, along with other large group sessions, are part of the meetings,
Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction … 39

incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) sector and constitute a major

global economic activity.
Trade shows, trade fairs or trade exhibitions may vary in their names, but the
basic function of all these events is the same. A trade show is an event that brings
the manufacturers of products, suppliers, distributors, potential customers, and all
those related service providers who manage to set up the exhibition of their
products under one roof, in a given period of time and at a specific location or
venue. While according to Oxford dictionary, an exhibition is an event where a
public display of works of art or items of interest, held in an art gallery or museum
or at a trade fair.
Wikipedia (2013) defines a trade show as: “An exhibition organized so that
companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products
and services, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and
opportunities.” The event has two features: a defined time frame and is held peri-
odically. A trade shows aims to match interests among the organizers, exhibitors,
and visitors and, thus, Kotler (2000) classified trade shows as constituting a means
of sales promotion. Governments, chambers of commerce, industry associations, or
specialized exhibition companies usually organize trade shows. They can be clas-
sified into the following types according to their characteristics (Wen and Duan
2008).
• By origin of participants: international, national, regional, and local trade shows.
They range is from large to small areas according to origin of exhibitors and
visitors.
• By range of goods offered: including universal/general, special interest, and
industry-specific trade shows (Gopalakrishna and Williams 1992).
• By audience: including business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer
(B2C) shows. Consumer fairs are open to the public, while company repre-
sentatives and the press can only attend others; thus, trade shows can be clas-
sified as “public” or “trade only”.
From visibility to credibility, exhibiting at a trade show has hundreds of benefits
for your business. Establishing a presence, whether big or small, for your company
at a trade show gives you a powerful platform for meeting new customers, reaching
out to your existing client, and building a more established and reliable brand.
Trade shows and exhibitions have increasingly been considered as effective product
promotional events. Trade shows have also constituted a multi-billion dollar
business all over the world (Dekimpe et al. 1997).
The significance and importance of trade shows and exhibitions have been
increasingly researched and well documented in international marketing literature.
Trade shows are recognized as effective marketing tools that boost the firm’s ability
to compete and succeed in the rapidly changing global business environment
40 Z. Z. M. Alias and N. Othman

(Seringhaus and Rosson 1998). The usefulness of trade shows is a unique medium
for new product introduction, meeting with large numbers of potential customers,
suppliers and distributors etc. Trade shows are also considered as a cultural phe-
nomenon enabling them to understanding different cultures from all over the world
under one roof (Li and Ling-Yee 2008).
Tradeshows are an essential instrument in the marketing of goods and services
since they provide vendors a very focused platform for communication and
exchange with customers of different kinds (Kirchgeorg 2005). Thus, the fair and
tradeshow business itself today has become an international multi-billion dollar
industry (Hansen 2004), in which trade fair organizers earn the biggest share of
sales with exhibitors, who are paying fees for exhibition services. As other services,
tradeshows come along with intangible elements and a high degree of customer
integration as co-producer of perceived service quality at the point of service
(Parasuraman et al. 1988). Thus, vendors strive for achieving a high level of cus-
tomer satisfaction in order to foster desired customer attitude and behavior like e.g.
intention to buy, positive word of mouth and purchase or repurchase behavior
(Keaveney 1995). Measurement and evaluation of customer satisfaction, specifi-
cally exhibitors’ and visitors’ satisfaction therefore are key success factors for every
trade fair and public fair organizer.
Literature on trade shows has also not so far adopted an experiential perspective,
even if trade shows are one of the few cases of business-to-business experiential
marketing cited in the most popular books on experiential marketing (Pine and
Gilmore 1999). Trade show participation represents a significant share of the
promotional budget of firms operating in business markets (Shipley and Wong
1993; CERMES 2007) and, not surprisingly, scholars have long tried to provide
industrial marketers with guidance on cost-effectiveness issues. Over the years,
existing trade show scholarship has provided a body of knowledge that can assist
industrial marketing managers in three key decisions (Hansen 1996; Munuera and
Ruiz 1999):
1. How to select the “right” trade shows among the many competing events present
in the market (e.g. Bonoma 1983; Gopalakrishna and Williams 1992; Kijewski
et al. 1993; Shoham 1992);
2. How to manage trade show participation effectively (e.g. Godar and O’Connor
2001); and
3. How to measure trade show performance and returns on investments (e.g.
Gopalakrishna and Lilien 1995; Gopalakrishna et al. 1995; Hansen 2004; Sashi
and Perretty 1992; Sharlang and Balogh 1996; Seringhaus and Rosson 1998;
Tanner 2002; Williams et al. 1993).
Literature discussing trade show visitors has, on the other hand, been much more
limited. This scholarship (e.g. Bello 1992; Bello and Lohtia 1993; Moriarty and
Spekman 1984; Rosson and Seringhaus 1995) has shed light on trade show audi-
ence composition and visitor motives for attending these events. However, most of
Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction … 41

these studies adopt a view of visitors as the audience of exhibitors’ communicative

efforts. In other words, industrial buyers are conceived as cognitive agents who
process individual exhibitor marketing stimuli as information. In this chapter, we
propose that the adoption of an experiential standpoint may contribute to a more
holistic understanding of industrial buyer behaviour and the identification of more
effective trade show participation solutions for industrial marketers.

3 Theoretical Framework

Research can be carried out in a number of ways; however, all research follows a
similar framework that contains a sequence of activities that are highly interrelated
and which together form the research process. Not all research processes follow a
stringent sequence; however, a common pattern does exist: firstly, the problem is
discussed and located within the body of existing knowledge, followed by the
research design, sampling, and data collection. After this, data analysis takes place
and finally, the summary of findings. This process may follow a cyclical order
because iterative steps may be needed to solve certain problems. Also when some
studies reach their conclusion they often create new problems and these, in turn,
provide the foundation for further enquiries (Veal 2006).
Saunders et al. (2007) in line with Veal’s (2006) view suggest that before
carrying out a study, the researcher must decide on an appropriate framework by
observing a number of considerations and decisions, which should include the
following:
• Reappraisal of the objectives of the research project which consequently assist
in choosing a suitable paradigm;
• Decisions about methods and techniques to be utilised in data collection and
critical examination of methods used in previous studies;
• Identification of constraints of the research project which is likely to help in
eliminating less suitable methods and strategies of data collection;
• Decisions about the possibility and viability of adoption of mixed methods in
order to obtain a superior data set;
• Identification of the limitations of the research design and issues relating to
reliability and validity of the design.
The framework above is particularly beneficial as it emphasises the significance
of analyzing and using previous studies conducted within the subject/topic area as
guides. In addition, it accentuates the evaluation of data gathering methods to
ensure reliability and validity. This research basically will focus on two major
paradigms as per below.
42 Z. Z. M. Alias and N. Othman

3.1 Consumer Experience and Experiential Marketing

Traditional approaches to marketing have been sustained by a view of customers as

rational individuals who process advertising and other marketing stimuli as infor-
mation. In more recent times, however, many firms operating in consumer goods
markets have started to adopt marketing strategies based on the premise that cog-
nitive processes are just a part of the picture when speaking of consumers and their
relationships with brands. The first academic proponents of the experiential per-
spective argued that, at least in certain contexts (e.g. hedonic products such as
novels, plays and sports), consumer actions may be motivated by “fantasy, feelings
and fun” and not only rationality (Holbrook and Hirschmann 1982).
Over the years, other contributions have shown that consumers do actively
search for the emotional, sensorial and relational aspects of consumption goods and
activities, as these aspects are intrinsically gratifying and contribute to constructing
individual and collective identity (e.g. Arnould and Thompson 2005; Holt 1995;
Schau and Gilly 2003; Thompson and Hirschman 1995). Other scholars have
identified the different elements that create experiences, including sensorial stimuli
and, most importantly, meaningful social bonds with other consumers. Shared
consumption experiences enable the creation of several typologies of community of
consumers, variously labelled as consumer tribes (Cova and Cova 2002; Cova et al.
2007), subcultures of consumption (Celsi et al. 1993; Schouten and McAlexander
1995), and brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001).

3.2 Experiential Marketing in Business Markets and Trade

Shows

Experiential marketing has so far been mostly discussed in the context of consumer
markets. In contrast, the possibility of applying an experiential approach in a
business-to-business marketing setting has received scant attention, with the
exception of a few marginal references (e.g. cases of emotionally charged rather
than features-and-benefits advertising for industrial products in Schmitt 1999;
suggestions for the spectacularisation of business products and services in Pine and
Gilmore 1999). A possible explanation for this lack of attention is that the expe-
riential perspective has to a great extent focused on emotions, feelings and hedonic
dimensions as central determinants of consumption behaviour (Addis and Holbrook
2001). This focus has probably resulted in greater theoretical difficulty in applying
the conceptual lenses of experience to industrial buyer behaviour, where the
received wisdom considers purchasers to be professional and rational actors
(Gilliland and Johnston 1997).
Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction … 43

4 Methodology

This chapter aims to investigate patterns of visitor experiences, expectations and

satisfaction at trade shows and exhibitions. The rationale for the research resides in
the proposition that by monitoring customer experiences, precious indications for
managing such experiences in more effective ways may be gathered (Berry et al.
2002). To make sense of the complex experiences lived by industrial buyers at trade
shows and exhibitions, ethnographic methods adopted based on extensive study and
a long “immersion” by researchers in a sample of Malaysian trade shows and
exhibitions. As is common in market-based ethnographies (Arnould and Wallendorf
1994), the research strategy based on both participant observation and elicitation of
information through interviews. In the field of business-to-business marketing,
ethnographic approaches are still unconventional, but scholars have recently
advocated the use of interpretive methods to make sense of industrial markets
(Cova and Salle 2003; Gummesson 2003) and discover new phenomena that more
conventional approaches would fail to recognise.
The context for our investigation consists of five Malaysian trade shows and
exhibition dedicated to different industries (biogas, biotechnology, architecture,
innovation, invention and technology) held in the period of 2016–2018. These
events are among the most important international shows in Malaysia. The purpose
of this chapter is to examine visitor experiences across different stands and other
event areas at the trade shows and exhibitions; to identify visitor expectations with
the different exhibitors and with other visitors; to identify visitor satisfaction
through their evaluations of different experiences at the trade shows and exhibi-
tions; and to propose a new perspective to see business visitor behavior from an
experiential standpoint.
As is common in ethnographic approaches, multiple methods and techniques
were used to collect and analyse data (e.g. Arnould and Wallendorf 1994; Sherry
1995). Participant observation consists 60 researcher-days of field experiences,
which results in field notes and journal reflections. Over 100 formal and informal
interviews were conducted and fully transcribed. Informants included visitors from
different backgrounds and company positions. Typical questions include the reason
for attending the trade show, the use of time during the event, more and less useful/
enjoyable aspects of the visit, sequencing of activities during the show, and selected
background questions. The questionnaires used to identify the visitor expectations,
satisfaction and overall experiences at the trade shows and exhibitions.
44 Z. Z. M. Alias and N. Othman

Conceptual framework adapted from Santos and Boote (2003)

5 Conclusion

In particular, these research focus on trade shows and exhibitions, which are
important promotional instruments for firms operating in industrial markets. The
most important contribution is in the understanding of visitor behaviour, and the
results will extend research on visitors by highlighting that industrial buyers search
for activities at trade shows and exhibition. This research will also be tracking the
industrial buyers, shed light on typical routes that have gone unnoticed in previous
studies.
Furthermore, the chapter will contribute to research on exhibitors, as to provide
an initial understanding of the nature of the experience they provide at trade shows
and exhibitions. In reporting corresponding visitor responses, this chapter will also
contribute to research on trade show and exhibition performance. This chapter will
also respond to the recent call for research on trade show organisers (Munuera and
Ruiz 1999; Rinallo and Golfetto 2006). In a context characterised by a proliferation
of trade shows that actively fight to attract the limited resources of exhibitors and
Visitors Experiences, Expectations and Satisfaction … 45

visitors alike, these organisations need to understand their dual markets more fully
in order to offer better events. Moreover, exhibitor performances are, to a certain
extent, dependent on organiser activities. Even the most carefully managed stands
will yield few returns if organisers fail to attract visitors that correspond to the
exhibitors’ target groups. It is therefore in the best interest of both exhibitors and
organisers that trade show research provides guidance on how to organise trade
shows “better” (Munuera and Ruiz 1999; Rinallo and Golfetto 2006).
Despite its focus on trade shows and exhibitions, this chapter also contributes to
experiential marketing literature. The application of an experiential approach in
business-to-business contexts has received scant attention in industrial marketing
literature. Nevertheless, industrial marketers have been creating promotional
experiences at trade shows for decades without applying the experiential marketing
label to their endeavors.

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[Link].
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia
Towards Behaving Responsibly

Giacomo Del Chiappa and Antónia H. Correia

Abstract Several studies report that an attitude-behaviour gap often exists when
considering the extent to which people behave responsibly when travelling. This
study was carried out to deepen the scientific debate about the main factors shaping
tourists’ inertia that prevent people from minding this attitude-behaviour gap. Data
were collected from 837 Italian travellers, and proposed hypotheses were tested
using a structural equation modelling approach. Findings reveal that three barriers
(existential unwillingness to change, poor availability and variety of choices, lack
of trust in the offer) define tourists’ inertia, which in turn influence self-reported
responsible behaviour (favouring local authenticity, favouring environmentally
friendly providers, favouring environmental practices). Furthermore, results show
that the most important barriers explaining the attitude-behaviour gap are, in
decreasing order of relevance, the lack of trust in this type of offer, the consumers’
unwillingness to change their behaviour, and the poor accessibility of this type of
offer.

1 Introduction

In the last few decades, tourism has experienced rapid and continuous expansion
worldwide (UNWTO 2015). International tourist arrivals rose from 25 million
globally in 1950 to 1,133 million in 2014, with revenue surging from US$2 billion
in 1950 to US$1,245 billion in 2014 (UNWTO 2015). In 2014, nine per cent of the
worldwide GDP was generated by the tourism and travel sector (UNWTO 2015).

G. Del Chiappa (&)

University of Sassari & CRENoS, Sassari, Italy
e-mail: gdelchiappa@[Link]
A. H. Correia
CEFAGE, University of Algarve and Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: ahcorreia@[Link]
A. H. Correia
University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 49

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
50 G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia

Tourism forecasts reveal that international arrivals are expected to increase by 3.3%
yearly between 2010 and 2030 and to reach 1.8 billion by 2030.
Based on these figures, it is evident that tourism is playing a relevant role in the
economy of many countries around the world. Despite this, tourism development
has also been considered responsible for further worsening individuals’ impact on
ecosystems (e.g. global warming), with intentional and unintentional travel beha-
viours generating negative environmental and socio-cultural impacts for hosting
tourism destinations (Lee et al. 2013); for example, McKercher and Prideaux
(2011) reported that the tourism industry was responsible for 14% of all greenhouse
gas emissions.
This explains why, in relatively recent years, environmental, economic and
socio-cultural concerns represent an indisputably important topic for both policy
makers and practitioners. The reasons for this are twofold. On the one hand, there
are heightened concerns about the impact that consumers generate with their buying
and consumption behaviour in society (Ingenbleek et al. 2015; Kumar and
Ghodeswar 2015); on the other hand, businesses are facing increased pressure from
various citizen groups, media, government, consumers and other stakeholders to
incorporate environmental and social responsibilities into their corporate strategies
(Kang and Hur 2012).
The debate around sustainability and responsible consumption is also gaining
attention in the context of tourism, where an increasing number of tourist desti-
nations are currently engaged in an attempt to manage effectively the balance
between the development of tourism activity and the protection and valorization of
its economic, environmental and socio-cultural environment (Kim 2012).
Inglehart (1990) highlighted that, since the mid-1960s, societies have been
shifting from a materialistic-oriented lifestyle, in which people are mainly con-
cerned with issues of physical and financial security, towards a post-materialistic
way of living, in which one becomes mostly focused on self-expression and quality
of life rather than on material security, with the latter being largely taken for
granted. This has also been occurring in tourism, which is nowadays considered a
context that encourages the adoption of more ethically driven behaviour (Miller
et al. 2010), as confirmed by recent international reports revealing a continuous
growth in consumers’ interest in ethical tourism products and services (TripAdvisor
2012). According to Ganglmair-Wooliscroft and Wooliscroft (2016), the new
uptake of this interest and holiday behaviour can be considered a sign of consumer
innovativeness.
Despite this, the process of mobilising actual responsible tourist demand is far
from straightforward. Previous studies report people tending to act less ethically
and responsibly on holiday than in their daily lives (Dolnicar and Grün 2009).
Furthermore, previous research shows that discrepancies between attitudes towards
responsible tourism and actual behaviours can often be observed (e.g. Budeanu
2007; Goodwin and Francis 2003).
That said, researchers concur that a deeper understanding of the reasons for and
obstacles to acting in conformity with a positive attitude towards responsible
consumption is crucial to develop strategies and policies aimed at encouraging
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 51

sustainable consumption practices (Paço and Gouveia Rodrigues 2016, pp. 466–
467). Nevertheless, few studies have explored the main factors shaping the tourist
inertia that prevents people minding the attitude-behaviour gap in the context of
responsible tourism. This study was therefore carried out with a convenience
sample of 837 Italian travellers with the aim of identifying the main impediments
that mostly generate this attitude-behaviour gap. Italy was chosen as the research
site of the study given the importance that the Italian tourism market represents for
many countries worldwide, especially in Europe.

2 Literature Review

Several studies report consumers’ and tourists’ growing interest in ethical and
responsible products, services and experiences. Responsible consumption has
recently been defined as “consumption that has less negative impact or more
positive impact on the environment, society, the self, and the other beings” (Ulusoy
2016, p. 2). Accordingly, Ingenbleek et al. (2015, p. 1431) define buyer social
responsibility as “the consumer’s decision-making process that, in addition to
satisfying individual needs, takes into account the perceived social consequences
related to the consumption, as well as the social group that experiences those
consequences”. Buyer social responsibility potentially plays a relevant role
alongside all the phases of consumer decision making, namely problem recognition,
information search, evaluation of information and purchase evaluation. According
to Ingenbleek et al. (2015), buyer social responsibility implies that a consumer
recognizes the social consequences of their behaviour (problem recognition); that
they gain information about the social issues that the buying behaviour can generate
and about the products that can minimize the impacts of consumption (information
source); that the ethical nature of the product is one of the product attributes the
consumer evaluates while selecting the product to be bought (decision making); and
that the consumer is finally satisfied with the consumption so that they are willing to
re-buy the product/service and/or recommend it to others (post-purchase evalua-
tion). That said, according to the value-belief-norm theory (Stern et al. 1999), it
could be argued that a precondition for responsible consumption is that individuals
believe that certain undesirable actions will generate negative consequences to
others and that they accept responsibility for these negative consequences.
A natural context in which the scientific debate around responsible consumption
has been developed is tourism, as mass tourism is widely recognized as being able
to generate significant negative impact on the environment and society. So far,
ethical tourism and responsible tourism are considered synonymous, both depicting
the demand-side perspective (Del Chiappa et al. 2016; Lee et al. 2013). Based on
existing literature, responsible tourism can be considered as a framework and a set
of practices (Del Chiappa et al. 2016) that maximise the benefits to local
52 G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia

communities, minimise negative social or environmental impact, and help local

people to conserve fragile cultures and habitats or species (CREST 2013).
The fact that tourism can be considered as a context that encourages the adoption
of more ethical-driven behaviour is confirmed by recent academic research (e.g.
Miller et al. 2010) and business reports (e.g. TripAdvisor 2012), both revealing that
tourists are expressing an increasingly positive attitude and intention towards sus-
tainable products and services.
Existing studies report people tending to act less ethically and responsibly on
holiday than in their daily lives (e.g. Dolnicar and Grün 2009). Furthermore, current
research on responsible tourist behaviour shows, consistent with the broader liter-
ature on ethical consumption (e.g. Paço and Gouveia Rodrigues 2016), that several
discrepancies between attitudes/intentions towards responsible tourism and actual
behaviours can be observed (Budeanu 2007; Goodwin and Francis 2003). For
example, Del Chiappa et al. (2016), in their study on a sample of Italian travellers,
showed that the most significant inconsistencies between attitude and actual
behaviour were found in the areas of denouncing improper and damaging beha-
viours to competent authorities, favouring small local businesses and environ-
mentally friendly accommodation, and, finally, asking tour operators for written
codes of conduct to guarantee good working conditions, protection of the envi-
ronment, and support of the local community in the host destination.
The gap between consumers’ positive attitude towards ethical products and their
inconsistent and often conflicting consumption behaviour (known as
“attitude-behaviour” and intention-behaviour” gaps: Bray et al. 2011) is still a
major concern for both practitioners and academicians (Carrington et al. 2016;
Moraes et al. 2012).
Several theories and approaches can contribute to explain the attitude-behaviour
gap in responsible tourism. According to the value-belief norm theory of envi-
ronmentalism (Rokeach 1968), it can be argued that the attitude-behaviour gap in
responsible tourism occurs because people are not aware of the negative conse-
quences of their behaviours and/or they might not feel responsible for the problem,
and thus not able to contribute to its solution (Juvan and Dolnicar 2014). Also,
attribution theory (Heider 1985) can be used to explain the attitude-behaviour gap
in responsible tourism. Based on this theoretical approach, people have two main
ways to explain their behaviour. On the one hand, people can see themselves as the
cause of their behaviour (i.e. internal and personal attribution); on the other hand,
individuals could be convinced that the causes of their behaviour are not related to
themselves (external attribution). Based on this vein of research, travellers could
attribute the causes of their irresponsible actual behaviour to themselves or to
others. Hence, the attitude-behaviour gap occurs when individuals rely on external
attribution; in fact, in this circumstance, they will be convinced that changing their
behaviour cannot make any difference and cannot contribute anyhow to solve a
problem (Juvan and Dolnicar 2014). Re-interpreting this using Rotter’s (1966)
concept of locus of control, the attitude-behaviour gap occurs when individuals
perceive that events in their life are beyond their control.
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 53

Going deeper to analyse the specific reasons that explain why consumers reject
the practice of ethical consumption, current marketing literature has identified the
following factors: price-quality concerns and other trade-offs; lack of information
and/or issues of information overload about ethical products; cynicism and scep-
ticism (i.e. individuals are unconvinced that ethical choices can minimize harm to
humans, environment, flora and fauna) (Burke et al. 2014). Johnstone and Tan
(2015b) highlight that consumers tend not to behave in a green way, arguing that
this is too hard for them (in that it takes time, effort and money); that they are not
ready to behave in a green way because of their income level, environmental and
product knowledge, time and self-discipline; and that others (e.g. people that
consumers live with, marketers and government) do not make green easy for them.
Johnstone and Pan (2015a) also highlight that consumers tend to justify their
behaviour, claiming that their actions cannot cause serious harm to others directly
and/or that their behaviour is needed to serve a higher good. Finally, Warren and
Coghlan (2016) classify the reasons that explain the attitude-behaviour gap in three
main categories: cognitive distortions (e.g. denial, blame shifting of the prioritising
of hedonic goal frames); lack of information to make good choices in line with their
attitude; and a lack of eco-friendly infrastructure at their holiday destination.
Another barrier to responsible consumption is the lack of trust that the consumer
might have in the environmental and socio-cultural performance of sustainable
tourism products and services (Chen 2010).
In tourism-related literature, Gilbert and Hudson (2000) categorized the several
barriers that explain external and internal attitude-behaviour, with external barriers
seeming to have a stronger influence on long-term responsible practices, whereas
internal barriers (e.g. habits and lack of resources) prevail in short-term decisions
(Budeanu 2007). External barriers are mainly related to the availability of financial
resources and the inconvenience of accessing them (Budeanu 2007). On the other
hand, internal barriers arise from individuals’ lack of knowledge or ability to
understand the consequences of their acts and habits (Budeanu 2007). Broadly,
people claim that they have no alternatives to their current behaviours; they are not
willing to renounce relaxation and to stress themselves in adopting responsible
practices; they do not have enough information on where to buy responsible tourist
services; they distrust any type of label certifying responsible tourist products; and
they think responsible tourism products have a lower quality standard and higher
prices when compared to other types of tourism service and experience (Bray et al.
2011; Juvan and Dolnicar 2014; Nicholls and Lee 2006). Furthermore, people refer
to the fact that one person cannot make a difference, and that one can compensate
for one’s irresponsible behaviour when travelling through ethical behaviour in daily
life (Budeanu 2007); moreover, sometimes the problem is that individuals do not
have the knowledge or ability to understand the consequences of their behaviours/
habits (Budeanu 2007).
Juvan and Dolnicar (2014) found several beliefs explaining the attitude-
behaviour gap in the context of sustainable tourism, namely the denial of the
consequences of travelling (either at the individual level or at the level of the
tourism sector); downward comparison (making their behaviours more acceptable
54 G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia

when compared to worse behaviours by themselves or other travellers); denial of

responsibility (due to one’s powerfulness to make a difference); denial of control
(due to external pressure and financial and time limitations); exceptional handling
of vacations in contrast to daily life; and compensation of harm to the economic,
environmental and socio-cultural environment of the hosting destination through
other benefits produced by tourism activity.
All that said, it is evident that a clear and deep understanding of reasons for the
attitude-behaviour gap in responsible tourism is pivotal. In fact, a deeper knowledge
about the nature of these impediments and barriers is pivotal to identify, plan and
implement effective management strategies aimed at further promoting the beha-
vioural change that it is needed to broaden a more responsible-driven philosophy of
travelling (Kim 2012; Marion and Reid 2007).
Despite this, very few studies are currently devoted to providing a full list of
factors that could explain this gap (e.g. Del Chiappa et al. forthcoming; Juvan and
Dolnicar 2014). Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no published paper so
far exists which aims at identifying the underpinning dimensions that could be
drawn from these different reasons and assessing how important each of these
factors is in shaping the tourists’ inertia in adopting responsible behaviour when
travelling. This study was therefore carried out to deepen the scientific debate
around this research area based on an empirical study on a sample of 837 Italian
travellers. Specifically, it relies on the idea that behavioural response is the result of
a process that starts with cognitive knowledge and goes through an evaluation that
determines and shapes the response (Bowlby 1975).

3 Methodology

This study used a structured questionnaire that was designed based on prior studies
(Budeanu 2007; Del Chiappa et al. 2016; Del Chiappa et al. forthcoming; Juvan and
Dolnicar 2004).
The survey was divided into three parts. In the first part, the respondents were
asked to provide some general socio-demographic information; then, having pro-
vided a definition of a responsible tourist, respondents were asked to express their
level of agreement with the item “I define myself as being a responsible tourist”
(nine-point Likert scale: 1 = I completely disagree; 9 = I completely agree). In the
second part, they were provided with a list of 18 items describing different kinds of
impediment and asked to identify the level of influence that each of them exerts in
explaining why they do not actually behave responsibly when travelling. The third
section asked respondents to self-report the extent to which they adopt a list of
different practices commonly used in tourism literature to define responsible tour-
ism behaviour. In accordance with Del Chiappa et al. (2016), in both the second and
third sections, answers were provided on a nine-point Likert scale (1 = no influence
at all; 9 = extreme influence; 1 = not at all; 9 = very much).
The aim of the study is to test the following hypotheses:
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 55

H1: Existential unwillingness to change is manifested in tourists’ inertia.

H2: Poor availability and variety of choices is manifested in tourists’ inertia.
H3: Favouring local authenticity is manifested in self-reported behaviour.
H4: Favouring environmentally friendly providers is manifested in self-reported
behaviour.
H5: Lack of trust in the offer is manifested in tourists’ inertia.
H6: Favouring personal environmental practices is manifested in self-reported
behaviour.
H7: Tourists’ inertia positively influences self-reported behaviour.
H8: Self-reported behaviour positively influences observed behaviour.
Data collection was realized through an online questionnaire, and a snowball
sampling technique was used (Wrenn et al. 2007), thus allowing us to reach a large
number of consumers who reside in different areas of Italy in a cheap, fast and
efficient way. Allowing for a three-week survey period and after a general recall at
the end of this period, a total of 1,152 questionnaires were obtained, of which 837
were properly filled and usable.

4 Results

Respondents were mostly female (66.5%), single (54.5%), belonging to the 26–35
age bracket (45.9%) or 36–45 (21.4%), employed (31.9%), with a university degree
(45.8%) and a monthly income between 1,001 and 3,000 euros (58.9%), and a
member of some association (51.3%).
Following the two-step approach proposed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988),
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using the maximum likelihood
method in order to assess the validity and reliability of the constructs of the original
model. In this context, a preliminary CFA was triggered and the model fit was
assessed through fit indices. As the results of the main adjustment measures did not
prove satisfactory compared to the reference values, some changes in the model
were introduced by observing the modification indices data of the covariance matrix
of the standardized residuals. This operation led to the elimination of some manifest
variables that played a role in several constructs simultaneously. As a result of this
iterative process of adjustment, 16 indicators were retained for inclusion in the final
model. The final measurement model is illustrated in Table 1.
After this process, the adjustment results improved significantly. In terms of
validity and reliability, the final model results show levels that can be considered
good or very good: composite reliability (CR) far exceeds the minimum recom-
mended limits (α ≥ 0.70 and ρ ≥ 0.70). With regard to the average variance
extracted (AVE), the value obtained also clearly exceeds the reference value
(≥0.50) set in the literature (Fornell and Larcker 1981) (Table 2).
56 G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia

Table 1 The measurement model

Items Stand. S.E. C.R. P R2
regression
weights
Practices, self-reported actual behaviour
Being in contact with the <- Aut. 0.794 0.087 13.998 *** 0.631
traditions and culture of the local
community
Being in contact with the real life <- Aut. 0.706 0.498
of the destination
Asking tour operators for written <- Sup. 0.804 0.647
codes of conduct to guarantee
good working conditions,
protection of the environment and
support of the local community in
the destination
Favouring environmentally <- Sup. 0.644 0.082 9.08 *** 0.415
friendly accommodation
Limiting the production of <- Cons. 0.634 0.402
garbage
Limiting the usage of natural <- Cons. 0.784 0.111 11.634 *** 0.614
resources
Using transport that minimizes <- Sup. 0.686 0.094 8.374 *** 0.471
the impact on the environment
Respecting the natural resources <- Cons. 0.736 0.075 11.265 *** 0.541
of the destination
Impediments
I feel stressed by the idea of <- Unwill. 0.803 0.645
adopting responsible practices
when travelling
I think that for the most part <- Unwill. 0.762 0.051 22.309 *** 0.58
people do not travel responsibly;
hence I do not believe that
changing my behaviour can make
a difference
I do have difficulties in making all <- Unwill. 0.833 0.048 24.143 *** 0.694
the changes that are needed to
adopt responsible behaviour when
travelling
The tourism business and DMO <- Access. 0.802 0.643
do not guarantee easy
accessibility to responsible
tourism experiences
The offer of tourism products with <- Access. 0.769 0.063 17.309 *** 0.591
ethic and/or environmental
certification is poor
(continued)
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 57

Table 1 (continued)
Items Stand. S.E. C.R. P R2
regression
weights
The actual availability of <- Access. 0.641 0.051 16.074 *** 0.411
responsible tourism experiences is
poor
I do not have high trust in the <- Trust. 0.937 0.878
offer of responsible tourism
products and experiences
Tourism intermediaries devoted <- Trust. 0.795 0.036 22.639 *** 0.632
to responsible tourism are mostly
small organizations and because
of this I do not trust their
professionalism and offers
Aut. = seeking authenticity; Sup. = seeking responsible tourism providers; Cons. = seeking
personal responsible behaviour; Unwill. = unwillingness to change; Access. = poor accessibility
to offer; Trust. = lack of trust in the offer

According to Hair et al. (2014), the correlation between the variables must be
less than 0.95. Based on this criterion, it can be observed that all variables comply
with the suggested limit. On the other hand, according to Fornell and Larcker
(1981), the AVE can be used to assess discriminant validity. Thus the elements of
the main diagonal (square root of the AVE) for each construct must show values
higher than the correlation coefficients between different constructs (elements of
corresponding rows and columns that were not on the main diagonal) (Barclay et al.
1995).
The total latent variables satisfy this condition, confirming the existence of
discriminant validity and suggesting that the theoretical model fits the data well, and
as such the structural model was performed. The next step was to analyse the
relationship between the constructs of the model using the maximum likelihood
method (ML).
The results of the model’s overall fit indices (χ2 = 304.8, df = 51, χ2/
df = 2.722, p = 0.000, GFI = 0.958, CFI = 0.959, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.045)
are within the reference values based on Hair et al. (2014), confirming the goodness
of fit of the model. These results suggest that the proposed model fits well with the
empirical data and show that all the hypotheses were supported (Fig. 1). Lack of
trustworthiness toward the offer (0.873, p = 0.000), unwillingness to change (0.78,
p = 0.000) and poor accessibility to responsible services (0.297, p = 0.000) shape
tourist inertia to adopt consistent responsible tourist behaviour (H1, H2 and H5 are
supported), which is described by practices that aim at seeking local authenticity
destination (0.783, p = 0.000), at personally adopting practices that preserve the
environment (0.735, p = 0.000), and favouring environmentally friendly providers
(0.599, p = 0.000) (H3, H7, and H6 are supported).
 58

Table 2 Model fit
CR AVE MSV ASV Access. Authe. Supply Cons. Unwill. Trust.
Access. 0.783 0.548 0.086 0.025 0.741
Authentic. 0.721 0.564 0.345 0.121 0.031 0.751
Supply 0.756 0.511 0.205 0.066 −0.012 0.453 0.715
Cons. 0.763 0.519 0.345 0.114 0.088 0.587 0.336 0.721
Unwill. 0.842 0.640 0.465 0.126 0.177 −0.228 −0.034 −0.284 0.800
Trust. 0.860 0.755 0.465 0.118 0.293 −0.035 0.106 −0.159 0.682 0.869
GOF Indexes X2 P X2/df GFI CFI TLI RMSEA
Test sample (n = 280) male 93.634 0.269 1.089 0.961 0.995 0.994 0.018
Validation sample 136.608 0 1.588 0.971 0.982 0.975 0.033
(n = 557) female
Whole sample (n = 837) 304.8 0.000 2.722 0.958 0.959 0.95 0.045
Access. = poor accessibility to responsible products; Authe. = seeking local authenticity; Supply = seeking responsible providers; Cons. = seeking
consumers’ green behaviour; Unwill. = unwillingness to change, Trust. = lack of trust
G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 59

Fig. 1 The tested model

Finally, tourists’ inertia negatively influences self-reported behaviour (-0.143,

p = 0.000), and self-reported behaviour exerts a positive and significant effect on
observed behaviour (0.406, p = .000) (H6 and H8 are supported).

5 Conclusion

From a theoretical point of view, our results provide deeper knowledge about the
factors that mostly affect tourists’ inertia in adopting responsible behaviour.
Specifically, the most important factors that prevent people transforming their
positive attitude towards responsible tourism services and experiences into actual
behaviour are, in decreasing order of relevance, the lack of trust in this type of offer,
the consumers’ unwillingness to change their behaviour (because of the stress they
associate with responsible tourism or because they think that their personal action
cannot make any difference) and the poor accessibility to this type of offer.
The fact that our results provide knowledge about the barriers that require greater
attention than others in encouraging tourists to actually behave in a more respon-
sible when travelling is also particularly relevant from a managerial point of view.
In fact, our findings offer useful information to policy makers, destination managers
and tourism businesses in their attempt to better position products and services in
the tourism market and the types of communication strategy they should run to
support this endeavour. Practitioners should keep in mind that running marketing
and communication operations targeting consumer beliefs will be more successful
60 G. Del Chiappa and A. H. Correia

than targeting consumers’ values; indeed, as suggested in previous research (e.g.

Juvan and Dolnicar 2014), values, being established in early life, are less likely to
change.
Specifically, effective communication operations should aim at positioning in the
consumers’ mind the idea that responsible tourism is not necessarily something
stressful or boring. Furthermore, communications should try to make the consumer
conscious that a single action can improve the sustainability of tourism worldwide.
People should also be provided with information that makes clear the extent of
negative/positive impacts of typical tourism activities and experiences (Juvan and
Dolnicar 2014). In doing so, policy makers, destination marketers and hospitality
managers should bear in mind that low impact behaviour (such as careless actions
and/or responsibility denial violations) and unskilled actions (e.g. entering a
wildlife-sensitive zone) can be considerably altered by effective persuasive infor-
mation and education programmes that underline the consequences of performing a
given behaviour (Kim 2012; Marion and Reid 2007; Roggenbuck 1992). In a
similar way, persuasive information could be effective when the adoption of a
somehow more responsible behaviour is relatively convenient and not costly in
term of time and/or effort (Steg and Vlek 2009); in contrast, as suggested in prior
studies (e.g. Roggenbuck 1992), information could be of limited efficacy in case of
illegal actions.
Given that respondents were reported to evaluate sustainable tourism products as
being of lower quality than traditional ones, tourism businesses should provide
proof that their products and services have the same quality standard as traditional
tourism products and services. Furthermore, they should make efforts to increase
the extent to which tourists perceive the level of professionalism of service
providers.
Prior research has found that past experience with green/responsible products
may determine brand trust and brand equity accordingly (e.g. Konuk et al. 2015).
Hence, increasing the likelihood of consumers buying, re-buying and recom-
mending sustainable tourism products, services and experiences would be an
effective strategy. To achieve this aim, policy makers, destination marketers and
tourism businesses should focus on increasing the satisfaction of travellers, tar-
geting a more responsible way of travelling with the aim of fostering their trust in
more sustainable tourism products, services and experiences.
Although this study helps to fill a gap in the existing knowledge in the literature
and proposes some managerial implications, limitations remain. Firstly, the study
has utilized a convenience sample derived from a web-based survey with a
snowball sampling approach, thus making findings hardly generalizable. Secondly,
the study is site-specific (i.e. a single country was investigated); future research
could replicate this study in other countries with the aim of making a cross-cultural
comparison. Thirdly, the study did not consider the intervening stage between
attitude and behaviour held by intention, and ignored cultural values and ethical
beliefs as moderating factors in responsible tourist behaviour (Lu et al. 2015); these
aspects could be considered if this study is replicated. Finally, future research could
be carried out with the aim of deepening knowledge about the most effective
Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly 61

marketing tools/strategies to use to eliminate the main impediments that prevent

travellers from behaving consistently with their positive attitudes towards the idea
of travelling in a responsible way.

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Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction
with Employees in Istanbul
and Barcelona

Kivanc Inelmen and Burcin Hatipoglu

Abstract This chapter reports results of a comprehensive investigation on the

antecedents of guests’ satisfaction with employees of Istanbul hotels. The first
phase of the study showed that at those hotels where participation mechanisms are
available for greater numbers of employees, there are also higher levels of
employee satisfaction, but trust in organization did not follow the same trend.
Demand for participation seems to decrease trust in organization, because in this
high power-distance setting, employees may find such contribution cumbersome.
Suggestions for human resource managers are provided, to keep the levels of trust
in organization at a level that would not negatively influence other organizationally
important attitudes. In the second phase, Barcelona and Istanbul’s comparability in
terms of hotel guests’ satisfaction with employees was tested with matched sam-
ples. The result suggests that data obtained from online ratings in separate desti-
nations could be useful for preliminary comparisons. Reported findings could be
valuable for both organizational improvement and knowledge development in
service sector organizations.

1 Introduction

As destinations strive to compete with each other to attract visitors and tourists, the
performance of its enterprises, including the hotel industry is of paramount
importance (Tsai et al. 2009; Oses et al. 2016). Researchers have noted that there is
a relationship between the competitiveness of a destination and that of its hospi-
tality industries, which seems to go both ways (e.g. Kozak and Rimmington 1998;
Tsai et al. 2009). Quality accommodation facilities and services are essential for an
attractive destination (Kozak and Rimmington 1998), while the demand conditions
and the increase in the number of visitors to the place also benefit the hotels at the
destination (Go et al. 1994). Istanbul as a city destination has increased its attraction

K. Inelmen (&)
B. Hatipoglu

Department of Tourism Administration, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
e-mail: inelmenk@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 65

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
66 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

tremendously in the past years, going from 4,849,353 foreign visitor arrivals in
2005, up to 12,414,677 in 2015 (Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2016), and thus
deserved attention. In parallel to this almost three fold increase in foreign visitors
over a decade, Istanbul currently holds a bed capacity of 186,302, with another
roughly 47,000 new beds under construction (TÜROB 2016). However, in 2016 the
tide has turned. Turkey has been subject to an international wave of terror and
political crisis that resulted in about 37% decline in foreign tourism demand
compared with the previous years (Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2017). Such
periods of turmoil is the most significant predictor of “travel anxiety” (Reisinger
and Movando 2005), and this situation makes focusing on competitiveness even
more pressing than before. Investigations originating elsewhere have attempted to
analyze performance of hotel industry in relation to a number of factors, such as
productivity (Barros and Alves 2004), competitiveness (Brown and Ragsdale
2002), brand image (Mattila and O’Neill 2003), yet a destination wide analysis,
where employee attitudes’ and human resource management’s (HRM) influence on
hotel guests’ satisfaction are measured separately, is lacking.
The purposes of the study reported in this chapter are twofold. First, the results
of a comprehensive investigation on the antecedents of hotel guest’ satisfaction
with employees of Istanbul hotels are provided. Secondly, to deepen the investi-
gation on human resource factors’ impact on customer satisfaction, it was deemed
necessary to gather and analyze information derived from a benchmark destination.
To this aim, insights obtained from a systematic comparison between Barcelona and
Istanbul on this variable are also reported in the chapter. Earlier, Spain and Turkey
have been compared as destinations from the perspective of visitors (e.g. Kozak
2001), and Barcelona was chosen for this comparison as a city destination.
Barcelona is exemplified as a destination that was able to combine economic
development with a strong emphasis on cultural activities and a highly successful
tourism policy (Alvarez and Yarcan 2010). Moreover, Minghetti and Montaguti
(2010) provided that Barcelona and Istanbul cluster together as they bear similar-
ities in several factors such as competitiveness of accommodation supply, signifi-
cance of core resources and attractions, etc.

2 Literature Review

Importance of hospitality employees’ approaches and involvement during the ser-

vice to guests is widely accepted, as tourism is a people’s industry where human
touch is essential. The qualities of the workforce of a destination in general is
therefore a vital parameter in competitiveness. As aforementioned, to date inves-
tigations of the antecedents of hotel guests’ satisfaction with employees’ job atti-
tudes and work participation in a whole city destination was scant. The variables
explored in this study that was designed to fill the void are presented in the fol-
lowing sections.
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 67

2.1 Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is believed to result in loyalty and positive word-of-mouth

(Tsai et al. 2009). In this sense, hotel guests’ satisfaction and perceptions of service
quality have been seen as essential in increasing the performance and competi-
tiveness of hotels (Akbaba 2006; Mattila and O’Neill 2003). Studies of service
quality as well as guest satisfaction are abundant in the tourism and hospitality
literature, and several researchers have developed or adapted scales to measure
these variables. However, an alternative measure of hotel guests’ satisfaction is
available from online ratings and it is rapidly gaining importance as
“word-of-mouse” (Stringam and Gerdes 2010; Xiang et al. 2017). Online reviews
constitute very valuable input for organizations, since customer feedback can be
obtained at a relatively low cost (Papathanassis and Knolle 2011).
With the advancement of technology, some visitors started to share their hotel
stay experiences with other internet users through posting at travel communities
such as TripAdvisor, blogs like [Link] or online travel sites like
[Link].
For most visitors, price is no more the only critical factor but non-price infor-
mation is also regarded as valuable (Noone and McGuire 2016). In their reviews,
visitors can provide content together with numerical ratings for various hotel
attributes. Along with ratings these positive and negative content that are posted on
credible sources also add value to the review (Fang et al. 2016). Visitors can rate
hotels on their physical attributes (e.g. location, comfort, cleanliness) accompanied
by their service quality (e.g., internet services, staff, value for money) (Alvarez and
Hatipoglu 2014). Based on these ratings, higher ranked hotels improve their rep-
utation, appear on best hotels lists (Casalo et al. 2015) and show online on the top
of the lists for review of future visitors. Thus, empirical evidence supports that
online reputation is closely linked with hotel performance (Xie and Zhang 2014;
Phillips et al. 2016). Higher rankings and positive reviews tend to affect willingness
to book a room, while negative comments can deter visitors from booking (Sparks
and Browning 2011).
Today, almost all hotel managers are in search for ways to improve their online
ratings, which are used as a measure of guest satisfaction also in academic work
(e.g., Bulchand-Gidumal et al. 2011; Li et al. 2013). In their work, Stringam and
Gerdes (2010) listed friendly front-office staff, efficient check-in and check-out, and
restaurant and bar availability as the influential factors that provide insights to hotel
guests’ satisfaction. Therefore, guests’ satisfaction with hotel employees could be
deemed a good indicator of overall guest satisfaction. Recent research by Xiang
et al. (2017, p. 58) examining whether or not these factors drive online ratings
showed that “topics related to basic hotel services (i.e., front desk, staff, etc.) and
core product (the guest room and bathroom) were salient in reviews associated with
lower ratings”. Based on this and aforementioned findings, it could be suggested
that the above listed factors hint at the importance of employees’ interaction with
hotel guests also in online ratings.
68 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

2.2 Employee Participation and Job Attitudes

Employee participation has gained prominence in recent years as a result of the

growing interest in the use of high performance work systems (HPWS) and to
experiment with methods for increased information sharing and involvement of
employees in workplace decision-making (Boxall and Macky 2009; Wilkinson
et al. 2013). Participation of employees in decision-making processes is found to be
an important factor in achieving a high-involvement and high-commitment man-
agement (Boxall and Macky 2009). In the HPWS literature it is often assumed that
“valuing employee contributions might lead to improved employee attitudes and
behaviors, loyalty, commitment and more cooperative relations” (Wilkinson and
Fay 2011, p. 67). Participation could be characterized by allowing employees to
contribute decisions on how their work is organized and carried through programs
such as quality circles and project teams; voicing their opinions through attitude
surveys or during meetings with management; put their suggestions to letter boxes
and having access to company’s incentive plans.
In service organizations giving power to employees is important because
customer/guest is often physically there and affected by service failures. When
employees are empowered they can recover service failures, respond to guest needs
and delight them by exceeding their expectations (Bowen and Lawler 1995;
Inelmen 2009). He et al. (2010) have shown that empowered employees in a
hospitality organization are more satisfied with their work and when they perceive
higher quality service, their job satisfaction is also higher. Given the importance of
the service quality for hospitality enterprises, it would not be an exaggeration to
suggest that employee participation with its critical role for job satisfaction, in turn
can have a hefty effect on guest satisfaction. Dundon et al. (2004) suggested three
ways in which employee participation can have a positive impact: it could lead to
improved general performance, and it could improve managerial systems by tap-
ping into employees’ ideas, knowledge, and experience and promoting greater
diffusion of information. Finally, valuing employee contributions could lead to
improved employee attitudes, behaviors and more cooperative relations.
Among the potentially important job attitudes, another key variable is trust in
organization, as it plays an important role in shaping a lot of positive and desired
organizational outcome behaviors. Trust in managers and/or organization may lead
to cooperative behavior, reduce conflict, and very often become a strong predictor
for organizationally valuable variables (Wong et al. 2006). Trust in organization has
several definitions, but Shockley-Zalabak and colleagues’ (2000) definition of
positive expectations individuals have about the intent and behaviors of multiple
organizational members based on organizational roles, relationships, experiences,
and interdependencies, was used here as a working definition. In earlier studies,
Inelmen et al. (2010) and Hatipoglu and Inelmen (2017) found that trust in the
organization is one of the main drivers of organizational citizenship behavior and
the tendecy to use voice opportunities as a form of participation among employees
working in Istanbul hotels.
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 69

Other than the HRM practices of an organization, the attitudes and behaviors of
its employees are essential influences on its performance. The labor intensive nature
of the hospitality industry forces managers at all levels to focus on the attitudes and
behaviors of employees in these enterprises. Fittingly, recent discussions on sus-
tainable competitiveness have placed sizable importance on human capital being a
major source of advantage for the industry’s organizations (e.g., Lee et al. 2010;
Tsai et al. 2009). In fact, there is a growing demand for skilled employees at all
positions in hotels, yet at the same time the industry suffers from an unacceptably
high level of staff turnover (Davidson et al. 2010; Kuruüzüm et al. 2008). Thus, all
efforts to retain those employees with organizationally valuable job attitudes as well
as willingness to contribute decisions, and to improve performance of human
capital can serve on the way to competitiveness of destinations. Based on the
insights derived from the above literature review, the study reported in this chapter
first investigated a set of antecedents of hotel guests’ satisfaction. Moreover, this
investigation was complemented with an assessment of guest satisfaction levels of
hotels in Barcelona and Istanbul, as to provide a comparison basis on this variable.
The following sections describe the realization of these studies that constituted the
empirical basis of the chapter.

3 Methodology

The present investigation consists of two parts. First study deals with, whether
increased employee participation coupled with trust in organization and job satis-
faction leads to improved hotel guests’ satisfaction. This phase is accomplished by
employing primary data that was collected at the scale of Istanbul as a city desti-
nation (Study 1). Second study provides a comparison for delineating a possible
benchmark destination for Istanbul. With this intention, data collected from online
ratings of guests’ satisfaction with employees are compared for two randomly
selected and matched samples from Barcelona and Istanbul hotels (Study 2).
Study 1 The unit of analysis in this investigation is hotels that are chosen using a
quota sampling technique based on star categories from the largest hoteliers asso-
ciation in Istanbul (Hotel Association of Turkey-TÜROB). In Turkey, hotel stars
are awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as one, two, three, four, five
star and special class/boutique hotels and are based on a point system. The list of
the Hotel Association of Turkey included a total of 247 hotels from Istanbul at the
time of data collection. The sample for this study consisted of 35 hotels selected
randomly from this sampling frame with enough substitutes; in a few cases where
selected hotels declined, randomly selected hotel from the same star category list
was approached as a substitute. To match their size in the list, of those six were
five-star, 17 were four-star, seven were three-star and five were boutique hotels.
70 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

Star categories are practical enough for visitors to make quick comparisons among
categories. And they are also widely used by researchers to make comparisons
between destinations or different category hotels. For example, Orfila-Sintes et al.
(2005) and Oses et al. (2016) have used star categories to make comparisons
between destinations, and the present study also employed the same strategy.

3.1 Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees

Monitoring and managing hotels’ performance of a destination is important for

improving destination competitiveness. However, when there is lack of consistent
financial data, pricing information or occupancy rates it becomes difficult to observe
hotel competiveness. To overcome this hurdle for Istanbul, our research used
publicly available information that is obtainable from an online travel site. To
measure hotel guests’ satisfaction for each hotel, the [Link] web site was
selected as the source for user-generated scores. Online travel sites use their own
detailed rating system, and yet [Link] had the widest coverage for Istanbul.
This travel site allows individuals to evaluate hotels on the dimensions of clean-
liness, comfort, location, facilities, value for money as well as satisfaction with
employees over 10 points. In 2013, “satisfaction with staff ratings” for the selected
35 hotels were obtained from the website, right after the data collection with
surveys for the other variables that are described below.

3.2 Employee Participation Practices

As a part of the primary data collection process a set of questions were directed to
35 human resource (HR) managers to collect information about the non-managerial
employees’ participation level to decision making practices. Research assistants
delivered surveys to the hotels in self-sealed envelopes and collected them a week
later during March–June 2013. The missing questions were identified and filled
through follow-up telephone calls by the researchers. In his seminal study, Huselid
(1995, p. 646) had identified 13 practices for HPWS in his study that evaluated the
connection between HRM practices and business results. Cho et al. (2006) have
used the twelve items from this list for measuring the impact of HRM on lodging
and restaurant companies’ performances in the US. To represent as comprehensive
a construct as possible four items from the HPWS were adapted to measure
employee participation practices of the hotels (Table 1: first two mechanisms are to
measure the flow of information from bottom to top, the third from top to bottom
and the last one is related to sharing of the rewards). The HR managers indicated
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 71

Table 1 HRM practices investigated in the survey

HRM practices items Questions
Labor-Management What is the proportion of the workforce who participates in
Participation Program Quality of Work life (QWL) programs, Quality Circles (QC),
and/or labor management participation teams?
Attitude Surveys What is the proportion of the workforce who is administered
attitude surveys on a regular basis?
Information Sharing What is the proportion of the workforce who is included in a
formal information-sharing program (e.g. newsletter)?
Incentive Plans What is the proportion of the workforce who has access to
company incentive plans, profit-sharing plans, and/or
gain-sharing plans?

their degree of implementation on the workforce on a five point scale (‘1’ = 0–20%
of total employees; ‘5’ = 81–100% of total employees).

3.3 Job Attitudes

Five questions were directed to non-managerial employees, to measure general job

satisfaction with perceptions about pleasure derived from work, as used by
Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2005). Moreover, Robinson and Rousseau’s Trust in
Organization Scale (1994) was employed in order to measure employees per-
spective about their employers’ good intentions and trustworthiness. Using bed
capacity as an indicator of size, for each hotel a quota of non-managerial employees
was calculated. Questionnaires were administered to employees who agreed to
contribute, until the predetermined numbers of employees have been reached. For
each hotel, then an average job satisfaction and an average trust to organization
score were calculated and employed in all further analyses in Study 1. In other
words, the unit of analysis in this investigation is the hotels that totalled to 35.
Study 2 With the intend of providing a comparable set of hotels of Study 1, in
2015 a matched sampling procedure was followed for Study 2. To employ as a
sampling frame for the planned matching, a list of hotels in Barcelona was
employed from the web site of Barcelona Hotels ([Link]/hoteles-
[Link]), as it provided the largest choice. An overall check on
Internet for star and boutique category and room number sizes was conducted by an
assistant resident in Spain. By employing random numbers option of SPSS, for each
category matching Istanbul numbers, a sample of hotels for Barcelona were
selected, and ordered according to room sizes. Hotel guests’ satisfaction ratings
with employees for the randomly selected hotels were obtained for the 35 hotels.
This data from 70 hotels is used for the statistical comparison among the two
destinations.
72 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

4 Results

The data set employed in this investigation originated from 35 hotels that were
identified through a rigorous quota sampling procedure, to achieve a representative
sample for Istanbul. The Study 1’s descriptives and the Pearson correlations among
the study variables are shown in Table 2 for Istanbul only. The correlations
between the independent variables were low to moderate, with the single exception
of job satisfaction and trust in organization being relatively strong. Considering that
the two measures were obtained from the same group, this result is not surprising.
However, in the regression analysis the VIFs were lower than generally accepted
cut-off of four in all cases, and thus there is no reason to expect heteroscedasticity.
For the same analysis, Durbin-Watson score of 2.476 showed no indication of serial
correlation among the residuals. Upon this procedure, the data for the study vari-
ables collected separately from each target group to overcome the potential single
source bias (Avolio et al. 1991; Podsakoff et al. 2003). To be exact, the job attitude
scores were obtained from employees who contributed to the Study 1, participation
in decision making of their employees were rated by 35 hotels’ human resource
managers, and finally hotel guests’ satisfaction with employees were obtained from
the [Link] web site, calculated separately for each hotel.
In the regression, star-category was entered as a control variable and it was
found to have no significant impact on the prediction for hotel guests’ satisfaction
with employees. With the other independent variables added, the R2 has reached to
0.277, and the result was significant (F [4, 34] = 2.88, p < 0.05). It might be of
some value to remind that the R2 obtained here through the analysis of data
collected from three independent sources. The overall validity can deemed to be
considerably high, due to the advantage of overcoming single-source bias. Average
employee job satisfaction’s contribution to prediction was highly significant
(Beta = 0.798, p < 0.01). Average employee trust in organization emerged as a
potent predictor, although the effect in this case was negative (Beta = −0.638,
p < 0.05). Finally, the hotels’ practices on employee participation in decision
making had also an effect in the model, but the influence is modest (Beta = 0.302,
p < 0.10) in predicting guests’ satisfaction with hotels’ employees (Table 3).

Table 2 Descriptives and correlations among the study variables

Av. (S.D.) 1 2 3
1. Guests’ satisfaction with hotels’ employees 7.88 (0.9) –
2. Average employee job satisfaction 3.92 (0.3) 0.31*
3. Average employee trust in organization 3.72 (0.3) 0.06 0.76**
4. Participation in decision making 1.96 (1.1) 0.18 −0.12 0.07
Note Correlations statistically significant at *0.10 and at **0.001 levels
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 73

Table 3 The regression of guests’ satisfaction with hotels’ employees on the study variables
Independent variables Beta t-test Sig.
Hotel’s star category −0.134 −0.845 n.s.
Average employee job satisfaction 0.774 3.110 0.004
Average employee trust in organization −0.578 −2.302 0.028
Participation in decision making 0.314 1.943 0.061
R2 of the Model 0.277*
*Statistically significant at 0.05 level

In Study 2, the secondary data collected in 2015 for the randomly selected 35
hotels in Barcelona for the first time and 35 hotels in Istanbul collected anew were
compared with paired samples t-test. The test results revealed that on paired sam-
ples correlations, the matched samples were moderately but positively correlated
and this correlation was deemed significant (r = 0.31, p < 0.10). This finding
suggested that these data sets from Istanbul and Barcelona can be used for further
comparisons. On hotel guests’ satisfaction with employees, Barcelona hotels
received an average score (MB = 8.48, S.D. = 0.43) that was higher than the
average of Istanbul hotels (MI = 7.81, S.D. = 0.81), and paired samples t-test
analysis has showed a statistically significant difference (t = 4.98, p < 0.001). In
other words, the guests who stayed in and gave their ratings for the Barcelona hotels
have given substantially better scores on satisfaction with employees, compared
with those guests who stayed in and rated the Istanbul hotels during the same
period. The repercussions of these results obtained from Study 1 and 2 are dis-
cussed in the final part of this chapter.

5 Conclusion

High quality service and guest satisfaction with the rendered services is a strong
competitive advantage for hospitality organizations, and the destination that these
organizations are an integral part of. Job attitudes of the people who render those
services are very important on the hotel guests’ perceptions and resulting satis-
faction (Xiang et al. 2017). Empowered employees can be expected to display on
the spot “innovative and spontaneous activity” (Raub and Robert 2013, p. 144) and
improve service quality. In the literature a close connection is found between
employee participation and work attitudes (Wilkinson and Fay 2011). Employees’
job satisfaction has been a construct that was noted quite early as a key employee
attitude for business stability. Although later, trust in organization has also iden-
tified in the literature to be one of the most potent predictors of organizationally
important outcomes (Hatipoglu and Inelmen 2017). Thus, these two variables were
selected purposefully in this study to test the effect of employee participation, at the
backdrop of these powerful job attitudes.
74 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

Two broad benefits of employee participation are proposed in the literature:

better information flow resulting in better decisions, and job satisfaction conse-
quently leading to better performance. On the down side, employee participation
can lead to erosion of power structures, inconsistent decisions, and conflicts
between different individuals, and possibly distract employees’ in-role performance
(Kesting et al. 2015). It was also suggested that these counterproductive tendencies
shape the limits of employee participation. The present results provided support to
the Raub and Robert’s (2013) finding that employee participation would be more
successful in countries with lower power distance and their suggestion to use of
selective implementation and adaptation. In fact, employee participation had a
positive impact on guests’ satisfaction with hotels’ employees, but in this high
power distance context (Kabasakal and Bodur 2002) trust in organization was
hampered at the same time. Vis-à-vis the fact that job satisfaction was highly
correlated with trust in organization in this sample, it should not be considered a
negligible matter.
In more concrete terms, this research found that increased levels of employee
participation coupled with increased levels of positive job attitudes and lower levels
of trust in organization predict guest satisfaction with employees of Istanbul hotels.
The results showed that at those hotels where participation mechanisms are avail-
able for greater numbers of employees, there are also higher levels of employee
satisfaction, but trust in organization did not follow the same trend. Consistent with
the expectations, the greater the embeddedness of the participation mechanisms in
the percentage of workforce, the better it is. Thus it could be concluded that when
organizations provide employees with opportunities to participate in decision
making and voice their opinions, the control mechanisms partially transfer from
management to employees. On the one side, this practice may have contributed to
the employees’ general satisfaction. However, it also seems to have a decreasing
effect on the trust in organization, because at least some of the employees may have
found the task of participation difficult and/or cumbersome and thus feel less well to
get attuned with this. Allowing non-managerial tourism employees to contribute to
decisions on how their work is organized and carried through programs such as
quality circles and project teams, voicing their opinions through attitude surveys or
during meetings with management, possibly be perceived as shifting the burden on
them. Hospitality managers in high power distance contexts can be advised to use a
balanced amount of employee participation, to keep the levels of trust in organi-
zation at a level that would not negatively influence other organizationally
important attitudes.
In the hospitality literature, the positive relationship between activities of
employee participation and business outcomes had been shown in HPWS (Murphy
and Olsen 2009), service quality and employee perceived quality (He et al. 2010);
job satisfaction (Holland et al. 2011); organizational citizenship behavior and job
performance (Kim et al. 2013). Therefore, hospitality managers can be advised to
be careful with employee participation, to keep the levels of trust in organization at
a level that would not negatively influence other organizationally important atti-
tudes. Although research, mostly originating from Western countries, suggest that
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 75

participation helps employees to build trust for their organization and it is linked
with higher commitment and loyalty (Cho et al. 2006), the present results caution
the reader about the cultural differences and general trust level which could lead to
variances in employee perceptions. This paper recommends to managers to use
ingeniously designed mix and amounts of employee participation mechanisms to
sustain or increase hotel guests’ satisfaction.
Tourism is a highly competitive industry and destinations are in rivalry with
each other to increase their tourism output (e.g. arrivals and tourism receipts).
Besides economic motives, development of tourism in a destination can be desir-
able for multiple reasons such as promotion of the destination for other investments,
supporting national pride, protection of ecological sources and culture and pro-
moting peace (Crouch and Ritchie 1999). Tracking how a destination and its
members compare with others in the market is essential for effectively managing it
and raising the standards of performance (Oses et al. 2016). Externally bench-
marking successful tourist destinations and learning from their experiences can save
time and money on behalf of destination managers. While it is possible to
benchmark the overall performance of a destination it would be also viable to
benchmark special attributes such as guest satisfaction with services (Kozak 2004).
Benchmarking international tourism destinations should be done taking into con-
sideration destination characteristics (Assaf and Dwyer 2013), and chosen among
that are in the same competitiveness set (Kozak 2004). In that matter finding a
matching destination is critical for a successful benchmark analysis.
Following this line of thought, the second phase of this research further evalu-
ated hotel guests’ satisfaction with employees for Istanbul and Barcelona and aimed
to identify if they are suitable for benchmarking purpose. The results suggest that
secondary data obtained from online ratings from separate destinations could be
useful for at least a preliminary comparison. Due to the limitation of ratings coming
from separate reviewer groups, one needs to approach the results with a grain of salt
and overgeneralizations should be avoided. Nevertheless, the matched samples
approach was useful for providing at least a sketch of the situation in the two
destinations. It is shown here empirically, Barcelona seems to be a suitable
benchmark destination for Istanbul as suggested earlier by Minghetti and Montaguti
(2010) in terms of hotel guests’ satisfaction. Thus the lessons that could be derived
from a benchmarking study with Barcelona, can be valuable for both organizational
improvement for the case of Istanbul and also for knowledge development.
The results also have future implications for researchers and tourism manage-
ment in practice, especially destination and hotel managers in countries where high
power distance culture predominate. The first part of the investigation used data that
is derived from online sources together with data obtained through surveys from
hotel HRM departments and non-managerial employees in Istanbul. On the other
hand, the second part of the investigation employed user generated content in the
form of numerical ratings and have given a clear indication about the comparability
of Istanbul and Barcelona as city destinations. Now, based on the preliminary
results of our Study 2, it can be recommended that researchers to move forward and
collect primary data from matching hotels in both cities. Such benchmarking
76 K. Inelmen and B. Hatipoglu

research of a successful tourist destination can help managers to go forward without

reinventing the wheel, as well as to raise the standards of performance (Oses et al.
2016) and hotel guests’ satisfaction with services (Kozak 2004).
Choosing a destination that has superior performance and then analyzing the
performance gap between the two destinations is considered as the initial step for
destination benchmarking (Kozak 2004). In our case, the performance criterion of
guest satisfaction with employees is found to be higher for Barcelona. This negative
gap discovered between Istanbul and Barcelona can be a fruitful avenue for future
benchmarking studies. Investigating the reasons behind this gap can aid Istanbul
hotel managers to prioritize their HRM strategies, such as investment made to
employees. Results of the study point to the importance of national culture in
adaptation of foreign born management concepts such as ‘employee participation’.
In examining the drivers of positive employee attitudes and higher guest satisfac-
tion with employees in hotels, it could be suggested contextual elements to be taken
into consideration. National culture characteristics (Hofstede 2005; Kabasakal and
Bodur 2002), demographics of the workforce (e.g., education levels, gender, years
of experience) and level of trust in the organization (Hatipoglu and Inelmen 2017),
management styles (Kusluvan et al. 2010) together with a set of HRM practices and
guest profiles can be suggested as valuable variables for future analysis. Other
studies have shown the value of content provided online by reviewers for both
visitors and managers (Sparks and Browning 2011; Alvarez and Hatipoglu 2014;
Casalo et al. 2015). Therefore, aside from primary data collection and analysis, a
secondary analysis by gathering the content provided by reviewers for each hotel
and analyzing the data qualitatively has the potential of giving insights into gaps in
employee performance.
The main aim of destination benchmarking is to develop strategies for improving
services while receiving feedback from stakeholders (Kozak 2004). Therefore,
following the gap analysis and learning the reasons behind the employee perfor-
mance gap, managers may need to take action in order to improve their results.
During this stage, collaboration with stakeholders such as trade associations and
education institutions can be useful in designing improved action plans for the
destination. Performance improvement efforts should not be considered as one time
event, but as a continuous process that will guarantee sustained business results.
Tourism demand is very fragile and can change directions very easily at the face of
political crises, security issues such as those raised by terrorism and sociocultural
risk (Reisinger and Movando 2005). The least hotels can do on the supply side is to
deliver a consistent quality service. The cycle of benchmarking successful desti-
nations, taking corrective actions, sharing the results with stakeholders and
receiving feedback should be done vigorously as part of the tourism development
efforts of a destination. In destinations where there is no single destination man-
agement authority like the case of Istanbul, it can be suggested that various tourism
associations (e.g. Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, hoteliers’
associations, regional development agencies) to take the lead for such long term
studies.
Hotel Guests’ Satisfaction with Employees … 77

Although this study makes several contributions to the existing knowledge base
in the hospitality literature, due to some limitations potential prospects for future
research remain. The first part of the investigation was conducted in a single des-
tination and a single national culture. Some studies suggest that there could be
different results in other national settings on employee participation (Kesting et al.
2015). Future research could also better display which specific participation
mechanisms, and what levels of trust in organization will be more successful in
different destinations and national settings. Furthermore only one variable, guests’
satisfaction with employees, was used to depict performance of the investigated
hotels. The importance of performance criteria may change among destinations
depending on what they aim to accomplish through tourism development.
Therefore, discovering the needs of the destination and using multiple criteria that
are both qualitative and quantitative could bear healthier results for future studies.
Nevertheless, as studies that examine the whole accommodation industry of
Istanbul were absent until recently, the present study could be considered a step
forward.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Hotel Association of

Turkey (TÜROB) and the financial support of Bogazici University Research Fund with Grant
Number 6510.

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Being Good to Be Happy? The Influence
of Moral Values on Tourist Happiness

Mariella Pinna, Antónia H. Correia and Giacomo Del Chiappa

Abstract In recent years, interdisciplinary contributions have flourished exten-

sively, mainly in the fields of philosophy and economics, with the aim of under-
standing what effectively drives individuals in their pursuit of happiness. This study
aims to analyse the determinants of tourist happiness. To fulfil this purpose, a
conceptual model of happiness in tourism was proposed and empirically tested.
Moving from a specific strand of philosophy, according to which the only way for
an individual to attain happiness is to be virtuous, we posit that moral values are
crucial determinants in the process of shaping tourist happiness. Aesthetic attributes
of a tourist destination are also considered in our model. The results from structural
equation modelling confirm the relevance of moral values in shaping tourist hap-
piness. In addition, multi-group analysis allows the identification of differences for
shopping tourists regarding the impacts of aesthetics on tourist happiness.

1 Introduction

Attention towards individuals’ happiness is growing daily (Diener and Tay 2015).
Unsurprisingly, happiness is linked to subjective well-being and life satisfaction
(e.g., Nicolao et al. 2009). Happiness is a primary indicator of the quality of human
development (World Happiness Report 2016). Recent international reports show
that governments increasingly use data on citizens’ happiness to guide public
policies and measure their effectiveness (Sustainable Development Solutions
Network 2015). The topic of happiness is becoming so relevant that rankings of

M. Pinna (&)
G. Del Chiappa

Department of Economics and Business, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
e-mail: mapinna@[Link]
A. H. Correia
CEFAGE, Faculty of Economics, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal
A. H. Correia
Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 81

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
82 M. Pinna et al.

countries, based on the overall well-being and happiness of these nations, have been
flourishing extensively worldwide (e.g., Gallup World Poll 2015). However, results
on what happiest country is have varied considerably, depending on whether such
surveys have alternatively investigated how people rationally see their lives or how
people emotionally live their lives (Gallup World Poll 2015; World Happiness
Report 2016).
Academic research is supporting this widespread happiness trend. Scholars from
various disciplines (e.g., economics, philosophy, psychology) are investigating the
concept of happiness (e.g., Nicolao et al. 2009). Furthermore, determinants of
happiness other than income have been explored and tested for correlations between
economic (unemployment, inflation, income distribution), socio-demographic,
institutional, and contextual conditions (e.g. social capital, trust, quality of the
public sector) and happiness (e.g., Blanchflower and Oswald 2004; Helliwell 2003).
However, in recent times, the importance of socio-demographic and geographic
characteristics alone has been challenged. As a consequence, individuals’ psy-
chographic factors, such as interests, values, opinions, lifestyles, and motivations,
have been taken into consideration, in order to test their impact on individual
happiness in several settings, tourism included (Bimonte and Faralla 2012).
Scholarly interest has focused on the association between holidays and
non-materialist aspects of happiness (Cohen 1979), for instance in relation to social
tourism (e.g., McCabe and Johnson 2013) or spirituality-related tourism (Puczko
and Smith 2012).
This study deals with happiness in tourism. More specifically, the paper
investigates whether tourists’ moral values and the destination’s aesthetic charac-
teristics contribute to tourist happiness. Furthermore, the study aims to verify
whether the relationship between moral values and happiness is predicted to differ
among various types of tourists’ preferences, such as shopping and ecotourism,
thereby widening the scope of this research.

2 Literature Review

In the last few decades, a significant body of knowledge has investigated the
concept of well-being. In particular, researchers have stated that “well-being”
(WB) pertains to objective and subjective dimensions (e.g., Cummins 2000). For
example, objective measures of WB comprise economic (i.e., household income),
leisure (i.e., number of parks and recreational facilities per thousand inhabitants),
and health factors (i.e., average life expectancy), among others (e.g., Austin 2016).
To the contrary, subjective measures are related to specific psychological constructs
such as subjective well-being (SBW) and happiness and satisfaction with life
(LS) (e.g., Austin 2016).
Although differences do exist, since Easterlin (1974), scholars writing happiness
literature have used terms such as subjective well-being, happiness, and life satis-
faction interchangeably (e.g., Easterlin 2004). Within this contribution, following
Being Good to Be Happy? … 83

Easterlin’s approach, the term happiness defines how individuals think and feel
about their lives and the extent to which they are satisfied with it (e.g., Diener et al.
1999; Kahneman and Krueger 2006). Moreover, happiness is not only an inner state
of well-being, but has also been found to be partly determined by a comparison
with a person’s reference group (Van Praag 2011).
Despite the fact that theorists agree in stating that the pursuit of happiness is the
ultimate goal in the life of any individual (e.g., Frey and Stutzer 2002), empirical
results regarding which factors contribute to individuals’ well-being have, from
time to time, shown contradictory findings in the extant literature.
Early studies focused on the relationship between income and happiness (e.g.,
Easterlin 1974), basically showing positive but diminishing returns in relation to
income (e.g., Clark et al. 2008). Happiness is positively linked to low income in
poor countries (or groups in wealthier countries), whereas this relation is less
apparent in affluent nations (e.g., Veenhoven 1991). More simply, money makes
people happy when it helps to fulfil basic needs such as nutrition, but above certain
income levels no relevant increase occurs (Diener and Oishi 2000). Interestingly,
some authors have reported a reverse causation effect that shows that a higher
well-being leads to higher future incomes (e.g., Graham et al. 2004). In addition,
empirical evidence has been provided in relation to the importance of economic
(i.e., unemployment, inflation) factors (e.g., Di Tella et al. 2001), and institutional
and contextual conditions (i.e., social capital, quality of the public sector) (Helliwell
2003; Blanchflower and Oswald 2004) in determining individuals’ level of
happiness.
Remarkably, the use of macro-level predictors of happiness (i.e., economic and
contextual factors) have revealed inconsistent results, and therefore scholars have
recently shifted their attention to micro-level and non-economic variables (i.e.,
individual characteristics, such as socio-demographics, behavioural, and personality
traits) (e.g., Kaliterna-Lipovčan and Prizmić-Larsen 2016) as important predictors
of happiness. For instance, happiness is strongly affected by health (e.g., Shields
and Wheatley Price 2005) and moderately influenced by personal characteristics
such as gender, with women tending to report higher levels of happiness (e.g.,
Alesina et al. 2004), education (e.g., Blanchflower and Oswald 2004), personality
(e.g., Helliwell 2006), and age (e.g., Graham et al. 2004). Further, even factors
deriving from social interaction seem associated to happiness: for example, mar-
riage and family, relations to friends and neighbours, workplace ties, and civic
engagement (e.g., Helliwell and Putnam 2004). Happiness is also found to be
positively related to personal values (e.g., Diener and Oishi 2000) and to the
amount of time people spend on or with others (Mogilner and Norton 2016).
However, several associations are likely to be due to reverse causation (e.g., Dolan
et al. 2008), especially when individual variables (such as age) have not been
controlled for (Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Frijiters 2004).
With the emergence of positive psychology (Filep 2012b), Seligman’s (2002)
conceptualisation of ‘authentic happiness’ turned out to be a milestone within the
happiness literature. According to Seligman (2002), three different elements,
namely the ‘pleasant life’, the ‘good life’ and the ‘meaningful life’ are crucial for
84 M. Pinna et al.

understanding individuals’ authentic happiness. In particular, similar to an

ascending path, individuals firstly reach a ‘pleasant life’ as a result of ‘pleasurable
and positive experiences, then a “good life” when their virtues and character
strengths can be developed (e.g., qualities which are considered virtuous across
cultures and historical eras like valour, leadership, kindness, integrity, originality,
wisdom) (Filep 2012b). Eventually, when individuals apply their strengths in
activities that contribute to the greater good, such as developing friendships or
servicing the community, they reach the so-called “meaningful life”’ (p. 35).
Broadly speaking, positive psychology has greatly contributed to the explanation
of happiness within tourism management literature. Within this conceptual frame-
work, happiness in tourism studies has been explored both considering the impacts
on tourists’ emotional well-being (e.g., Uysal et al. 2015) and the effects of tourism
development on residents’ quality of life (e.g., Rivera et al. 2015).
According to the first strand of research, tourist happiness has been described as
the psychological state of fulfilment and well-being that is experienced in antici-
patory, on site, and reflective travel phases (e.g., Filep 2012a). Yet much of the
research has focused on the determinants of tourism happiness, especially
socio-demographics and contextual factors. For instance, holidays affect tourists’
long term overall happiness (e.g., Uysal et al. 2015), depending on tourists’ dif-
ferent generations (e.g. young versus elder) (Eusebio and Carneiro 2014; Woo et al.
2015) and diverse stages in lifecycle (e.g., Dolnicar et al. 2012), despite unem-
ployment (Nawijn and Damen 2014). Moreover, happiness experienced on holidays
also affects individuals’ daily happiness (e.g., Dolnicar et al. 2012). More specifi-
cally, tourism provides enduring satisfaction that positively impacts the overall
quality of life of those participating in the tourism experience (e.g., Neal et al.
2007). However, the length of the stay (long versus short length) significantly
influences happiness (Neal et al. 2007).
So far, researchers have identified a wide range of factors that could affect
happiness; however, as stated by Bimonte and Faralla (2012) ‘further investigations
are needed in order to better understand and broaden the range of factors involved’
(p. 1933). This study was therefore carried out to investigate whether tourists’ moral
values combined with the destination’s aesthetic characteristics contribute to tourist
happiness.

3 Model and Hypothesis

Tourist happiness refers to several constructs, such as positive emotions, engage-

ment, a sense of meaning and purpose in life that influence the tourism experience
(Filep 2012b).
This study focuses on tourist happiness; as such our theoretical model hypoth-
esizes that tourist happiness is influenced by two main constructs: tourist’s moral
orientation and the aesthetic attributes of a destination. Figure 1 illustrates the
model and the hypothesis posed.
Being Good to Be Happy? … 85

Fig. 1 The conceptual model

Hedonic consumption concerns the multisensory, fun, and emotive aspects of the
consumer experience (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982; Malone et al. 2014). In
tourism studies, hedonic consumption is often linked to the sensorial aspects of the
tourist experience, such as olfactory (Dann and Jacobsen 2002) and visual per-
ception of places and destinations (e.g., Kim 2012). According to Kirillova et al.
(2014) the aesthetic characteristics of a destination have an impact on tourists’
visual perceptions and pleasure. Moreover, the aesthetic qualities of a destination
shape consumer satisfaction, well-being, and future behavioural intentions (e.g.,
Breiby and Slåtten 2015). Interestingly, a positive relationship between hedonism
and tourist happiness has been observed (e.g., Malone et al. 2014). As per Nawjin
(2011), tourists go on holidays for pleasure, and by doing so, they implicitly assume
that vacationing makes them feel happier (e.g., Malone et al. 2014; Nawjin 2011).
H1. Aesthetics directly influence Happiness
Moral values have been described as the predictors and determinants of indi-
vidual attitudes and behaviours over time (e.g., Schwartz 1992; Rokeach 1973).
Furthermore, moral values have been conceived as higher-order goals (Rokeach
1973), or guiding principles in the life of any individual (Schwartz and Sagiv 1995).
Consistently, values also influence the formation of tourists’ attitudes and beha-
viours (e.g., Dalen 1989). Past research includes information on tourists’ envi-
ronmental attitudes and preferences (Crick-Furman and Prentice 2000), travel/
leisure choice criteria (Pitts and Woodside 1986), and perceived importance ratings
of destination attributes (Muller 1991).
Most classical philosophers have questioned whether individual happiness is
based on virtue (Bok 2010). Opinions and theories have flourished mainly in two
directions: Plato and the Stoics argued that the only way for an individual to attain
happiness is by striving to be virtuous, whereas, Epicurus, for example, maintained
that the effort for an individual should be to become happy, and, if necessary,
virtues should be exercised. More simply, according to the first view, ‘only the
86 M. Pinna et al.

virtuous can be truly happy – that virtue is not only necessary for happiness but
sufficient – whereas, following the second view only the happy can be truly vir-
tuous’ (Bok 2010, p. 46).
Apart from several important contributions (e.g., McCabe and Johnson 2013;
Helleviki 2003), individuals’ values have been scarcely approached in tourism
literature (Crick-Furman and Prentice 2000), specifically in relation to happiness.
One participant in a study from Filep (2012a), while reflecting on a meaningful
tourist event, stated ‘I realised there is more to this world than the materialism we at
times bind ourselves to in our daily life.’ In this sense, direct and/or indirect positive
effects that, moving from tourist moral orientation, affect happiness are at stake and
need further investigation.
H2. Moral Values directly and positively influence Happiness.
Finally, the conceptual model will provide further evidence, by means of
multi-group analysis that tests for invariance within two different types of tourism
experiences (namely, shopping and ecotourism).
HA. Different types of tourism will lead to different strength correlations within
the main constructs. Then, the strength of the relationships between different types
of tourism experiences (namely, shopping and ecotourism) is analysed.

4 Methodology

To test for the hypotheses of the study, a structured survey instrument was
developed, taking into account the previous literature that investigates the topic of
happiness in tourism. The questionnaire included four sections. In the first section,
respondents were asked to provide their general socio-demographic characteristics
(e.g., gender, age, nationality). The second section investigated the respondents’
assessment as a ‘guiding principle in your life’ of a list of 12 moral values, using a
7-point Likert scale (1 = against my values, 2 = not important, 4 = important,
7 = very important) (Schwartz 1992). The third part explored respondents’ happi-
ness over a set of three questions, using a 7-point Likert scale (1 = not happy,
4 = happy, 7 = very happy) (Van Boven and Gilovich 2003). Finally, the fourth
part contained a list of six aesthetic attributes related to a tourist destination that
respondents should state using a 7-point Likert scale (Kirillova and Lehto 2015).
Data was collected through a face-to-face, self-administered questionnaire.
Respondents over 18 years who resided in different regions in Italy were enrolled in
the study.
A two-step analysis of data was performed: first, the reliability of the compo-
nents of each scale and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) were run; second an SEM analysis was carried out to explore
the influence of moral values and aesthetic factors towards happiness in tourism,
followed by an invariance test through multi-group analysis to test the strength of
the relationships in different types of tourism experiences (namely, shopping and
ecotourism).
Being Good to Be Happy? … 87

Table 1 Profile of Gender (%)

respondents
Females 55.6
Males 44.4
Age groups
18–29 46.4
30–39 18.3
40–49 12.7
50–59 13.0
60 & up 9.7
Travelling with children (%)
Yes 21.4
No 78.6
Preferred type of vacation
Shopping 41.8
tourism
Ecotourism 79.3

The sample population comprised Italian tourists travelling to Sardinia from

April to June 2016. Overall, a total of 760 valid responses were collected.
Responses containing missing data were eliminated to avoid bias that could impact
the quality of the entire dataset (Anderson et al. 1998). As a result 701 complete
questionnaires were usable. The majority of respondents visiting Sardinia were
Italian females, ranging in age between 18 and 39 years old. Presumably owing to
the young age, respondents mainly travelled without children. In addition, the most
preferred types of holidays were shopping tourism and ecotourism (see Table 1).

5 Results

A preliminary EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) was performed in order to

explore the underlying dimensions or constructs in the data: a generalized least
square extraction method, with Varimax rotation was used (see Table 2). Based on
having an eigenvalue greater than one, the initial 21 items considered for identi-
fying moral values (12 items), happiness (3 items), and aesthetics (6 items) were
reduced to three factors, explaining the 37.2% of the variance extracted. More
specifically, taking into account the meaning of the items grouped with higher
loadings and the literature, the newly obtained constructs were named ‘morality’,
‘aesthetics’, and ‘happiness’, and were extracted. To extract factors, 0.5 was the
cut-off criterion adopted. The goodness of fit test (χ2 = 442,986; df = 186; sig.
0.000) confirmed that the results were appropriate to explain the data. To test the
reliability of the factors, the Cronbach’s alpha index was calculated; all values were
0.7 or close to this value, suggesting that the factors were reliable (Hair et al. 2010).
88 M. Pinna et al.

Table 2 Exploratory factor analysis

Factors/items Loadings Eigenvalue % % Cronbach
variance variance alpha
explained cumulated
F1: Morality 3.972 16.549 16.549 0.828
Politeness 0.640
Honouring of parents 0.568
and elders
Responsible 0.511
Honest 0.599
Loyal 0.658
True friendship 0.611
Wisdom 0.556
Social justice 0.591
Broad minded 0.537
Protecting the 0.604
environment
A world of peace 0.581
F2: Aesthetics 2.946 12.276 28.824 0.813
Massiveness 0.644
Crowdedness 0.784
Relaxing 0.618
Perceived naturalness 0.577
Noisiness 0.703
Character 0.623
F3: Happiness 2.003 8.347 37.171 0.886
How much the 0.849
experience contributed
to your happiness in
life
How meaningful it 0.883
was
How personally 0.836
fulfilling it was
Goodness-of-fit Test: χ2: 442,986; df = 186; sig. 0.000

To test the structural model displayed in Fig. 1, the study followed Anderson
and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach. The first step involved the evaluation of
the measurement model by conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using
Amos 21. The second step consisted in the analysis of the full structural model.
Hair et al. (2010, p. 641) explicitly state that ‘SEM is most appropriate when the
research has multiple constructs, each represented by several measured variables,
and […] allows for all of the relationship/equations to be estimated simultaneously’.
Thus, CFA and SEM are suitable for this study.
Being Good to Be Happy? … 89

Confirmatory Factor Analysis allowed for identification of the latent constructs

related to the observed variables, and suggested that all the constructs were freely
correlated. Table 3 shows the resulting measurement constructs after CFA. More
specifically, the measurement model fit (CFI = 0.991; TLI = 0.988; IFI = 0.991;
GFI = 0.975; RMSEA < 0.05) suggested that the factor structure was reliable.
In addition, discriminant and convergent validity and reliability indicators were
used to confirm the goodness-of-fit for each construct, as displayed in Table 4. The
composite reliability (CR) threshold of 0.60 is met for every factor, and the average
variance extracted (AVE) is always greater than 0.50 (Bagozzi and Yi 1988).
Discriminant validity is confirmed because the shared variance between pairs of
factors is always less than the corresponding AVE (Fornell and Larcker 1981).

Table 3 Measurement scale properties

Standardized S.E. P
estimate
Broad minded ← Moral 0.435 0.096 ***
values
Social justice ← Moral 0.485 0.091 ***
values
Wisdom ← Moral 0.501 0.097 ***
values
True friendship ← Moral 0.666 0.072 ***
values
Loyal ← Moral 0.696 0.082 ***
values
Honest ← Moral 0.611 0.089 ***
values
Responsible ← Moral 0.577 0.083 ***
values
Honouring of parents and elders ← Moral 0.533 0.079 ***
values
Politeness ← Moral 0.611
values
Character ← Aesthetics 0.668
Noisiness ← Aesthetics 0.768 0.073 ***
Perceived naturalness ← Aesthetics 0.570 0.068 ***
Relaxing ← Aesthetics 0.592 0.085 ***
Crowdedness ← Aesthetics 0.668 0.078 ***
Massiveness ← Aesthetics 0.518 0.077 ***
How much the experience ← Happiness 0.831
contributed to your happiness in life
How meaningful it was ← Happiness 0.902 0.039 ***
How personally fulfilling it was ← Happiness 0.815 0.039 ***
CFI = 0.991; TLI = 0.988; RMSEA = 0.021; IFI = 0.991; GFI = 0.975
90 M. Pinna et al.

Table 4 Scale’s convergent and discriminant validity for the sample

CR AVE MSV ASV Aesth. Moral values Happiness
Aesthetics 0.8 0.504 0.01 0.005 0.636
Moral values 0.813 0.53 0.142 0.071 −0.008 0.574
Happiness 0.886 0.723 0.142 0.076 0.102 0.377 0.85

The second step involved the analysis of the full structural model. The results of
the structural paths, as reported in Table 5, show that the aesthetic attributes of a
tourist destination seem to have limited impact on tourist happiness (b = 0.105;
p > 0.10 ns), thus H2 is only partially supported. More interestingly, results from
path analysis support H3 as moral values directly and positively influence tourist
happiness (b = 0.377; p > 0.01). The goodness model-fit indices of structure model
were χ2 = 160.178, CFI = 0.991, TLI = 0.989; RMSEA = 0.021; IFI = 0.991;
GFI = 0.975, thus confirming the adequateness of the model.
Finally, we tested for invariance among two different groups of tourist experi-
ences. Multi-group analysis, as displayed in Table 6, highlights how the ecotourists
and shopping tourists differ from each other. Unsurprisingly, the main differences
observed are related to aesthetics, which appears to be stronger for shopping
tourists. More in particular, the path from ‘aesthetics’ to ‘happiness’ (z = 1.688), as
well as the path from ‘aesthetics’ to the attribute ‘relaxing’ (z = 2.422) are sig-
nificantly different for shopping tourists. Such evidence is in accordance with El
Hedhli et al. (2016) who argue that shopping behaviour effectively impacts con-
sumers’ well-being. Actually, happiness is a key reason that shoppers consider
when they plan for a shopping trip (El Hedhli et al. 2016). Furthermore, previous
studies have showed that shopping consumers are influenced in their shopping
activities by the aesthetics of a shopping environment, which can result in a positive
or negative purchase decision (e.g., Bitner 1992; Donovan et al. 1994). Therefore,
to create an aesthetically valuable—specifically relaxing—tourist experience that
helps tourists enjoy their shopping environment is a critical point.

Table 5 Structural equation model: standardized path estimates and goodness of fit indices
Estimates S.E. P
Happiness ← Aesthetics 0.105 0.045 0.014
Happiness ← Moral values 0.377 0.092 ***
χ2 = 160.178; df = 123; P = 0.014
CFI = 0.991; TLI = 0.989; RMSEA = 0.021; IFI = 0.991; GFI = 0.975
Being Good to Be Happy? … 91

Table 6 Critical ratios difference tests

Ecotourism Shopping tourism z-score
Estimate P Estimate P
Happiness ← Aesthetics 0.091 0.068 0.251 0.002 1.688*
Relaxing ← Aesthetics 1.076 0.000 1.579 0.000 2.422**
Notes ***p-value < 0.01; **p-value < 0.05; *p-value < 0.10

6 Conclusion

Happiness level helps to understand the value of holiday experiences for tourists,
thus being a topic of increasing relevance to the study, practice, and promotion of
tourism (Filep 2012b). In light of this, the present study builds upon existing
research on the determinants of tourist happiness. More specifically, the impact of,
aesthetic characteristics of a destination and tourist moral values are included in our
conceptual model. Despite our theoretical assumptions, results from empirical
analysis helped us to reshape the model and thus only moral values and aesthetics
were included.
Interestingly, the study reflects the classic dichotomy between morality and
hedonism in influencing the happiness of individuals. In particular, the question of
if the happy life eventually reached by the means of ethics (through morality) or by
the means of aesthetics (through pleasure).
Our findings reveal that tourist happiness is mainly influenced by morality. In
particular, values such as being broad-minded, having a sense of social justice,
wisdom, loyalty, honesty, responsibility, honouring of parents and elders, polite-
ness, and true friendship are the main influencers of morality in tourism. Significant
evidence of such direct positive happiness effects arising from individuals’ moral
values sheds further light on the idea that holidays are a preferred vehicle for
experiencing happiness (Crick-Furman and Prentice 2000). In particular, this
research represents the empirical evidence that moral values as universals can
explain happiness across cultures, and beyond other situational factors. However,
when differences between two different types of tourist experiences were consid-
ered, empirical evidence shows that aesthetics plays an active role in assessing the
‘happy holiday’ for shopping tourists. Following Seligman’s (2002) argument on
authentic happiness, we broadly argue that happiness in tourism is shaped as the
‘meaningful life’; in such cases, individuals apply their strengths in activities that
contribute to the greater good, like developing friendships, having a strong sense of
social justice, or respecting the environment. However, shopping tourists simply
reach the so-called ‘pleasant life’ as a result of visiting sensorial pleasurable
destinations.
The findings of this study are useful for better understanding how tourists might
experience happiness, thus providing the basis for relevant managerial implications.
For instance, policy makers, destination marketers, and hospitality managers should
run promotion operations that underline the aesthetic characteristics of their offers
92 M. Pinna et al.

only when targeting shopping tourists, given that the happiness of the other type of
traveller is more linked to their morality.
Aside from the contributions of this study, there are some limitations that ought
to be mentioned. This study is highly site-specific (i.e. data was collected from only
a single geographical area), thus, in addition to the fact that the study is based on a
convenience sample with socio-demographic bias, our findings are hardly gener-
alizable. This suggests that it would be useful to repeat the study in other regions or
countries in order to evaluate the cross-cultural relevance of moral values.
Despite the contribution of this study to the understanding of tourist happiness,
potential research avenues exist. For example, as the association between moral
values and happiness has been proven, it is more likely that tourists’ inner char-
acteristics (e.g., psychological or emotional) should be further investigated, instead
of socio-demographic and situational ones. Furthermore, it might be interesting to
test the influence of moral values in tourism settings where the host population has
different religious values. Even if no difference would occur, the universal rele-
vance of moral values would be effectively proven.

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Florence: Tourism, Heritage
and Consumption

Marxiano Melotti

Abstract Florence is one of the major tourist destinations in Italy and its tourist
tradition dates back to the Gran Tour time. The Grand Tour played an important
role in the construction of its image and still exerts an influence on today’s political
and tourist narratives. In Florence, and in other Italian towns, we can discern an
advanced theming process: history and heritage are largely used to culturalize
consumption. The Grand Tour approach to beauty and history, which was mainly
emotional and open to reinvention, has been converted into a postmodern rewriting
of the past where even art masterworks are used to transmit emotions and transform
consumption into a cultural experience. The centre of Florence has become a
specialized tourist district where visitors can perform a complete consumption
activity. Tourism is also an important economic driver and the success of Florence
had enhanced political discourses emphasizing its role for the country.

1 Introduction

Florence is “good to think”—to say it with Lévi-Strauss (1962)—the increasing

relationships between tourism, globalization and cultural change. This city is one of
the major tourist destinations in Italy and has an important tourist tradition dating
back to the golden age of the Grand Tour (Brilli 1995).
It is not easy to give reliable numbers about its visitors. Cities, museums and
cultural attractions, in continuous competition, tend to publish constantly increasing
numbers. The first difficulty, however, is due to the area itself to which the data
refer: the sources often mix data concerning the traditional urban contexts and the
new metropolitan areas. Furthermore, the increasing use of high-speed trains allows
tourists to visit Florence in one day, from Rome, Milan or other towns, leaving no

M. Melotti (&)
Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 97

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
98 M. Melotti

traces of their passage in hotel registers. Anyway in 2015, according to Istat, the
Italian Statistical Institute, Florence received 4.8 million tourists (71.1% from
abroad), with 13.5 million overnights. Venice, the other great Italian destination of
cultural tourism, received 8.6 million tourists, with 15.8 overnights. Rome and
Milan respectively received 9.7 and 7.3 million tourists, with 27.4 and 15.8 million
overnights. But these are big cities, with much larger populations (Rome has 2.8
million inhabitants and its metropolitan municipality 4.3; Milan has 1.3 million
inhabitants and its metropolitan municipality 3.2 million). Moreover, they have
much more diversified economies and attract many visitors also for other reasons,
including politics and business, pilgrimage and fashion. Florence has less than
400,000 inhabitants and its metropolitan municipality 1 million. Therefore, the
impact of tourism, which mainly concerns its centre, is much stronger (on average,
more than 25,000 visitors overnight in its historical centre every day).
This article aims at pointing out the constitutive role of the Grand Tour gaze in
the construction of the image of Florence, its persistent influence on today’s tourist
practices and political discourses, and the effects exerted by the cultural change of
late-modern and postmodern age.

2 The Grand Tour and Reinvention of Florence

A room with a view, the celebrated novel by Foster (1908), is only one of the many
literary documents of the international success of Florence. This town, with its
wonderful art collections widespread in churches, mansions and museums, is really
a tourist must. Moreover, it offers a peculiar atmosphere, where the educational
purposes of the Grand Tour easily meet leisure. Its fine natural surroundings form a
large cultural landscape particularly appealing to tourists, but, according to the
English writer, its inhabitants seem quite unaware of the great beauty of the places
where they live and behave, following their strong basic instincts, from love to
violence.
Art itself seems to boost an atmosphere of excesses, with masterworks depicting
scenes of murder and sensuality. Therefore, in his opinion, Italy exerts a “pernicious
charm”: north-western European tourists, educated in a much more restraining
culture and not accustomed to such an atmosphere, perceive the “otherness” of the
town and eventually react to it with a change of mind. The underlying idea is that
Florence can transform its visitors. Of course, this is only a romantic and literary
view, mainly inspired by an intellectual idea of tourism, regarded as an initiatory
experience. Anyway, the image of Florence as a special space where nurture meets
nature and education meets leisure is deep-rooted. Forster draws on the typical
Grand Tour and Romantic image, shaped in two centuries of tourism, and confirms
this view, which, also thanks to his novel, enters the new century and permeates not
only modern tourism but also the self-representation of the town and its main urban
and cultural policies. The award-winning film that in 1985 James Ivory derived
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption 99

from that novel reaffirmed this traditional image of the town. Almost eighty year
after its publication, Florence remained a “view” worthy of being experienced.
This close connection between “view” and tourism is something that scholars
know very well. Urry (1990), in a seminal work, aptly explained that the rela-
tionship between visitors and places is mainly constructed through the “gaze”: an
interactive action that simplifies and reshapes the space according to tourists’
expectations. On the other hand, tourists often consume a “staged” image of the
place, constructed to meet their expectations (MacCannell 1976). Florence, like
many other tourist destinations, has longstanding experience of the gaze described
by Foster: tourists look at the town through the windows of their guesthouse and
their gaze defines a mental and visual picture that frames their whole experience.
But, even before, they search for images that meet their desires. Therefore, they
look at an image of the town shaped for them. The whole town becomes a large
picture or the result of many pictures: the tourist gaze splits and reshapes the space
through watercolours, postcards and photos.
After becoming the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1865 (four years after
its proclamation), Florence underwent a large urban renovation (Brilli 2014). It had
to transmit the image of a modern State, proud of its history and traditions but also
open to novelty and change, whose capital had to compete with other European
capitals, including Paris and Vienna. Hence the building of a system of imposing
boulevards and a suburban promenade on the hill beyond Arno River, with stair-
ways, balconies and terraces offering a breathtaking view of the city (Agostini
2002; Maccabruni and Marchi 2015; Tiberi 2014). The jewel of this system,
designed by a distinguished architect, Giuseppe Poggi, was Piazzale Michelangelo.
From this large terrace, inaugurated in 1869, it was possible to see the whole town
as in a postcard: Florence had its “view”. The town had rebuilt itself according to
the Grand Tour gaze, giving material consistency to the mental image spread by the
Grand Tour paintings and watercolours.
Florence became a kind of large view, symbolically represented by the panorama
from Piazzale Michelangelo: an urban space built on emotions, to be visually
consumed in a sensorial way. Piazzale Michelangelo appears as a metaphor of the
touristization undergone by the city and, indirectly, by the whole country: a place
showing the cultural change due to tourism and the tourist gaze. This self-reshaping
process defined a visual and emotional way of consuming the town that still per-
sists. Moreover, the aesthetic design of the built environment tends to influence the
tourist consumption of the space (Maitland and Smith 2009). Filtered through the
tourist gaze, the urban space becomes a system of characteristic views (the river, the
bridge, the tower, the church, the square, the façade, the statue) where the single
places and the single pieces are detached from their historical, social and cultural
context and are re-framed according to the viewer’s individual perspective. Yet,
also the native residents, accustomed to their city and not necessarily interested in
its glorious and magnificent past, may live the space in a quite a-historical way. But
they belong to a historically-shaped community and their life and behaviour reflect
this fact.
100 M. Melotti

The defragmentation operated by the tourist gaze can potentially conflict with
the resident gaze, since the two groups use the space differently. From this point of
view, Florence seems an interesting social laboratory, where residents and tourists
live together with only minor conflicts. “Disneyization”—a stimulating concept of
urban sociology (Bryman 2004), once used only by scholars—is now used also by
municipal administrators, together with the twin concept of “McDonaldization”
(Ritzer 1996), to denounce the risks entailed by the development of tourism in
urban areas. But they seem to have eventually accepted this process as an almost
inescapable effect of modernization and globalization. In fact, “modern” Florence
(the town reshaped in the late 19th century) has established a symbiotic relationship
with tourism, which, as shows the case of Piazzale Michelangelo, has even helped
to define its urban space.

3 Residents, Foreigners and the Construction of the Past

Since the 19th century Florence has hosted a substantial foreign community, mainly
of British, German and French citizens. This cultured and sophisticated group,
including many artists and socialites, has played a considerable intermediary role
between tourists and native residents, has contributed to implementing the inter-
national appeal of the city and has also helped the local community to understand
the tourist expectations and the alien gaze. If today the city can receive huge flows
of tourists without too many conflicts, despite the problems they raise, is also thanks
to this longstanding presence of foreign residents.
These foreigners have also actively contributed to the self-reshaping of the town
and have helped to lay the bases for its touristization and, later, Disneyization:
mansions and parks, buildings and gardens have been systematically restored and
sometimes reshaped according to a romantic view of the past. As wrote Mable
Dodge-Luhan, a famous American socialite who lived for eight years in a 16th
century Medici villa near Florence, in this town “everyone played with the past”,
which “was the material of their day” (Campbell 2011). This way the Medieval and
Renaissance town has turned to flourish. Their attention to history is often ascribed
to the refined profile of these foreign residents, portrayed as belonging to the
mythical golden age preceding mass tourism. Yet, in their creative and often fan-
ciful approach to history and the past, it is possible to discern an early element of
the a-historical approach of modern tourism, anticipating the post-historical stand of
both postmodern and post-postmodern tourism. Anyhow, Florence often seems to
be a kid activity carpet where visitors can play with history.
This free use of history, which entails a reinvention of the past, is common to
quite distinct cultural periods, such as modernity and postmodernity. Besides, this
reinvention is often due to a powerful actor: the national State. After the unification
of Italy (1861), the new Kingdom needed a national narrative. Florence, which was
its capital for some years (1865–1871), after Turin and before Rome, needed a
narrative consistent with the national one. History and heritage were used for this
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption 101

purpose, as usually happens (Hobsbawm 1983). Middle Ages and Renaissance

became easy tools to create a new powerful and unifying narrative. Florence, with
its huge and substantially preserved Medieval and Renaissance heritage, could be
seen as the cultural and historical core of the new country. Therefore, the State
undertook an important process of material reconstruction of its heritage by
restoring ancient palaces and erecting new “old” ones mixing the eclectic approach
of the Romantic age with a careful mimicry of the past.
Thus, the centre of Florence became an unpredictable mix of restored original
buildings, modern eclectic-style buildings and brand-new buildings presented as
pieces of the past. The most striking intervention was the Neo-Gothic façade of
Santa Maria del Fiore, which in 1887 replaced the original one, which had been
demolished in the 16th century (Cresti et al. 1987). Now tourists admire a modern
façade offering an idea of the past, according to the processes of reinvention of
history and tradition. Another example is the so-called “Casa di Dante”: a medieval
building, supposed to be the house of the great poet that the new Kingdom regarded
as the father of the Italian culture. In 1911 the building underwent a deep process of
“recover and reconstruction” which eliminated alien elements and inserted new
ones, in order to obtain a typical medieval house worthy of the new national secular
cult. In front of that building they also created a little square, in order to ensure the
space and the visual perspective apt to a monument and fit to the tourist gaze. This
house, used as a museum, has become a highlight of cultural tourism.
To sum up, the Medieval and Renaissance landscape of the town is the result of a
vast, long and complex process of urban renovation, which went far beyond the
usual transformation of any urban space and was specifically due to a political
project of visual reconstruction of the historical heritage. This process was con-
sistent with the cosmopolitan and educated gaze of foreign residents who, though
for other reasons, were in search of the same mythical past as the new Italian nation.
The Anglo-Florentine, by “mythologizing their setting, completed their retreat from
modern life” (Campbell 2011). They did not consume Italy as a real contemporary
country, but as a remain of the past, according to the model of the Grand Tour time,
when foreign visitors, consistently with an initiatory concept of the tourist expe-
rience, were in search of a kind of “otherness” from their “civilized” world. In such
a framework the beautiful Florence, as well as whole Italy, was mainly regarded as
a primitive and premodern space; and this was one of the aspects that enhanced the
success of the city and the country in international tourism.
Yet this “primitivistic” view, not particularly flattering for the Italians, was
curiously consistent with the national narrative, which, through the reinvention of
the past, aimed at glorifying the new State. In fact, that late Grand Tour image was
the only one available in a country still lacking a strong unified self-image. In short,
it is possible to say that were the Grand Tourists to create the image of Italy as a
country of otherness, beauty and art.
102 M. Melotti

4 Old and New Narratives Between Tourism and Heritage

This paradoxical encounter between tourist gaze and national narrative has defined
modern Italy: it has shaped both its politics and its cultural tourism, which, despite
their differences, may be seen as a long wave of the Grand Tour.
A good example of this continuity is the use of Michelangelo’s David. This
Renaissance masterpiece, created between 1501 and 1504 and placed at the
entrance to the city’s town hall (now known as Palazzo Vecchio), was soon
regarded as a symbol of Florence, an independent city-state obliged to defend itself
against powerful enemies. Not by chance the architect who designed Piazzale
Michelangelo placed its replica at the centre of the terrace overlooking the city.
That statue, which had already become a tourist icon, was also chosen as a mark of
national identity, able to prove the uniqueness of Italian cultural heritage. But, to
show this uniqueness, they made a copy (more precisely, a first copy, as a few years
later another copy was placed in Piazza della Signoria, since in 1873 the original
was moved to the Accademia Gallery). This replica started a transcultural process of
serialization of the uniqueness, consistent with the iconic value of the sculpture,
which arrived at today’s plastic souvenirs. Nowadays the David is deeply
embedded in a global discourse of heritage exploitation and is currently used in
commercials, web jokes and even campaigns against globalization.
One of the main uses of the David is connected with its nude “virility”: tourist
postcards, pictures and selfies usually point at his penis. In such a playful
exploitation of his image, we can discern another traditional element derived from
the Grand Tour gaze and implicitly present also in Foster’s novel: Italy as a place of
moral otherness and sexual laxity, where the northern visitors could experience
what was prohibited or not accepted in their countries. This situation has inspired
the myth of the Latin lover, where, once again, the imagery of visitors paradoxically
meets the proud self-representation of the visited. The David has become a symbol
of this image of Italy, which is still alive and active, as tourist behaviour in front of
the statue and tourist postcards confirm.
This attitude, however, goes beyond tourist industry and even includes present
politics, which, in a loop, contributes to defining the tourist image of the country
and its cultural policies. In 2015 the then Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi,
decided to host the last meeting of a bilateral summit with the German Chancellor,
Angela Merkel, inside the Accademia Gallery, just at the foot of the David original
statue. Once again, the intention was to present the image of a country proud of its
extraordinary heritage and, as Renzi claimed, founded on beauty and ready to
revive its Renaissance (Melotti 2016a). We have to recall that Renzi had been
mayor of Florence and his narrative about Renaissance is strongly related to this
phase of his political life. It was a strong message, which, despite its alleged
novelty, used the same narrative created in the late 19th century by the new Italian
Kingdom and the sophisticated foreign community in Florence. The Accademia
Gallery, thanks to its David, is the fourth most visited cultural attraction in Italy (1.5
million visitors in 2016). Therefore, the meeting also entered a political discourse
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption 103

directly connected with tourism, which in Italy is increasingly regarded as its main
industry, allegedly capable of reversing the current trend of economic crisis. Not by
chance the meeting with the German Chancellor ended with a tourist visit to the
Uffizi Gallery, one of the main Italian cultural institutions (the third most visited in
the country: 2 million visitors in 2016).
During the visit, as was reported by the press, Renzi acted as a guide, showing
her the town from the windows of the museum. National news commented the
event by explaining that the young Italian Premier tried to “soften” the German
Chancellor “with the beauty of Florence” (TG2 2015). Some reporters arrived at
suggesting a loving atmosphere: they showed a photo of the Italian Premier
embracing the German Chancellor, who reacted with a tender gaze, and commented
that Renzi “hooked” Angela Merkel, who was “charmed, hit, stupefied and stunned
by that full immersion in art and culture” (Mauro 2015). Other columnists joked on
the male charm of the young Premier using heritage to enchant the northern guest,
notoriously distrustful of Italian politics. To sum up, the whole news system con-
veyed an idea directly inspired by the Grand Tour imagery, when many visitors
came to Italy not only to admire its masterworks but also to exploit its inhabitants
sensually and even sexually. The Italian “cicerone” charming foreign female
tourists is part of the traditional Italian self-representation, as is testified by many
Italian films. Once again we can trace a close connection between tourism, heritage
and politics based on Grand Tour, beauty and sex.

5 Food, Theming and Disneyization

In Florence, among the various effects of this long-standing tourist tradition, there is
also an advanced theming process: history, heritage and the past are largely used to
culturalize consumption. One of the most remarkable examples is the great food
store Eataly, an Italian brand that in 10 years’ activity has become a global firm,
with branches in New York, Moscow, Tokyo and other major cities. Eataly’s
“concept” is to sell not only high-quality food, but also an Italianate experience,
mainly based on local authenticity: every product conveys the history and traditions
of a particular geographical area. We are inside a global process, where food mania
is accompanied by the rediscovery of typical local productions and an alleged
attention to sustainability (Costa 2013; Melotti 2016b). This trend runs parallel with
slow tourism, which in the recent years has become one of the most sophisticated
forms of European tourism. The 2015 Milan EXPO (entitled “Nourishing the
world”) helped boost this attention to food, quality and sustainability, which are
increasingly important elements in tourist experiences. After Milan EXPO, many
Italian towns have undergone an extensive transformation in their tourist and
commercial offer, with a growing number of shops and bistros boasting the fine
quality and “local authenticity” of their food and wine.
Eataly’s store in Florence is inside a building in a vague Renaissance style, just
in the centre, near the Cathedral. Its interior is themed after Renaissance, with a
104 M. Melotti

light storytelling by a famous Italian writer in some posters placed on the main
figures of the Florentine Renaissance. The shopping experience is culturalized by
this theming and the store itself acquires a museum-like aspect consistent with the
current processes of theming and musealization.
The Grand Tour approach to beauty and history, mainly of emotional character
and open to reinvention, is here converted into a postmodern rewriting of the past,
where art masterworks transmit sensory emotions to be related to food and used to
transform its consumption into a cultural experience.
Not by chance food is one of the few domains in which, in 2016, the City
Council of Florence and the local UNESCO committee tried to impose a policy
partially conflicting with tourist behaviour and consumption: they required
restaurants to pay more attention to local food and traditions. The new rules affected
many low-budget, ethnic and fast-food restaurants as well as minimarkets. Many
media applauded the initiative with titles like “Stop to degradation” (Vanni 2016).
In such a context, McDonald’s was denied the permission to open a restaurant near
the Cathedral, though it had promised to respect the 50% of Tuscan food as
requested by the UNESCO committee. The rules aimed at sanitizing the city centre
and reflected a stand against globalization, McDonaldization and Disneyization.
A local Facebook group “against burgers and banalization of commerce” reached
13,000 members. But, according to some observers, the regulations arrived too late,
because Florence had already become “a tourist Luna Park” with a centre without
residents, transformed into a sort of large museum or, rather, a non-lieu (Tedesco
2016). Anyhow, this de facto anti-global policy did not affect the omnivorous
brands of global luxury, which occupy almost every space in the centre. Once
again, we can discern the resilience of the Grand Tour imprinting on the tourism
system of the town: tourism and everyday consumption, which have become more
and more indistinguishable, must be rich-friendly and reserved—in Bauman’s
(1998) words—to “those high-up.” The town, crowded by an increasing number of
tourists, can afford the luxury (or, rather, the dream) of choosing its visitors.
Many criticize the effects of tourist industry and tourist behaviour in a rather
snobbish way. But the city centre shows a serious transformation largely due to
tourism. In the last 5 years 5000 houses of the historical centre have become Air
B&Bs and the flats and rooms to rent have arrived at about 14,000; in the last 15
years about 20,000 residents have left the centre to avoid mass tourism or to rent
their houses to tourists; in the last 25 years about 30,000 traditional shops have
handed over their place to tourism-oriented activities. This is a drastic change, able
to raise tensions between residents and tourists. But, on the other hand, this change
ensures precious incomes to many inhabitants. This limits the conflicts by creating
symbiotic relationships between tourists and residents. Furthermore, in Italy tour-
ism is an effective economic driver and the tourist success of Florence gives its
inhabitants the idea of being a strategic resource for the country. Anyhow, the city
centre has become a large specialized tourist district, where visitors can enjoy a
complete consumption experience, which includes sleeping in beautiful B&Bs,
eating in fine restaurants, visiting many cultural attractions and, of course, shop-
ping, shopping and shopping.
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption 105

6 A New Cultural Landscape: Museums and Shopping

Culture

Under many aspects this is not a novelty. In Florence richness and heritage have
been historically built on commerce. The Medici, its most famous “princely”
family, were wealthy merchants and bankers, acting in an international context. The
city centre was a diffused market, with many shops and artisan enterprises. As
Maitland and Smith (2009) reminded (quoting Cuthbert 2006), “when we admire
the appearance of medieval towns such as Florence, Siena or Burges, we are first
and foremost respecting a form of production and consciousness—merchant capi-
talism.” Thus the recent transformation of the main central area of Florence into an
open shopping mall may be regarded as a kind of “renaissance” of the cosmopolitan
economic success that was at the base of its historical Renaissance. Yet present
globalization offers a quite different context: almost all luxury and commercial
brands that consume the city and use its ancient buildings are global firms hardly
connected with local production. The town mainly acts as a huge diffused shopping
window.
This does not conflict with cultural tourism: contemporary tourism is largely
based on consumption. Culture itself is presented and perceived as a commodity to
be consumed, while consumption activities, also through theming, are presented
and perceived as cultural activities. Liquid society (Bauman 2000) has implemented
this convergence of different experiences: culture, shopping and tourism have
become part of the same liquid activity of consumption. Urban spaces, with
museums and shops, tend to be the perfect hub for this mixture, and heritage cities,
like Florence, represent an ultimate destination.
Among the many examples of this convergence, we can mention the Gucci and
Ferragamo museums. These world-famous fashion brands have set up their own
museums inside two elegant ancient buildings in the centre of Florence. The
Ferragamo Museum (which was opened in 1995) is inside a palace that in the
Middle Ages could compete with Palazzo Vecchio (the iconic seat of the civic
government) and in the 19th century hosted the Italian government, when Florence
became capital of the country. The Gucci Museum (which was opened in 2011) is
inside a palace that in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance hosted the headquarters
of the guilds. Also owing to this fact, this museum can present itself as an element
of the longstanding cultural and economic history of a town that has always been
based on commerce and handicraft. The antiquity of its building and its proximity
to Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery suggest a conceptual equivalence of these
spaces: Gucci Museum would have the same status as the Uffizi Gallery, since both
house, protect and display pieces of the history of the town, and the same status as
Palazzo Vecchio, as an alternative focal point in the contemporary urban life. The
museum exhibits its collection of luxury bags and suitcases. Thus it provides a
heritagization and musealization of these important elements of travel culture and
brings about a celebration of the contemporary global community of travellers.
Gucci and Ferragamo museums change the landscape of the town, giving visual
106 M. Melotti

consistency to the culture of shopping. Anyhow, in a postmodern society, the stores

of local and global brands are no longer “alien” spaces, not connected with history
and heritage, but are lively parts of the cultural and tourist life of the city.
The same happens inside the “traditional” museums, which are increasingly
open to commercial and private events and appear more and more integrated into
“outside” secular life. A good example of this change is the 2012 fashion show
organized by Stefano Ricci’s firm inside the Uffizi Gallery. This event, completely
disconnected from the place, was themed on the European colonial culture: at a
certain point eight “real” Maasai burst onto the catwalk, with spears and red clothes,
creating a colourful effect in front of a white marble sculpture. The idea was to offer
a “breath-taking beauty and style in an incredible space”, presenting “the Maasai
primitive beauty” (La Nazione 2012). Once again postmodernity, with its odd
liquidity, returns to the colonial mind of the Grand Tour, fascinated by “primitive”
cultures. Anyhow, the most authoritative Italian museum has entered the global and
commercial dynamics of postmodern society. This has exerted an effect on both its
image and its appeal, since its new liquid dimension better meets the cultural
change ongoing in the city and its tourism. But this entails a rough change in the
status of a museum. Some scholars have even denounced the “brothelization” of the
museums involved in such processes (Montanari 2012).
Other examples of the current cultural change are the gorgeous wedding cele-
brated in the city. In 2014 the lavish wedding at Forte Belvedere between the
American star Kim Kardashian and the American rapper and fashion designer
Kanye West was a global media event, which cost about 30 million dollars. In 2015
the fabulous wedding between two wealthy scions of the Indian high society
entailed three days of feasts and celebrations in ravishing Indian dresses, with
banquets, parades, medieval flag-wavers, armigers, damsels etc. There was even a
“symbolic reconstruction” of the villages of the two newly-weds and for a day Arno
River became a sort of Ganges. Also this event produced substantial revenue for the
city (5 million euro for the organization, 1.2 million for 600 hotel rooms, 100,000
for the use of an important public square, 58,000 for restoring a public fountain,
20,000 for local stay-taxes etc.).
Wedding industry is a developing sector of tourism (Arosio 2010; Del Chiappa
and Fortezza 2006). The Italian “romantic” towns, such as Florence and Venice, are
very well positioned in this business and Italy is the leading country in this tourism,
which in 2015 produced revenue of about 400 million euro. Events like the two
sumptuous weddings mentioned above obtain an extraordinary media coverage,
which fosters the trend. In 2016 Florence hosted the third world congress of the
Destination Wedding Planners, which was attended by professionals from more
than 50 countries.
We are inside an emotional use of urban space and heritage, where we can single
out both the tradition of the Grand Tour and the new postmodern approach to
tourism. Florence, once again, acts as a huge “room with a view.” But now those
who shape the urban space with their gaze are not cultivated Europeans citizens but
people from much more faraway countries, whose presence itself transforms the
town. And this, for certain, is globalization.
Florence: Tourism, Heritage and Consumption 107

7 Outlets and Global Cultural Landscape

The increasingly global image of Florence is also proved by the spreading of the
malls branded “Florentia Village” (after the Latin name of the town): a chain of
luxury designer outlets already present in four Chinese cities (Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Tianjin and Hong Kong). According to the current theming trend, they
mimicry Italians towns and use the flavour of Italian fashion, culture and lifestyle to
shape an effective space of consumption (Melotti 2016a, c). Yet what they recreate
is a liquid image of Florence, where the urban space is a synthesis of the Italian
tourist highlights, including the Roman Colosseum and the Venetian canals and
gondolas. These malls want to be not only commercial centres but also tourist and
leisure spaces for the members of the rapidly developing Chinese middle class,
which through these mimicries begin to experience Florence and Italy and prepare
(or, more and more often, revive) their visit to Italy.
These themed malls, however, are present even in Italy. Not far from Florence
there is a mall themed after its Middle Ages and Renaissance: the Barberino
Designer Outlet. This mall, owned by McArthurGlen, a company related to the
Florentia Village chain, offers the same fanciful mimicry of the Italian urban spaces
as the Chinese malls.
These outlets enter the tourist dynamics not only because foreign tourists are
their privileged target but also because they try to change their use of time. These
tourists, with only a few hours at their disposal, have to choose between shopping
and museums as well as between the urban shopping districts and the new suburban
shopping malls. Therefore, these malls tend to present themselves as cultural places
and organize shows, exhibitions and other events.
The Barberino outlet is part of this new cultural landscape that changes the time
and space dynamics of the territory. In its website it presents itself as the place that
tourists must visit before the city, explaining that “Florence is only at 30 minutes”
from there, and not vice versa. This conceptual reversal between centre and
periphery, as well as between tradition and modernity, well epitomizes the present
cultural change and its effects on tourism behaviour.

8 Conclusion

The image of Florence was deeply shaped by the Grand Tour, of which it was one
of the main destinations. The Grand Tour, after the reunification of Italy (1861),
also influenced the self-representation of the new Kingdom, of which Florence was
the capital for some years. But even afterwards it continued to influence the image
of Florence and Italy and their cultural and tourist policies up to the late postmodern
period and its incipient overcoming, fostered by the recent economic crisis.
In fact, the liquid character of the present society recalls some aspects of the
Grand Tour culture, with its emotional and sensory approach to the past. Moreover,
108 M. Melotti

there is now a remarkable mixture of culture and consumption in tourist activities,

also through various forms of culturalization of consumption, including
history-themed outlets and malls. There is also an interesting convergence between
suburban themed malls and central commercial districts.
Florence is a case in point. It clearly shows the liveliness of this approach,
particularly evident in its centre, which has become a diffused shopping area,
crowded by tourists in search not only of art and culture but also of high-quality
food and branded products. On the other hand, some world-famous commercial
brands have opened their museums in the centre of town while some of the most
important traditional museums have become to host commercial initiatives of
glamorous brands.
Florence has really become a model, as proves, as is also proved by the
spreading in China of malls themed on its Renaissance. This does not mean that
there are no problems: tourism generates its own contrasts and conflicts. But, at the
moment, what seems to prevail is its increasing success, with the consequent
economic benefits, which has recently influenced also Italian politics and political
discourse.

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Conceptualising Challenging
Experiences and Post-Travel Culture
Involvement

Daria Tikhonova, Sangkyun Kim and Gareth Butler

Abstract When cultural differences are significant and contact is relatively brief, it
can be difficult to find personal relevance in the cultures of others, let alone develop
an enduring interest in the host cultures, which would continue after travel. This
chapter addresses these cultural tourism issues by examining the relationship
between the concepts of challenge and post-travel culture involvement, and their
association with self-development. The conceptual framework proposed here draws
on interconnected theories from acculturation, cognitive appraisal and positive
psychology, as well as relevant literature on immersive, memorable, adventure and
transformative tourist experiences. It concludes that the acculturation process
models and the stress, appraisal and coping theory are the most helpful for
explaining this underlying relationship and for providing a more nuanced under-
standing of challenge in the context of cultural tourism.

1 Introduction

As the notion of culture in tourism has gradually expanded to incorporate all

possible aspects of everyday life of ordinary people, so has the meaning of cultural
tourism (Smith 2015). In terms of the sheer volume of people travelling to expe-
rience other cultures, cultural tourism has also grown to become the new mass
tourism (Du Cros and McKercher 2015). Some tourists treat their cultural adven-
tures much more seriously than others (Stebbins 1996), but learning about distant
places and people is a very common reason to travel, often combined with relax-
ation and entertainment (Jovicic 2016).
Still, when cultural differences are significant and contact is relatively brief, it
can be difficult to find personal relevance in the cultures of others (Timothy 1998),

D. Tikhonova (&)
G. Butler

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
S. Kim
School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 111

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
112 D. Tikhonova et al.

let alone develop a level of interest in the host culture that would last “beyond the
time and space of the vacation” (Hough 2011, p. 88; Lean 2012). The issue of
personal relevance has been addressed through the concepts of emotion, embodi-
ment, performativity, co-creation, creativity, and involvement and immersion
(Edensor 1998; Mossberg et al. 2014; Rakić and Chambers 2012; Richards and
Wilson 2006; Robinson and Picard 2012), all of which are integral to the under-
standing of sense of place and place attachment (Scannell and Gifford 2010). The
research on the last two concepts, in particular, has dealt with helping tourists feel
and understand the essence of the place, and build an invisible emotional bond with
it and its residents through active cognitive, emotional and sensory engagement
(Biran et al. 2006; Poria 2010). It has also explored how to create new long-lasting
memories where tourists’ past life experiences intertwine with new experiences of
foreign cultural realities (Shamsuddin and Ujang 2008). As for long-term interest,
while other tourism outcomes such as post-trip satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth
and intention to revisit have received considerable attention (Carlson et al. 2016;
Kastenholz et al. 2013), the question of tourists’ enduring involvement with another
culture has been generally overlooked. The subject of how sojourners (short-term
travellers) develop a feeling of affiliation with other cultural groups has largely
remained the domain of cross-cultural psychology (Rasmi et al. 2014; Robinson
2013).
This chapter addresses these knowledge gaps by further integrating acculturation
research into tourism studies. In particular, it approaches the issues of personal
relevance and long-term interest in international tourism by examining the rela-
tionship between the concepts of challenge and post-travel culture involvement, and
their association with self-development. Emerging research on transformative travel
suggests that challenging cultural experiences should be actively facilitated and that
organised tour programs can be particularly conducive to personal transformations
(Christie and Mason 2003; Coghlan and Gooch 2011). Given their growth pro-
moting qualities, challenging experiences can be stimulating and enriching, and
encourage further interest in continuous engagement with the host culture (Kanning
2013).
However, the close relationship between challenge and post-travel culture
involvement has not been previously studied. The challenge aspect of tourist
experiences is an emerging area of research. To the exception of a few studies
(Pomfret 2006; Tsaur et al. 2013; Tung and Ritchie 2011), references to challenge
are quite anecdotal, offering no clear conceptualisations of the construct, and the
research on post-travel (posit-visit) culture involvement is particularly limited. In
this chapter a conceptual framework is proposed for the relationship between these
concepts, drawing on interconnected theories from acculturation (Berry 1997; Ward
et al. 2001), cognitive appraisal (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) and positive psy-
chology (Csikszentmihalyi 1975), as well as relevant literature on immersive,
memorable, adventure and transformative tourist experiences. It concludes that the
acculturation process models and the stress, appraisal and coping theory are the
most helpful for conceptualising this underlying relationship in the context of
cultural tourism and for providing a more nuanced understanding of challenge.
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 113

2 Literature Review

Culture involvement, also known as culture immersion, is a domain of qualitative

research on backpackers, lifestyle travellers and voluntourists (Buddhabhumbhitak
2010; Coghlan and Gooch 2011; Sin 2009). Current research on this subject has
been underpinned by the contact hypothesis (Amir 1969) and has focused on
tourists’ immersive behaviour during travel and their experiences of self-change.
Emphasising the primacy of contact between tourists and hosts, the literature
maintains that people are more likely to seek cultural involvement when engaging
in participative, interactive, authentic and creative experiences (Jansson 2007;
Mkono 2013; Reisinger 2013a). Only then the foreign is likely to become highly
personal and consequently meaningful, despite cultural differences. Personal
growth, self-actualisation and self-identity transformations are exemplified as per-
sonal development outcomes of such tourist experiences, together with improved
appreciation of cultural differences. There is a lack of research, however, on how
individual-level outcomes of travel experienced by tourists continue to evolve over
time, and post-travel culture involvement is a noticeable example of an insuffi-
ciently explored theme in this context. Published in Reisinger’s (2013b) timely
volume on transformational tourism, some exceptions include the studies of
Grabowski (2013) and Kanning (2013) who examine the changes experienced by
tourists after they returned home, including their relationship with the places
visited.
This gap in research on post-travel culture involvement is both surprising and
not. On the one hand, its long-term benefits to the individual and the host culture are
difficult to overlook and underestimate. Building on past cultural experiences
through further self-education and participation in ethnic community events, for
example, not only supports life-long learning but can also improve cross-cultural
understanding and thus strengthen appreciation of cultural diversity in multicultural
societies. On the other hand, tourism is, after all, a temporary activity and the
connections developed during travel may not be expected to last. As Lean (2012,
p. 152) notes, “the effects of travel are often only temporary, falling by the wayside
as more pertinent concerns [are] capturing one’s attention upon their return”. Even
the intimate and frequent contact provided in voluntourism programs may not be
enough for tourists to “stay connected” with the destination and its culture
(Raymond and Hall 2008, p. 537). The limitations of the contact hypothesis for
resolving cultural stereotypes are also pointed out by Tomljenovic (2010, p. 17)
who found that having opportunity for interaction and participation is not enough to
“bring about greater understanding and mutual liking between people”.
In search for the solutions to these issues, a growing number of scholars are
recognising the need to facilitate not only pleasant and immersive but also chal-
lenging experiences during travel. Tourists who seek deep cultural experiences are
motivated by learning about others as well as themselves (McKercher and du Cros
2003). As demonstrated by the rich post-travel interview data collected by Kanning
(2013), improved awareness of the self and one’s position in the world can be
114 D. Tikhonova et al.

accompanied by changes to cultural assumptions; increased personal relevance of

what was experienced; and stronger emotional connection with the place and
interest in it. To understand what stimulates tourists’ psychological transformation,
as well as adoption of foreign cultural practices into one’s “daily routine”
Grabowski (2013, p. 185) turns to acculturation theory. It suggests that these
individual-level changes come not with any cultural contact but with experience of
associated challenges as their triggers.
Acculturation research examines how behavioural and attitudinal orientations
towards host cultures in terms of host culture immersion and home culture main-
tenance change in response to a number of situational factors and depending on the
individual characteristics of sojourners (Sam 2006). This approach to acculturation
differentiates between four sets of bidimensional acculturation strategies: two
adaptive, i.e. integration and assimilation, and two maladaptive, i.e. separation and
marginalisation. The full list of factors is presented in Table 1 based on the
acculturation models by Berry (1997) and Ward et al. (2001).
Furthermore, acculturation theory differentiates between interaction with hosts
and participation in their culture, and between degrees of culture immersion across
different domains (elements) of culture (Arends-Tóth and van de Vijver 2004). The
acculturation approach to the primacy of contact for deep cultural engagement also
appears to be more flexible than the one held by proponents of the contact theory.
While contact is viewed as a building block of cultural adaptation in acculturation
literature, Sam (2006, p. 14) suggests that “perhaps, the issues of “how long” or
“continuous” contact in themselves are not as important as the resulting change
following the contact”. A large sub-set of acculturation literature also deals with the
notion of acculturative stress in the context of difficult cultural encounters. As Ward
et al. (2001, p. 45) explain, “the construct of acculturation [is] being increasingly
used as a replacement for the term ‘culture shock’ ’’. While “culture shock” implies
a purely negative valence of stress, acculturation has been also linked to positive
adaptation outcomes for individuals (Berry 2006; van der Zee and van Oudenhoven
2013). The validity of the five-stage culture shock model has also been questioned
in both acculturation and tourism literature, with Hottola (2004) proposing a

Table 1 Moderators of individual level acculturation

Individual level variables Situational level variables
Prior to contact During contact
Age, gender, education Social, political, Contact length, amount and quality
Migration motivation, and economic and Social support
expectations cultural Acculturation strategies
Cultural distance (language, characteristics of Other coping strategies
religion, values, identity) society of origin Societal attitudes
Personality Social, political, economic and
Pre-acculturation (training and cultural characteristics of society of
experience, cultural settlement
knowledge)
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 115

framework of “culture confusion” instead. The two most widely applied models of
acculturation belong to Berry (1997) and Ward et al. (2001): the acculturative stress
framework and the ABC (Affect, Behaviour, Cognition) model of acculturation
which incorporates Berry’s approach, as well as other theories.
Berry (1997) interprets acculturation attitudes and behaviours as coping
responses to external stressors. In the process of coping with stress, once it is
evaluated as a threat or a challenge, coping strategies are applied to deal with the
situation (Duhachek and Iacobucci 2005; van der Zee and van Oudenhoven 2013).
Depending on whether or not the stress presented by the demands of intercultural
contact is manageable, travellers choose one of the four bidimensional acculturation
strategies mentioned earlier. When demands are too high, they decide to separate or
marginalise, and when stress is manageable, assimilation or integration occurs. In
summary, the acculturation literature reviewed above shows that a change towards
increased host-culture involvement can be stimulated by facing difficulties of
cross-cultural adaptation that involve experience of manageable stress with which
an individual can cope. As explored further in more detail, manageable stress
functions as a critical component of what is known as “challenge”.

2.1 The Notion of Challenge

Discussion of challenging experiences in the context of intercultural contact can be

found in studies directly referring to challenge, as well as in the wider literature on
difficult, demanding, uncomfortable and confusing experiences. Indeed, cultural
tourism exposes people to a number of demands of intercultural contact which
utilise their mental and physical resources and can result in feelings of “social
awkwardness and physical discomfort” (Stebbins 1997, p. 450); cognitive disso-
nance (Christie and Mason 2003); disorientation (Coghlan and Gooch 2011); and
struggle (Sin 2009). These demands can include any of the 20 elements of culture
identified by Reisinger (2009) and incorporated in touristic activities, including
cultural values and such value-laden place meanings as sacredness and national
pride (Edensor 1998; Rakić and Chambers 2012). In international travel,
demanding experiences may also test tourists’ “perceptions of self and own cul-
ture”, essentially destabilising their self and cultural identities (Hirschorn and
Hefferon 2013, p. 285). As mentioned earlier, challenge can be associated with
some degree of stress. Negative effects of stress are addressed by culture shock
studies which highlight such undesirable outcomes as “psychological, emotional
and physical disturbance” (Brown and Holloway 2008, p. 45) that thwart adaptation
and strengthen negative attitudes towards hosts (Hottola 2004).
Despite the differences in terminology and acknowledgement of the negative
effects of stress, many scholars posit that manageable stress is still beneficial to
tourists’ learning and link it to significant personal gains (Falk et al. 2012).
Robinson (2013, p. 32), for example, draws attention to the importance of initial
“angst” of difficulty and discomfort of “breaking free” of familiar behaviours by
116 D. Tikhonova et al.

reading a menu in a foreign language or catching public transport to the nearest

attraction. The associated personal growth involves enhanced self-efficacy (Milstein
2005) and gaining a vast number of positive human qualities (Pearce and Packer
2013) as part of spiritual and intellectual development that can lead to memorable
tourism experiences (Horvath 2013). Furthermore, Pearce and Lee (2005) have
conceptualised the self-development motivation factor as consisting of both per-
sonal development and host-site involvement, linked by growth-related needs. To
sum up this research, tourists may need to apply effort at some point during their
travel if they are to experience any positive transformations and associated deep
intrinsic satisfaction (Falk et al. 2012; Stebbins 1996).
The key distinction lies in understanding what makes these experiences chal-
lenging, i.e. how such an evaluation comes about. The above mentioned examples
of difficult cultural tourism experiences discuss environmental stimuli as given
sources of challenge or demand which “create feelings such as fun, excitement,
surprise, danger or risk” (Cetin and Bilgihan 2016, p. 147). The few systematic
studies which examine sources of challenge within a broader experiential context,
however, demonstrate how a difficult situation is only a source of a potentially
challenging experience. The main theoretical perspectives and frameworks applied
in the relevant studies include the theory of flow from positive psychology
(Csikszentmihalyi 1975); frameworks of memorable tourist experience (Tung and
Ritchie 2011); and the transformative learning theory from education research
(Mezirow 1990). The ideas of challenge-skill balance and importance of intrinsic
motivation, central to the flow theory, have gained particular popularity in the
studies on highly risky and physically strenuous activities such as mountaineering,
demonstrating that challenging experiences are influenced by a combination of
factors (Pomfret 2006, 2012; Tsaur et al. 2013). Referring to the stress, appraisal
and coping theory by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), Tsaur et al. (2013) also com-
bine the flow theory approach to challenge as perceived task difficulty with the
notion of “sense of challenge” as a feeling resulting from stressful situations. As for
cultural tourism, future empirical research may need to review some of the known
pre-conditions of challenge, including the competence, mastery and risk factors, to
reflect the less physical and more intellectually stimulating nature of cultural
adventures and associated gains (Pearce and Lee 2005; Weber 2001).
The research on memorable tourist experiences approaches challenge as one of
its dimensions, highlighting the link between difficult experiences, long-term
memory and emotional connection. The limitation, however, lies in interpreting
challenge as a source of only physical demand and stimulant of improvement of
physical abilities (Horvath 2013; Tung and Ritchie 2011). What differentiates the
literature on transformative or transformational tourism from the studies above is
the focus on improving tourists’ understanding of and relationship with other
cultures. It advocates for deliberate facilitation of cognitive dissonance and dis-
orienting dilemmas to question tourists’ cultural assumptions and stimulate attitude
and behaviour change (Coghlan and Gooch 2011; Christie and Mason 2003;
Raymond and Hall 2008). Although initially people may experience “anger and
denial”, eventually they will reappraise the difficult situation as positive growth,
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 117

providing, of course, they are committed to learning and changing in the first place
(Christie and Mason 2003, p. 13). This research highlights the motivational arousal
properties of cognitive dissonance (Elliot and Devine 1994); the crucial role of
ongoing critical reflection and dialogue; and how the social, organised and guided
nature of group travel creates a favourable ground for such exchange in terms of
communication within the tour group and between the group and the tour leader.
As highlighted earlier, difficult stressful cultural encounters and their positive
change outcomes related to involvement with host cultures are also explored in
acculturation psychology (Berry 1997). The relationship between acculturative
changes and stress is underpinned by the work of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) on
stress, appraisal and coping which was later incorporated by Lazarus (1990) into the
CMR (cognitive-motivational-relational) theory of emotion and adaptation. Both
theories position cognitive appraisal as a process, mediating the relationship
between a stressful situation and its outcomes where challenge is one of possible
stress appraisals.
Cognitive appraisal is the domain of cognitive appraisal theories developed by
Lazarus (1966), Roseman (1984), Ellsworth and Smith (1988), Frijda (1993), and
Scherer (1993) which share the understanding of cognitive appraisal as an evalu-
ation of an experience in terms of personal significance, i.e. its relationship with the
individual’s goals and its potential outcomes, and characteristics of a given situa-
tion, or situational appraisals. As acknowledged by Ellsworth and Scherer (2003),
and Smith and Kirby (2011), this distinction is attributed to the work of Lazarus
(1966) who conceptualised appraisal as consisting of two complementing interre-
lated appraisal processes, i.e. primary (personal significance) and secondary (coping
resources). In terms of its relationship with emotion, Lazarus (1990, p. 138)
explains that “appraisal is the process most proximal to a person’s emotional state,
because it reflects what the person understands and cares about”. Many empirical
appraisal studies of stressful experiences which are based on this theory, including
Tsaur et al. (2013), focus on the stress appraisals of challenge, threat and harm/loss
(Ferguson et al. 1999). Fewer consider benign-positive (benefit) and irrelevant
(neutral) appraisals due to their disassociation with coping effort (Larsson and
Wilde‐Larsson 2010). Depending on whether a stressful encounter is appraised as
potentially generating harm or benefit, it is evaluated as threatening or challenging,
while harm/loss appraisal refer to actual damage of physical and psychological
nature. When a situation imposes no demands on an individual, it is appraised as
either irrelevant or benign-positive. These primary appraisals are marked by an
emotional response which is measured using adjective-based scales (Ferguson et al.
1999; Folkman and Lazarus 1985; Larsson and Wilde‐Larsson 2010; Smith and
Kirby 2011). Although challenge has also been studied as a single emotion
(Ellsworth and Smith 1988), including by Lazarus (Smith et al. 1993), cognitive
appraisal literature is unanimous in conceptualising challenge not as an external
stressor but as an internal psychological response of an individual to a particular
situation. As argued by Rheinberg (2008), this is an important distinction, and it has
not been clearly communicated in the current tourism literature.
118 D. Tikhonova et al.

Folkman and Lazarus (1985, p. 152) define challenge as a positive evaluation of

experience not only as effortful but also motivation-relevant and congruent, and
offering an opportunity for “growth, mastery, or gain”. They also emphasise the
interaction between the individual and the environment (situation), and the diversity
of situational conditions influencing experience appraisal. Special attention is given
to how a situation impinges on achieving something personal at stake and demands
substantial effort for its attainment. In relation to positive change, when an
encounter is appraised as challenging, one’s behavioural repertoire is likely to
expand due to associated positive affect (Lazarus 1990; Skinner and Brewer 2002).
In cognitive appraisal research, challenge has also been linked to strong interest in
the pursued activity (Ellsworth and Smith 1988), and such positive emotions as
eagerness, exhilaration, happiness and joy, as well as excitement, hopefulness and
enthusiasm (Larsson and Wilde‐Larsson 2010; Lazarus 1990).
On the one hand, this approach to conceptualising challenge and its surrounding
situational conditions has much in common with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) concept
of “optimal experience” or flow (Peifer 2012). On the other hand, the differences in
how well the flow and stress appraisal theories can help conceptualise the rela-
tionship between challenge and post-travel culture involvement are also quite sig-
nificant. In the flow theory, challenge functions as a unidimensional construct, i.e. a
demand, or perceived task difficulty, which, in cognitive appraisal terms, is only
one of many situational appraisals. Furthermore, even though challenge appraisal
and flow appear to refer to a very similar psychological state, the flow and the stress
appraisal models fulfil different purposes. The former explains the phenomenology
of involvement in an activity and its effect on a person (Peifer 2012), while the latter
has been integrated into the study of a person’s relationship with others, i.e. culture
involvement. Finally, while the idea of skill mastery is central to both, the broader
notion of gain used by Lazarus (1990) creates room for such cognitive outcomes as
change in one’s world view and ways of life, as well as integration of the world
views and ways of life of others (Weber 2001).

3 Conceptual Framework

There is substantial theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that challenge can
play an important role in stimulating post-travel culture involvement. In particular,
the acculturation and cognitive appraisal theories reviewed above provide theo-
retical rationale for the relationships observed empirically in tourism literature. The
framework presented in Fig. 1 consists of three main parts: experience during travel
(the circular diagram); the overall cumulative appraisal of the entire experience; and
post-travel culture involvement as the long-term outcome of interest. The frame-
work flow reflects the understanding of appraisal as a mediator between the
experience of what happens during travel and the experience outcome. The circular
diagram represents the overall tourist experience as a combination of everything
experienced by a tourist during a trip. It shows that ongoing appraisal and
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 119

Appraisal Coping Cumulative appraisal

• Challenge
• Threat Post-travel culture involvement
Situation Outcome • Benign-positive
• Irrelevant

Fig. 1 Conceptual framework

reappraisal of all individual situations which make up the total tourist experience
results in a cumulative evaluation of that experience.
The longer the visit, the more individual situations, also referred to as events,
activities, encounters and experiences, it includes. The evaluation may identify the
experience as challenging, threatening, benign-positive or irrelevant, influencing
post-travel culture involvement as one of experience outcomes. Unlike the accul-
turative stress model (Berry 1997) and the ABC model of acculturation (Ward et al.
2001), this framework uses circular flow to illustrate that an evaluation and outcome
of one situation (activity) influences the experience of the next one. This interde-
pendence is particularly important for understanding extended trips such as leisure
group tours which are gradually gaining recognition in tourism research (Carlson
et al. 2016; Pomfret 2012). While such approach may not be feasible for under-
standing experiences of migrants which involve highly individualised independent
journeys, this interdependence of different activities is particularly important for
planning organised itinerary-based short-term trips where the order of activities can
impact the overall experience. An evaluation and outcome of one pre-planned
activity on a tour can influence the experience of the next one, and how tourists
spend their free leisure time afterwards or which optional activities they choose.
The framework also incorporates individual-level factors the continuous influ-
ence of which on the experience is communicated by the dashed circle surrounding
the stress and coping process as a symbolic “frame of mind”. Besides the influence
of cultural distance on sojourners’ experiences of other cultures (Demes and
Geeraert 2014; McKercher and Du Cros 2003), socio-demographic factors such as
gender, age, education, occupation and income also play an important role. In
particular, the last four are associated with a number of critical coping resources and
moderate an individual’s ability to deal with cultural demands (Ward et al. 2001).
These resources, which involve not only travel-related skills but also attitudes and
cultural knowledge (Kashima and Loh 2006; Ward and Searle 1991) are predicted
by previous travel experience and reflect overall cultural competence (Berry 2006;
120 D. Tikhonova et al.

Safdar et al. 2012). In tourism research, these socio-demographic factors are used to
differentiate tourists in terms of destination choice, motivation to travel, travel
memories, form of travel, risk perceptions and coping strategies, preferences for
comfort level and a range of other characteristics relevant to the concepts of
challenge and culture involvement (Benckendorff et al. 2009; Kazeminia et al.
2015; Lloyd and Little 2010; Moal–Ulvoas and Taylor 2014; Pearce and Lee 2005).
Other important individual-level characteristics include personality (Pomfret 2006;
Tomljenovic 2010; van der Zee and van Oudenhoven 2013); expectations (Rogers
and Ward 1993); and motivation to travel, particularly to engage with the host
culture (Falk et al. 2012; Safdar et al. 2012; Tomljenovic 2010), to persevere, and to
challenge oneself (Lazarus 1990; Pomfret 2006; Stebbins 1996; Rheinberg 2008).
The “situation” stage refers to the key factors relating to the experience context
which have been highlighted as important in both tourism and psychology research.
These include host attitudes to visitors (van Oudenhoven and Hofstra 2006) or
residents’ attitudes towards tourists (Hough 2011); amount of support received in
coping with cultural differences (Ong and Ward 2005), including around dialogue
and critical reflection (Coghlan and Gooch 2011); external, or potential sources of
stress such as infrastructure (economic), norms of communication (social), and
values (cultural); and factors related to the format and nature of cultural contact
such as length, frequency, intimacy and authenticity of interaction with the hosts
and participation in their culture (Jansson 2007; Reisinger 2013a; Tomljenovic
2010). Other conditions include the actual activities undertaken by the tourists and
form of travel (organised or independent); opportunity for creativity, or imagina-
tive, problem-driven and skilled consumption (Richards and Wilson 2006), and a
number of challenge-predicting appraisals. These appraisals are motivational rele-
vance and congruence; potential for harm or loss; opportunity for some form of gain
related to self-development; centrality (importance) of a given activity and its
outcome to an individual; certainty/uncertainty; and appraisals of perceived coping
resources such as perceived effort (effortfulness) and perceived control (controlla-
bility) (Duhachek and Iacobucci 2005; Ellsworth and Smith 1988; Lazarus and
Folkman 1984; Peacock and Wong 1990).
Table 2 incorporates all individual-level tourism outcomes of challenging expe-
riences discussed in the literature review, which can develop to various degrees and at
different rate, both during and after travel. The outcome of post-travel culture
involvement in this framework functions as a matter of change in attitudes and
behaviours towards the host culture and is differentiated from more complex and
long-lasting changes in cultural identity. Although empirical acculturation research
examines the effects of international sojourn on short-term travellers such as students
and expatriates, the idea of post-travel outcomes is not reflected in the current
acculturation frameworks which deal with individual-level changes occurring only
during the cross-cultural contact. Thus, while the issue of post-travel culture
involvement can apply beyond tourism, it has not been found elsewhere in the relevant
literature. The distinction between short and long-term outcomes used in acculturation
psychology was deliberately excluded from this framework because any of these
outcomes can start manifesting themselves at any point during the trip and strengthen
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 121

Table 2 Tourist experience outcomes

Register of Positive Negative
engagement
Self-related Positive affect (eagerness, exhilaration, Physical discomfort, harm and
happiness, joy, excitement, hopefulness, loss
enthusiasm) Emotional discomfort (social
Satisfaction awkwardness, confusion,
Improved psychological well-being cognitive dissonance)
Increased motivation Negative affect (anxiety, fear,
Involvement (strengthened interest) anger)
Personal development (personal growth, Dissatisfaction
competence-mastery, self-actualisation, Reduced psychological well-being
improved self-efficacy and Culture shock
self-confidence, self-identity change) Identity crisis
Perceived or actual harm or loss
Others-related Place attachment Reinforcement of cultural
Cross-cultural understanding stereotypes
Culture appreciation Negative attitudes towards hosts
Culture involvement (integration, Separation
assimilation) Marginalisation
Cultural identification

afterwards. Another grouping principle which is not applied here is by psychological

and sociocultural outcomes. While this distinction is important and is implied in the
outcomes themselves, it was more relevant to the subject of this chapter to highlight
the differences between the “registers of engagement”, i.e. self-related and
others-related (Smith 2012, p. 12) and their valence (positive and negative).
Among the self-related outcomes, the framework acknowledges physical dis-
comfort, harm and loss, and positive and negative affective responses to intercul-
tural contact known as “immediate effects” (Berry 1997, p. 19). In terms of
associated stress levels, affective reactions can range from the emotional discom-
forts discussed by Stebbins (1997), including cognitive dissonance (Elliot and
Devine 1994), to feelings of anxiety (angst) highlighted by Robinson (2013). These
immediate responses precede such more lasting psychological outcomes as satis-
faction and dissatisfaction, and improved and impaired well-being (Ward et al.
2001). Strong negative emotions used to measure threat appraisal are associated
with experiencing culture shock and personal crises (Berry 1997; van der Zee and
van Oudenhoven 2013). However, whether or a not an individual evaluates an
experience as challenging (positive) or threatening (negative) is ultimately influ-
enced by a combination of situational and individual-level factors discussed earlier.
Besides positive emotions, other positive self-related outcomes include increased
motivation; involvement (as interest in the pursued activity); and a number of gains
related to personal development.
Others-related outcomes represent positive and negative changes in affective,
cognitive (attitudes and values) and behavioural orientations of tourists towards a
host culture, and were organised according to their complexity. The outcomes
122 D. Tikhonova et al.

commonly mentioned in tourism literature include strong emotional bonding (place

attachment); understanding the importance of other cultures and cultural differences
(culture appreciation); and reinforcement or resolution of cultural stereotypes and
prejudices (cross-cultural understanding). As for culture involvement and culture
identification, it must be acknowledged that although tourists may experience
changes in their cultural identity and choose to fully adopt foreign behaviours and
values, such substantial changes are less likely to occur for two reasons. One is the
briefness of culture contact in many instances and the other is the high adaptational
difficulty associated with these changes (Stephenson 2000; Osland and Osland
2005). That is why in this framework culture involvement is interpreted as active
behavioural involvement with another culture, either through independently
undertaken activities such as watching documentaries, learning a language or
mastering a craft, or participation in organised cultural activities and events. In
regards to the four acculturation strategies, although they are more applicable
to touristic experiences during travel, they are relevant to the discussion of the
overall experience and communicate different types of culture involvement.
The discourse of “self” versus “others” has been criticised for reinforcing the
divide between tourists and hosts instead of bringing them closer together
(Robinson 2013). For the topic of this chapter, however, the “positive-negative”
and “self-other” dichotomies are important as they highlight critical differences in
touristic experiences and their outcomes. Firstly, the framework differentiates
between two types of positive evaluations, i.e. challenge and benign-positive. Both
appraisals characterise a situation or experience as beneficial but only a
benign-positive experience requires no coping effort, as an individual feels content
with the positive outcome, comfortable and relaxed. Furthermore, cognitive
appraisal studies have found that by sharing characteristics with boredom through
such positive emotions as relaxation, enjoyment and happiness, benign-positive
appraisal in some instances cannot be distinguished from irrelevant appraisal which
is given to experiences that have no personal relevance to an individual whatsoever.
For migrants, benign-positive appraisal is a highly desirable state that leads to
smooth adjustment “made with minimal difficulty” (Berry 2006, p. 47).
Tourists, however, feel no need to change due to the perceived temporariness of
contact, and a benign-positive evaluation of an experience may not necessarily
stimulate further interest in the destination and its culture, as people feel almost too
comfortable. Moreover, as Horvath (2013, p. 390) points out, “too much complexity
or not enough content can equally…cause stress and fatigue”. That is when research
on challenging experiences can help explain what causes overchallenge and stress
and underchallenge and boredom. Secondly, the aim of the framework is to
emphasise the interrelatedness of self-related and others-related outcomes and its
implications for culture involvement. In particular, it draws attention to how out-
comes that develop the “self”, act as antecedents of outcomes related to our rela-
tionship with the “other” under the experience of challenge. As mentioned earlier,
cultural tourists are motivated by both personal development and host-culture
involvement, and an experience of challenge touches on both motivations through its
growth-inducing quality. Furthermore, tourism scholars and practitioners should
Conceptualising Challenging Experiences and Post-Travel … 123

critically consider if tourism is really ever about the “other”, and if travel is ulti-
mately a very selfish activity where improved understanding of and relationship with
the “other” is a by-product of travel, first and foremost, for understanding the “self”.

4 Conclusion

It is important to highlight that the framework proposed in this chapter is not a

model of tourist acculturation. Rather, it provides a more differentiated and com-
plete picture on the relationship between challenge and post-travel culture
involvement by drawing on the insights from acculturation, cognitive appraisal and
positive psychology, as well as tourism and leisure studies, and the education
theory of transformative learning. From the discussion above, challenge emerges as
a complex and powerful psychological state which is influenced by a combination
of factors and characterises highly personally relevant transformative experiences.
While facilitation of challenging experiences may not be the ultimate solution to
stimulating tourists’ involvement with other cultures when they return home, the
literature strongly suggests that it can certainly play a positive role through its
association with personal growth.
Besides positive individual-level outcomes for tourists, the proposed relationship
has implications of wider socio cultural nature which extend to both host desti-
nations and the members of their cultures in tourists’ home countries. When tourists
return home, as carriers of the dominant national culture they are likely to face the
questions of accepting minority cultures which functioned as dominant or host
during their travel. Carefully managed challenging tourist experiences can enhance
positive self-related and others-related effects of cultural contact during travel, as
well as potentially extend them to the post-travel stage. Interpretation programs
oftentimes place emphasis on educating tourists about the meanings and value
assigned to cultural objects and practices by the carriers of that culture. The
question is how often these programs draw links with the multicultural environ-
ments these visitors live in and help them find ways to engage with these cultures
outside the cultural attractions and institutions they come to visit once in a while. At
the same time, tourism is a pleasure-driven industry, and placing tourists outside of
their comfort zone can result in immediate negative reactions, as discussed earlier.
Though tourists are generally attracted to exotic cultures and novel experiences
(Franklin 2003), cultural differences have to be carefully managed, even in vol-
untourism (Coghlan and Gooch 2011; Raymond and Hall 2008).
Nevertheless, the literature on transformative tour guiding and culturally
enriching experiences warns against oversimplification and neutralisation of cul-
tural difference (Christie and Mason 2003). Not only do these goals defeat the
overarching purpose of cultural tourism but the second one is simply unattainable.
While in immigration and student sojourn cultural difference can be a hurdle which
should be overcome to meet other life goals, in tourism it is often the main
attraction point. An understanding of the psychological origins of the challenge
124 D. Tikhonova et al.

construct and the surrounding context of challenging cultural tourism experiences

can help ensure a better alignment between tourists’ complex needs and motiva-
tions, and their experiences. Achievement of this alignment, in turn, can help
tourism operators build a reputation as providers of cultural experiences which are
not only personally fulfilling but also have positive sociocultural impacts.

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Barriers and Sentiment of the American
Tourists Toward Travel to China

Svetlana Stepchenkova, Andrei Kirilenko and Xiang (Robert) Li

Abstract This interdisciplinary research deals with attractiveness of China as a

tourist destination for American pleasure travelers, barriers that American tourists
perceive as preventing their travel to the destination, and their sentiments toward
travel to China. The data were obtained through an online panel survey aiming at
understanding American leisure travelers’ international travel experiences and their
perceptions of China. The obtained sample included 3,263 responses and was
balanced on region, gender, age, and household income. First, the study applies
content analysis to textual responses to identify the main categories of risks and
barriers associated with travel to China. Second, it compares three sentiment
analysis algorithms, namely, Deeply Moving, Pattern, and SentiStrength, against
the manual classification of textual responses and applies the best performing
software Deeply Moving to quantify the respondents’ sentiments toward travel to
China. Finally, the study compares socio-demographic groups of survey respon-
dents on attitudes expressed toward travel to China.

1 Introduction

The importance of the U.S.-China relationship for peace and stability in the world
extends to the tourism sphere, and the American and Chinese governments, as well
as tourism academics and industry practitioners, are looking for ways to increase

S. Stepchenkova (&)
A. Kirilenko

Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida,
Gainesville, USA
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
A. Kirilenko
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
X. (Robert) Li
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Temple University,
Philadelphia, USA
e-mail: robertli@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 129

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
130 S. Stepchenkova et al.

tourism between the two countries. This interdisciplinary research deals with
attractiveness of China as a tourist destination for American pleasure travelers,
barriers that American tourists perceive as preventing their travel to the destination,
and their sentiments toward travel to China. The study uses qualitative data
obtained in a large-scale online panel survey of American leisure travelers and
applies computer-assisted content and sentiment analyses to extract categories of
travel constraints and attitudes toward travel to China.
Although computer-assisted content analysis based on identification of the most
frequent concepts in the data is a long-established methodology, automated senti-
ment analysis studies are still rare in tourism and hospitality research (Lu and
Stepchenkova 2015). Thus, this study compares three sentiment analysis algo-
rithms, namely, Deeply Moving, Pattern, and SentiStrength, against the manual
classification of textual responses into three categories, positive, negative, and
neutral, and applies the best performing software Deeply Moving to quantify the
respondents’ sentiments toward travel to China. Further, the study compares
socio-demographic groups of survey respondents on attitudes expressed toward
travel to China.

2 Literature Review

Perceived barriers of traveling to a particular destination are understood as obstacles

that prevent tourists from making a decision to visit (Chen et al. 2001; Norman
1995). These obstacles can be perceived or real and may be indicative of personal
values and beliefs as well as objective situational circumstances in which a potential
traveler finds themselves. As such, barriers in this study reflect both the travel risks
(Fuchs and Reichel 2006; Reisinger and Mavondo 2005), that is, the individual’s
evaluation of the levels of uncertainty and negative consequences of going to that
destination (Lai et al. 2013; Reisinger and Mavondo 2005) and their internal
(intra-personal) and external (structural) constraints (Dolnicar 2005; Godbey et al.
2010). Risks related specifically to travel were identified as pertaining to
(1) physical health while on travel; (2) safety from criminal harm; (3) issues with
transportation and (4) service providers such as restaurants and hotels; (5) envi-
ronment at the destination; (6) fears of psychological nature such as fear of being
lost; (7) financial concerns; (8) property crime; (9) concern for others, for example,
children; and (10) concerns for social issues such as discrimination (Simpson and
Siguaw 2008a). Yet another barrier which may be reflective of negative attitudes
rooted in the current and historical political, diplomatic, and economic relationship
between the destination country and tourism-generating country also needs to be
considered (Stepchenkova and Shichkova 2017).
Risk perceptions as well as travel constraints vary among people, depending on
the socio-demographic profile of a particular individual, his/her strength of risk
beliefs, and the destination’s characteristics (Cahyanto and Pennington-Gray 2014).
The experiential learning theory (Kolb 1984) explains the relationships between
Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists … 131

individual’s socio-demographic and psychographic profile and perceptions of travel

barriers by proposing that people learn from their own experiences as well as from
experiences of others, and the learning process involves abstract conceptualization
and active experimentation (Simpson and Siguaw 2008a). For example, the older
the person is, the more experienced they are likely to be, which goes together with
more in-depth reflections and experimentations. Thus, perceptions of travel risks
and barriers of the older people may differ from those of the younger people.
Empirical studies, however, have provided mixed results with respect to the exis-
tence or absence of relationships between perceptions of risks and virtually any
demographic variable, including gender, age, marital status, country of residence,
and income (Simpson and Siguaw 2008b), indicating that more research is
necessary.

3 Methodology

The data were obtained through an online panel survey aiming at understanding
American leisure travelers’ international travel experiences and their perceptions of
Mainland China and other Asian destinations. The adult American leisure travel
population was operationalized as those who took a leisure vacation at least once
during the 12 months preceding the survey and who was over 18 years old at a time
of the survey. An American online survey company sent invitations to its national
panel. To represent the population of interest, the survey was balanced on region,
gender, age, and household income (Pan and Li 2011). The obtained sample
included 3,263 valid responses. The final sample had a fairly balanced gender
distribution (51.2% were female). With a mean age of 43.1 years old, most
respondents were white (83.2%), well educated (82% attended at least some col-
lege), and earned a household pre-tax income between $25,000 and $100,000
(70.5%).
In examining how American actual and potential tourists perceive China in terms
of risks and barriers of going there, open-ended answers to the following question
were examined: “Please describe, in your own words, what would make mainland
China a more appealing international vacation destination for you?” The approach
to analyze the data included (1) content analysis of textual responses to identify the
main categories of risks and barriers; (2) sentiment analysis of textual responses to
evaluate the affective feelings toward travel to China; and (3) comparisons of
various socio-demographic groups within the body of respondents on their senti-
ments toward China as a vacation destination.
132 S. Stepchenkova et al.

4 Results

Content analysis is “a research method that uses a set of procedures to make valid
inferences from text” (Weber 1990, p. 9). Philosofically, it is based on the premise
that social facts are an objective reality that can be observed, measured, and
interpreted (Newbold et al. 2002, p. 59). From a practical perspective, it is essen-
tially a data reduction technique that involves classification of textual units (e.g.,
open-ended survey responses) into a number of selected categories. Categories are
either theoretically driven or, like in this study, grounded in the data. Sentiment
analysis is “the computational study of people’s opinions, appraisals, attitudes, and
emotions toward entities, individuals, issues, events, topics and their attributes”
(Liu and Zhang 2012, p. 415). It has its roots in the nature and theory of meaning
and concerns people’s evaluative judgements and affective responses to stimuli in
the texts (Osgood et al. 1967). The result of both analyses is a numerical matrix
which allows generation of various quantitative outputs.

4.1 Content Analysis

To identify the main categories of risks and barriers, computer-assisted content

analysis of responses was utilized. The initial data scanning revealed that responses
were generally short and clearly had themes in them like, for example, issues related
to travel time, money, or safety. There were 2,232 respondents who submitted
qualitative data. Fourteen categories of risks and barriers represented in the data
were identified by the means of computer-assisted content analysis using word- and
phrase-counting software instruments available online and capabilities of MS Excel.
In the order of frequency of mention, these categories are: (1) Political system;
(2) Cost; (3) People; (4) Safety; (5) Environment; (6) Culture; (7) Tours;
(8) Language; (9) Information; (10) Human rights; (11) Image; (12) Distance;
(13) Crowded; and (14) Nothing/Not sure. Table 1 provides the summary of cat-
egories, their main themes, and frequencies.
While the original question was phrased in a way that implied a critical response
(“Please describe, in your own words, what would make mainland China a more
appealing international vacation destination for you?”), the researchers’ general,
holistic impression was that some categories, like, for example, Political System or
Environment, carried more intense negative sentiment than other categories (e.g.,
Political System: Will not be visiting any Communist country; Environment: Stop
destroying natural wonders). However, it should be noted that there was large
variability in the intensity of negative sentiments within each category as well. In
addition, despite the focus on the barriers placed by the question, quite a large share
of respondents used this open-ended reply to express their positive feelings toward
China, mainly in categories Culture and Image (e.g., Culture, Environment: It offers
Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists … 133

Table 1 Categories of travel barriers

# Category Freqa % Examples of themes joinedb
1 Political 365 14.1 Political system, government, communism,
system democracy, freedom
2 Cost 316 12.2 Cost, price, expensive, afford, cheaper, money
3 People 254 9.8 People
4 Safety 243 9.4 Safety, security
5 Environment 224 8.7 Pollution, clean, environment
6 Culture 222 8.6 Culture, food, history
7 Tour 212 8.2 English tour/guide, package
8 Language 117 4.5 Language, language barrier
9 Information 111 4.3 Information
10 Human 100 3.9 Human rights
rights
11 Image 84 3.3 Image, appealing
12 Distance 76 2.9 Far away, distance, closer, long trip, travel time
13 Crowded 56 2.2 Crowds, congestion, traffic, getting around
14 Nothing/ 445 17.2 Nothing, not sure, do not know
Unsure
a
Coding into multiple categories is allowed. Sample size 3,263. Suitable responses 2,583
b
The list in each category is not exhaustive. Negative like “no”, “not” are not included

unique culture, natural scenery, and historical opportunities). Thus, the next stage
of the study was to quantify the sentiments of survey participants.

4.2 Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis software attempts to automatically extract the sentiment

expressed in texts. A major drawback of many existing applications lies in treating
each textual unit (e.g., a sentence, a phrase, or a word) separately (lexical approach)
as opposed to a holistic treatment of the whole response (non-lexical). In the lexical
approach, the sentiment of the entire textual unit is derived based on the balance of
words with negative and positive sentiment, subject to linguistic rules. The most
prominent lexical resource is Princeton’s WordNet (Miller 1995). The non-lexical
approach is based on the machine learning where the algorithm is trained on a
thematically close text corpus. Notably, the sentiment is expressed differently in
different types of content, e.g. in blogs and newspapers (Balahur et al. 2010), which
requires diverse algorithms, ideally trained on samples from the studied population
of texts. The associated costs render this task unfeasible for most projects, leading
practitioners to cross-compare performance of different pre-trained software. In this
study, three sentiment analysis software instruments were compared:
134 S. Stepchenkova et al.

• SentiStrength (Thelwall et al. 2010), developed in the University of

Wolverhampton, UK. The program uses a set of words derived from the social
network MySpace, which makes it specifically suitable for rating short informal
comments.
• Pattern sentiment analysis algorithm, developed by CLiPS (Computational
Linguistics & Psycholinguistics) at the University of Antwerp ([Link].
be). Pattern separately evaluates each word’s polarity, using SentiWordNet’s
ratings (Baccianella et al. 2010).
• Deeply Moving machine learning algorithm, developed at Stanford and based on
the Recursive Neural Network on top of the grammatical structure (Socher et al.
2013). Sentiment detection is done through the supervised training; this study
used the data based on classification of movie reviews provided by the authors
of the program.
These sentiment analysis instruments were evaluated based on their performance
relative to human coding. A sample of 200 survey responses was randomly selected
and assigned to two human raters for classification using a {−1, 0, 1} scale, where
−1 corresponds to predominantly negative, 0 to neutral, and 1 to predominantly
positive sentiment. The same textual responses were rated by each of the three
software programs as well. Both SentiStrength and Pattern return two values, one
for positive and the other for negative sentiment, while Deeply Moving returns one
overall value. For all three packages, values are centered on zero (neutral senti-
ment); the further the values from zero in either direction, the stronger the sentiment
(positive or negative) expressed by the respondent. To ensure compatibility of the
automated and manual classification, positive and negative scores estimated by
machine algorithms were transformed to the {−1, 0, 1} scale.
Table 2 presents the overall results of the manual and automated classification
on a sample of 200 randomly selected textual responses. Because the questions that
the respondents were answering targeted the barriers preventing them from trav-
elling to China, negative emotions prevailed, which was detected by both human
raters. It should be noted, however, that human raters knew the survey question,
which gave them more information as compared to the machine classifiers.
Nevertheless, human raters still had difficulty in emotion detection, which was
manifested in significant difference in the percentage of responses classified as
having negative sentiments (52% vs. 70%). Among the automated classifiers, only
Deeply Moving algorithm was able to find the distributional pattern of sentiments
similar to that of the human raters.

Table 2 Distribution (%) of positive, negative, and neutral responses returned by the human
raters and automated classifiers
Sentiment Rater 1 Rater 2 Deeply moving Pattern SentiStrength
Negative 52 70 56 27 25
Neutral 21 11 25 39 52
Positive 27 19 18 34 23
Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists … 135

Table 3 Agreement (%) between human raters and the automated classifiersa
Comparison Rater Rater 1 Deeply moving Pattern SentiStrength
1 Rater 1 – 84 78 93
Rater 2 89 86 74 89
2 Rater 1 – 55 42 53
Rater 2 73 56 34 42
a
In Comparison 1, only the opposite classifications (negative vs. positive) are treated as a
disagreement. In Comparison 2, any difference in classification is treated as a disagreement

Similarly, the inter-rater agreement between the human raters and machine
classifiers was the best for the Deeply Moving algorithm (Table 3). It should be
noted that in Comparison 1, the percentage of agreement for SentiStrength was the
highest, misleadingly suggesting that SentiStrength is performing better than the
other two software packages. However, in Comparison 1, only the opposite ratings
(−1 and 1) were counted as disagreement. Since SentiStrength returned a very high
number of neutral ratings, all of these ratings were counted as “agreement”.
Notably, the Pattern classifier performed only slightly better than a random clas-
sification would have performed (Table 3, Comparison 2, 42% and 34%, as
opposed to 33.3% in the case of three categories).
Both human raters and automatic classifiers demonstrated modest performance
overall. The main reason for a better performance of human raters in comparison
with the sentiment analysis software was likely the raters’ knowledge of the
question to which responses were provided; thus, the raters operated based on a
larger amount of information. Nevertheless, the “deep learning” artificial neural
network algorithm, which is a foundation of the Deeply Moving software,
demonstrated acceptable performance and was selected for further analysis of the
whole set of textual responses.

4.3 Validation of Sentiment Classification

In order to validate, albeit indirectly, the performed sentiment analysis, the cate-
gories of constraints identified with content analysis were regressed on the senti-
ment scores obtained with the Deeply Moving software (Table 4).
Participants who provided responses like “unsure” and “nothing”, whose
meaning was uncertain, were not included in the analysis. The categories People
and Tour were excluded, as they did not significantly contribute to the model (F
(11, 2126) = 19.527, p < 0.001). Among the remaining 11 types of barriers, only
comments classified under the Culture category affected the overall sentiment
positively (t = 4.474, p < 0.001). The largest negative impacts were associated with
such barriers as Environment (t = −6.264, p < 0.001), Distance (t = −6.134,
p < 0.001), Language (t = −5.629, p < 0.001), and Information (t = −4.859,
136 S. Stepchenkova et al.

Table 4 Barriers as predictors of the sentiment toward going to China

DF SS MS F p-value
Regression 11 115.9 10.5 19.527 0.000
Residual 2126 1146.9 4.0
Total 2137 1262.7
Β SE of β Std. β T p-value
Constant −0.114 0.023 −5.035 0.000
Human rights −0.194 0.078 −0.053 −2.508 0.012
Political system −0.102 0.044 −0.050 −2.346 0.019
Language −0.396 0.070 −0.117 −5.629 0.000
Information −0.349 0.072 −0.101 −4.859 0.000
Environment −0.332 0.053 −0.132 −6.264 0.000
Safety −0.172 0.050 −0.071 −3.404 0.001
Culture 0.236 0.053 0.093 4.474 0.000
Crowded −0.306 0.100 −0.064 −3.046 0.002
Cost −0.129 0.045 −0.060 −2.848 0.004
Distance −0.552 0.090 −0.128 −6.134 0.000
Image −0.231 0.087 −0.055 −2.662 0.008
R/R-Sq/Adj-Sq = 0.303/0.092/0.087

p < 0.001). Thus, the results of sentiment analysis were accepted and used for
comparisons of socio-demographic groups of American tourists.

4.4 Comparisons of Socio-Demographic Groups

Next, sentiments were compared among socio-demographic groups of respondents

on such variables as GENDER (male, female), GENERATION (G.I./Silent,
Baby-boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y), ETHNICITY (White, Black,
Latino/Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Other), and LIFE STAGE (single;
married couple without children; family with small and teenage children living with
parents; family with at least one child grown and left home but the parent are not
retired; and at least one spouse is retired). Because of the very large disparity of
group sizes for the Ethnicity variable, it was recoded into two groups: Whites
(N = 1802) and Other (N = 327). The ANOVA analyses were conducted (Table 5).
Female respondents expressed more negative attitudes than male respondents
(p < 0.001). No differences in negative sentiment towards China were found with
respect to GENERATION (p = 0.970) or LIFE STAGE (p = 0.397) variables.
However, white respondents expressed significantly more negative attitudes
(p = 0.006) than respondents of other ethnic background. One more variable from
the original survey was used for the analysis, namely, the INTEREST to go to
China. The significant difference between the two groups, No and Yes, was found
Barriers and Sentiment of the American Tourists … 137

Table 5 Comparisons of the sentiment score on the socio-demographic variables

Socio-demographic variable Mean SD F-statistic Df (B, W) p-value
GENDER 13.226 1, 2138 0.000
Male (N = 1065) −0.20 0.77
Female (N = 1073) −0.32 0.76
GENERATION 0.082 3, 2133 0.970
ETHNICITY 7.511 1, 2127 0.006
White (N = 1802) −0.28 0.76
Other (N = 327) −0.16 0.81
LIFE STAGE 1.031 5, 2126 0.397
INTEREST 77.130 0.000
No (N = 1637) −0.34 0.74
Yes (N = 501) 0.00 0.80

(p < 0.001): the No-Group (1,637 respondents, M = −0.34, SD = 0.74) expressed

significantly more negative sentiments toward travel to China than the Yes-Group
(501 respondents, M = 0.00, SD = 0.80). It is worth mentioning that the results of
the statistical analyses of differences among the socio-demographic groups are
likely to be impacted by the type of classifier used, as different classifiers produce
different distribution of the dependent variable, that is, sentiment toward China. For
example, the ETHNICITY variable was not significant (p = 0.101) in the analysis
where the sentiment scores were obtained with the SentiStrength classifier.

5 Conclusion

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it is to get a better understanding of the
attractiveness of China as a tourist destination for American pleasure travelers,
barriers that American tourists perceive as preventing their travel to the destination,
and their sentiments toward travel to China. The study uses both structured and
unstructured data obtained in year 2008 in a large-scale online panel survey of
American leisure travelers and applies computer-assisted content and sentiment
analyses to extract categories of travel barriers as well as attitudes towards travel to
China from unstructured data. Fourteen categories of barriers were identified, which
reflected the value system of the respondents (e.g., categories Political System,
Human Rights, Environment), structural constraints associated with a long-haul trip
to China (e.g., Cost, Distance), and the destination’s tourist offerings (e.g., Safety,
Tour, Information). Interestingly, no generational or life stage differences in neg-
ative sentiment of American tourists toward China were found. Women, however,
were more positive toward China than men and Americans who identified their
ethnic background other than white also expressed more positive attitudes.
138 S. Stepchenkova et al.

The secondary purpose of the study is more concerned with the methodology of
sentiment analysis using automated classifiers. As developments in automated
language processing allow for rapid advances in business analytics (Wan and Law
2016), an increased interest in sentiment analysis has been registered in tourism and
hospitality as well (Hopken et al. 2016). However, applications of automated
sentiment analysis are still rare in tourism research. One of the factors responsible
for this state of affairs is the lack of guidance on what automated classifiers are
appropriate for different data types and how valid the results of classifications are.
With this in mind, this study compares how three automated classifiers to extract
sentiments from textual data, namely, Deeply Moving, Pattern, and SentiStrength,
perform on short open-ended survey answers.
The results suggest the feasibility of the proposed approach for sentiment
analysis of tourism related data and provide directions for further research. From a
methodology standpoint, we suggest to use interrater versus human-computer
agreement as a criterion for automated classifiers. Our research reveals considerable
differences in the outcomes of automated classifiers; in future studies, comparisons
among multiple software programs and human coders are required to determine
best instruments for the data. The accuracy of results is likely to be higher if the
training of the algorithm is performed on a text corpus similar to the data being used
in the study. A large number of responses with uncertain meaning needs to be
evaluated with respect to underlying structural patterns, similar to how missing data
are evaluated on being MCAR (missing completely at random). In this study, the
t-test and ANOVA comparisons with and without data from the Nothing/Unsure
category generated close test statistics and p-values, which was interpreted as the
absence of any significant systematic pattern.

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Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions
and Experiences of Museums

Eda Gurel and Axel Nielsen

Abstract In order to increase visitor numbers and survive in the long run, today’s
museums need to understand their visiting publics including cultural tourists.
Therefore, this chapter aims to understand various publics, their perceptions and
experiences of museums by conducting a qualitative research. The study sample
was selected from among the visitors of two main museums in Genoa, Italy. Face-to
face interviews were conducted to gather data on the definition of a museum by the
visitors. The analyses of 372 usable responses revealed seven core elements of
museum visitor experiences which included experiences that provide historical and/
or cultural reminisce and awareness, learning and self-development, exposure to
tangible evidences, sensory stimulation, wonder and discovery, entertainment and
socializing. Implications are discussed relative to marketing strategies.

1 Introduction

Following budget cuts and increasing competition, museums’ need to engage with
the tourism market is stronger than at any time in the past. Today, museums with
their famous brands and iconic buildings are trying to attract cultural tourists.
However, such assets would quickly turn to cliché by treating the cultural tourism
market as undifferentiated. Nevertheless, recent research findings (e.g.
Pulido-Fernandez and Sanchez-Rivero 2010) suggest that today’s cultural tourists
are individuals from a variety of backgrounds, with a variety of interests looking for
different experiences. Museums of all types are in need to satisfy these tourists.
More than just brands and buildings, as great storytellers, museums offer inspiration
and information through their collections, exhibitions and events. Today, there is an

E. Gurel (&)
Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
e-mail: eda@[Link]
A. Nielsen
Nielsen Restauri, Genoa, Italy

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 141

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
142 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

opportunity for all museums to engage cultural tourists by understanding and

connecting with them (Malde 2013).
There is no consensus on the definition of cultural tourism (Günlü et al. 2009). In
a report compiled for International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the
Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM)—created by UNESCO as an inter-
governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of cultural heritage, cul-
tural tourism is defined as “that form of tourism whose object is, among other aims,
the discovery of monuments and sites. It exerts on these last a very positive effect
insofar as it contributes—to satisfy its own ends—to their maintenance and pro-
tection. This form of tourism justifies in fact the efforts which said maintenance and
protection demand of the human community because of the socio-cultural and
economic benefits which they bestow on all the population concerned” (ICCROM
2005: 25). According to Richards (1994), “cultural tourism includes visits to his-
toric buildings and sites, museums, art galleries and also to view contemporary
paintings or sculpture or to attend the performing arts” (Richards 1994 quoted in
Hughes 1996: 707).
Highlighting the important role of museums as places for education, study and
enjoyment, International Council of Museums (ICOM) adopted the following
definition during the 21st General Conference in Vienna, Austria in 2007; “A
museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its
development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, commu-
nicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its
environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment” (ICOM 2014:
para 1).
Therefore, framed within the field of cultural tourism, the current research is
focused on the case of museums. Kotler and Kotler (1998: 105) also pointed out
that museum visitors have a strong link to tourism, since tourists are a part of the
audiences and for some museums even a large part of the total number of visitors.
Therefore, it is important for museums to understand what kind of visitors tourists
are and their relationship with the museum.
In this regard, the aim of this research is to explore visitors’ perceptions of the
meaning, value and benefits of museum experiences. In the area of marketing, since
Schmitt (1999) proposed the term “experience marketing”, scholars discuss the
content of experience and agree on the fact that experience usually includes various
elements (Sheng and Chen 2012). However, as pointed out by Sheng and Chen
(2012), studies specific to museums have not clearly defined visitor experience in
museums yet. Therefore, addressing this gap in literature, by examining visitors’
definition of a museum, this research aims to understand what museums mean, what
meanings visitors take away from their museum experiences and how they derive
value and benefits from museum-going, in the hope that the content of experience in
museums can be defined.
This research is important in the sense that its findings can help in the devel-
opment and marketing of museums and other cultural heritage-based tourism
products and as a result can contribute to the conservation of the tangible and
intangible heritage. Through the enjoyment of cultural heritage, museums can help
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 143

develop a climate of public awareness of the value of cultural heritage, conservation

and protection in people of all ages and socio-economic groups with different
life-styles.

2 Museum Attendance and Experience

Yau (2001), a curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History, points out that in the
past, museums were collection-oriented, that is, responsible for collecting and
preserving artifacts of human experience and relevance and using them in creating
and disseminating knowledge through research, educational activities and perma-
nent and temporary exhibitions. However, today, museums are becoming more
people-oriented. With the help of the museology concept introduced as early as the
1980s, as stated by Hooper-Greenhill (1994), “museums are changing from being
static storehouses for artifacts into active learning environments for people” (Yau
2001: para 1).
With this radical shift in museum function, purpose and priorities, museums
have assumed a new role of defining themselves as places for learning and
enjoyment, where visitors do not merely view the collections but learn about them
with excitement and enhanced interest. It appears that today, the public is looking
for a kind of “infotainment/edutainment” from museums; a combination of
information/education and entertainment (Yau 2001: para 2). John Lewis, chairman
of the Wallace Collection in London, states that museums are now driven to
become a branch of the entertainment and education industries rather than the
academic institutions they used to be (Newsweek 2004). As a result, today’s
museums are combining their traditional, functional role with their new, purposive
role. The functional role is object-based and relates to activities involving col-
lecting, preserving and displaying these objects. The purposive role, however,
requires museums to focus on visitor services to aid society and its development by
means of study, education and enjoyment. Therefore, today museums are for people
to enjoy and learn from collections held in trust for society (Rentschler 2007).
As a result of this new understanding in museology, museums are increasingly
using marketing tools and techniques to achieve greater visibility, to enlarge their
offerings, to develop a broader audience and to raise income (Gilmore and
Rentschler 2002; Kotler and Kotler 2000). In the area of museum marketing, a
substantial amount of effort focuses on audience research to help managers profile
their visiting publics (Harrison and Shaw 2004). Nevertheless, as Kotler et al.
(2008: 117) point out, “the first thing a museum should do is to understand the
characteristics of its current consumers and the segments they represent”. By
understanding the demographic profiles of their audiences, museums can distin-
guish their existing audiences in relation to potential audiences (Kotler et al. 2008)
and differentiate their marketing mix for the different segments to meet the needs of
their various visitors (Morris Hargreaves McIntyre 2007).
144 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

A large number of citizens are uninterested in museums (McLean 1995). It was

found that one-third of museum goers never enter a gallery; they spend all their time
in the museum shop or the café (Thyne 2001). According to a December 2004
European Group on Museum Statistics (EGMUS) report, within the aggregate
population (380.4 million) of the original 15 EU countries, 29.9% had visited a
museum in the previous 12 months (EGMUS 2004). Based on EGMUS’ (2007)
most recent survey on European cultural values, conducted by interviewing 26,755
citizens in 27 EU member states, 41% of participants had visited a museum or a
gallery at least once in the previous 12 months whereas only 7% had visited a
museum or a gallery more than five times in the previous 12 months (EGMUS
2007).
Museums are mostly visited by women (56%) and people between 35 and
44 years old (26%) (Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council [MLA] 2005).
Young adults aged 15–24 years old with no children have the lowest average-visit
frequency; this age group is also the most under-represented in museum and gallery
visitors (Market Opinion and Research International [MORI] 2004). The main
reason for visiting a specific museum is interest in the collection (40%). Good
communication and advertising seem to positively affect museum attendance
(MORI 2004).
Social scientists at Cambridge University find that education and social status are
the two most important factors influencing arts participation (Heritage Lottery Fund
[HLF] 2012). The UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) laun-
ched in 2005 and reaches an annual sample size of 29,000 adults finds that visiting
museums and galleries, heritage sites and archives is influenced by gender, edu-
cational attainment, socio-economic group and economic status. The probability of
visiting a museum increases with age and the extent that people visited museums
when they were young. In other words, those who visited museums as children are
more likely to visit museums as adults. In fact, this effect is maintained one’s entire
life (DCMS 2010). Accordingly, Yen and Lin (2005) claim that, the growth and
future of museums rests in better understanding the behavior of repeat visitors.
As MORI (2005) suggested, 59% of visitors are repeat visitors of a particular
museum or a gallery. Of these repeat visitors, almost three quarters (73%) had
already visited in the previous 12 months.
Regarding perceptions of publics, Arts Council of England (ACE) (2013)
investigated both visiting and non-visiting public perceptions of and attitudes to the
roles and purposes of museums in society. By interviewing 90 participants, it was
found that there is strong positive emotional attachment to museums by both vis-
itors and non-visitors. It was also found that participants had a relatively sophis-
ticated understanding of museums as shaping our future as well as past. However,
Lin (2006) says, the general public perceives museums as places for education and
learning thus they are boring and dull places; not suitable for leisure purposes. Such
perceptions prevent non-visitors from visiting museums.
Today, consumers look for unique, memorable and extraordinary experiences
(Hosany and Witham 2009). According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), the history of
economy advanced in four stages; agrarian economy, industrial economy, service
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 145

economy and emerging experience economy (Dirsehan and Çelik 2011). In the
economic value progression today, in order to be successful, marketing managers
should understand the consumption experiences of their consumers so that they can
provide unforgettable and satisfactory experiences to them (Pine and Gilmore
1999). While, from a business perspective, “experiences are events that engage
individuals in a personal way” (Pine and Gilmore 1999: 12), from a consumer
perspective, “experiences are enjoyable, engaging, memorable encounters for those
consuming these events” (Oh et al. 2007).
In an experiential perspective, consumption provokes sensations and emotions,
even more they touch upon the consumer’s search for an identity (Caru and Cova
2008). As Caru and Cova (2006) state, a consumer is interested in producing his/her
own identity with the help of the consumption experiences and quotes from Firat
et al. (1995: 5) that he/she therefore “seeks to experience immersion into thematic
settings rather than merely encounter finished products”.
Accordingly, Pine and Gilmore (1999) identify four realms of consumer expe-
riences differentiated based on two levels; degree of consumer involvement (passive
vs. active participation) and the desire with which the consumer connects or
engages with the event/performance (absorption vs. immersion). Accordingly, the
four dimensions of experiences include entertainment (passive/absorption), edu-
cational (active/absorption), escapist (active/immersion) and aesthetic (passive/
immersion). While the entertainment and aesthetic dimensions involve passive
participation in which consumers do not affect or influence the experiential out-
come, the educational and escapist dimensions involve active participation whereby
consumers play a key role in their experiences. Accordingly, in the framework of
Pine and Gilmore (1999), companies aim to delight and entertain their patrons with
entertaining experiences. On the contrary, by offering educational experiences they
stimulate consumers’ mind and appeal to their desire to learn something new.
Providing highly immersive experiences, escapist experiences completely absorb
individuals in the activity. Finally, aesthetic dimension is related to consumers’
interpretation of the physical environment around them. Eventually, these four
dimensions combine to form the optimal consumer experience (Hosany and
Witham 2009) where an individual is transported emotionally through the experi-
ence (Roberson 2011).
Studies specific to museums have identified the reasons for visiting and not
visiting a museum to better understand the museum visitor experience (Prentice
et al. 1997). Indeed, visitors come to museums for various different reasons. MORI
findings (2004) show that, people mainly visit museums because of general interest,
willingness to visit the same museum again and interest in a specific temporary
exhibition. The group’s 2005 findings suggest that although people may have a lack
of awareness about museums and their events and exhibitions, there is a strong
tradition of taking children to museums (MORI 2005). Fitchett (1997) also finds
that there are many reasons for visiting museums, however learning is rarely one of
them. Conversely, Falk and Dierking (1992), Jansen-Verbeke and van Rekom
(1996) and McLean (1994) identify “learning” as the principal motive for visiting a
museum. Defining the museum experience as engaging people “in educationally
146 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

enjoyable experiences from which they take their own personal meaning” (Falk and
Dierking 2000: 76), Falk and Dierking (1992) suggest that visitor experience is a
dynamic process including experiences before, during and after the visit. In order to
explore visitor experiences, first, it is necessary to understand visitor expectations
before the visit (Sheng and Chen 2012).
Accordingly, Falk (2009) proposes an interactive experience model with three
elements; the personal, socio-cultural and physical contexts to understand visitor
experiences in museums. As he argues that each museum visit experience is
strongly shaped by the identity-related needs of the visitors, he identifies five main
motivations: “(1) explorers: motivated by a need to satisfy personal curiosity or a
general interest in discovering more about the topic or subject matter of the insti-
tution, (2) facilitators: motivated by the wish to spend quality time in a convenient,
attractive and educationally supportive space with someone whom they care about;
(3) experience seekers: as mostly made up of tourists, typically motivated to visit
primarily to “collect” an experience to feel like that they “have been there and done
that”; (4) professional/hobbyists: as the most critical visitors with content expertise,
they desire to further specific intellectual needs in an innovative, engaging and
educational setting with a specific subject-matter focus; (5) rechargers: desire to
reflect, rejuvenate or relax in a beautiful and refreshing environment.
In a similar vein, research consultants Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (2007)
identified and quantified the range of motivations that people have for visiting
museums and galleries in the UK. Their classification identified four key drivers:
social, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. Individuals with social drivers see
museums as an enjoyable place to spend time with friends and family and they look
for ease of access and orientation, good facilities and services and welcoming staff.
Individuals with intellectual drivers are keen to foster their children’s or their own
interest and knowledge, may have professional interest in the subject, look for a
journey of discovery and to find out new things. Individuals with emotional drivers
may have a personal connection to the subject matter, desire to see fascinating
objects in an inspiring setting and value ambience and a deep sensory and intel-
lectual experience. Finally, individuals with spiritual drivers look for creative
stimulation and quiet contemplation; they view museums as an opportunity to
escape and recharge their batteries, seeing them as food for the soul. These moti-
vational drivers are hierarchical; social drivers are located at the bottom and spir-
itual drivers are at the top. In other words, the higher visitors are in the hierarchy,
the more fulfilling and rewarding are their visits.
In a more recent research study, Sheng and Chen (2012) explore the components
of experience expectations for museum visitors in Taiwan by integrating a content
analysis of diaries written by museum visitors into their quantitative research. Their
factor analysis identifies five types of experience expectations: (1) easiness and fun,
(2) cultural entertainment, (3) personal identification, (4) historical reminiscences
and (5) escapism. The authors then compare visitors’ museum preferences with
their demographic data and find that visitors who enjoy visiting museums usually
expect easiness and fun and historical reminiscences. Because of previous
impressions or past experiences, individuals with these expectations feel that
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 147

museums can satisfy them. As Weil (2000) suggests, modern museums offer
recreation activities, which meet the expectation of easiness and fun. Sheng and
Chen (2012) also find that visitor expectation is part of personal context and is
influenced by factors such as education and family life cycle. Museum visitors at
different stages of their lives have different needs and perceptions.

3 Methodology

Results presented in this paper are part of a larger research study that investigated
various types of museum visitors and segments. In order to achieve the objectives
of the study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with current museum visitors
in two main art museums in Genoa, Italy. 400 museum visitors who agreed to
participate in the research were interviewed by one of the authors, as well as by a
graduate student trained and monitored by that author. Interviews were conducted
in a range of places, at various times of day and at different periods (between July
and August 2014) so that a representative sample could be obtained. As part of the
interviews, participants were asked to define a museum. The survey instrument was
designed in English and translated into Italian and French. The back translation
method was used to ensure consistency between the original and translated versions
of the definitions made by the respondents. Among the 394 usable questionnaires
collected, 372 available definitions were analyzed in this study.
The majority of respondents were from Italy (41.9%), followed by France
(33.2%) and other European countries (18.5%). Regarding Italian respondents, only
13.2% were from Genoa. The major demographic profiles of respondents indicate
that museums in Genoa are mostly visited by women (i.e. 229 females and 149
males) and people between 31 and 60 years old (63.2%), and those of high
socio-economic status (64.7%). These findings are in line with large scale research
findings (EGMUS 2007; HLF 2012). In the last 12 months, the majority of
respondents had visited a museum five times or more (47.2%), followed by those
who had visited a museum three or more times (31.2%), once or twice (17.8%) and
those who had not visited a museum (3.8%). The most common motivation for
visiting museums was to learn (72.3%), which confirms the findings of Falk and
Dierking (1992), Jansen-Verbeke and van Rekom (1996), and McLean (1994).
Museums in Genoa also seem to have a substantial amount of repeat visitors, as
44.9% of the respondents claimed that they would visit the museum again in the
next 12 months.
We used a grounded theory approach to explore the dimensions underlying the
museum experience of the visitors by referring to their definitions of a museum.
Tung and Ritchie (2011) stated that as an inductive, qualitative research method,
grounded theory focuses on data depth and quality for the construction of theory
through the analysis of data. We conducted our analysis in three stages. First, we
reviewed the definitions collected from the respondents and ran a word frequency
query to help us find key themes. Second, as repeated themes, ideas, or concepts
148 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

become apparent from these definitions, we tagged them with descriptive codes. For
this purpose, we used a qualitative research software named NVivo 11. As a tool to
help reduce time spent to classify, sort, and arrange data, NVivo allows researchers
to develop dimensions or sub-dimensions at any time during the data analysis and
to reduce, alter or enhance them even further when necessary. In the last stage, we
reduced the descriptive codes to interpretative themes by checking them against
categories used in literature. Although this provided us helpful validation, we
remained open to the data in order to allow for theoretical concepts to emerge.

4 Results

While defining the museum in mind, respondents used the following words the
most:
• “Place” 189 times
• “Culture/cultural” 94 times, “heritage” 12 times
• “History/historical” 78 times, “past” 46 times, “memory” 20 times
• “Present” 13 times, “Future” 10 times, “new” 16 times
• “Art/artist/artistic/artwork” 73 times, “beauty/beautiful” 26 times
• “Learn/learning” 63 times, “knowledge” 26 times, “discover/discovery” 16
times, “see” 16 times, “wonder” 16 times, “education” 4 times, “information” 4
times
• “Interesting” 28 times, “entertaining/entertainment” only 2 times
• “Boring” 4 times, “death”, “sad” and similar negative words only three times in
total
Accordingly, Fig. 1 illustrates a word-cloud representing respondents’
top-of-mind associations of museums. Based on this, we may claim that respon-
dents mostly see museums as a place and associate it with culture, history, art and
learning. As most frequently cited verbs include “learn”, “wonder” and “see”,
museums are places to learn, wonder and see, new and different things.
From the definitions of the visitors, seven themes (components) were identified
which represent aspects of visitors’ experiences in museums. In order of importance
in line with frequency counts, they are experiences that provide (1) historical and/
or cultural reminisce and awareness, (2) learning and self-development, (3) expo-
sure to tangible evidences, (4) sensory stimulation, (5) wonder and discovery,
(6) entertainment and (7) socializing.
With regard to historical and/or cultural reminisce and awareness, positive
feelings and emotions associated with the experiences (such as having good time,
amazement, excitement, happiness) were described by the majority of the respon-
dents as a critical component of their museum definitions. After describing muse-
ums as places associated with history, culture and art, respondents often provided
more details of their museum experiences as in the following:
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 149

Fig. 1 Word-cloud
representing respondents’
top-of-mind associations of
museums derived from their
definitions of a museum

Place to keep, save cultural, national, historical heritage and knowledge, to make this
heritage and knowledge known to people and present it in a way that makes people aware
about their importance and beauty to ensure that they are kept for future generations”
(Female, art historian, Austria).
Place of culture in order to learn and understand our past” (Male, employee, Parma Italy).
Place of culture, amazement and heritage conservation (Female, teacher, France).
Places of culture and memory, places that express the history of a country –
‘Contemplation of beauty’. Educating to appreciate the beauty (Female, teacher, Rome
Italy).
Museums are places where history, art, architecture combine to enrich and excite the
visitor and you come out happier than you have entered (Male, pharmacist, Turin Italy).
A meeting with the history. It is the way the past can speak to the men of present times
(Female, teacher, Naples Italy).
Places to learn, admire, that helps us to get in touch with history of humankind and culture
(Female, artist, Poland).

Learning and self-development were reflected in definitions emphasizing

learning, enrichment and personal growth. Museums are so highly valued and
positively regarded because of the educational purposes they are perceived to hold.
It involved many references such as learning the history, local culture, way-of-life,
and something new. These are explored in the following examples:

A place to learn a bit of art, a bit of history and a place to have good time (Female,
entrepreneur, Spain).
A place or resource created to visit that educates and stretches the mind by opening your
eyes to the wonder of art/science/man’s achievement. (Female, garden designer, UK).
A place to dream, learn, grow up (Female, project manager, France).
150 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

Places to learn, reflect, consider, reconsider and wonder (Male, teacher, UK).
Places to expand your mind and experience (Male, retired university lecturer, UK).
A place where one comes out “smarter” and cultivated than entered (Female, genealogist,
France).
Beautiful! Magnificent! A place where we can learn and develop (Female, nurse, Canada).

While defining museums, many respondents also expressed gratitude that they
are able to see and are exposed to valuable and rare objects in museums. Exposure
to tangible evidences was reflected in those definitions that suggested some sort of
importance given to joy of seeing materials and objects on display.

A place where to learn about the art from the ‘original’ (Female, teacher, Milan Italy).
Place of exposure of objects that allow enriching the knowledge of persons (Male, mer-
chant, Milan Italy).
Places where things of the memory are displayed to last in time to witness the past to the
future (Female, employee, Cremona Italy).
A place where interesting things can be seen (Male, veterinary, Ivrea Italy).
A unique place where you can imagine or see how it was in the past. Where you can be in
the same room (atmosphere) (Female, logistics, France).
A place to learn and discover beautiful works on display. A place between virtual,
imagination and reality (objects exposed) (Female, public officer, France).
Museums are teaching you about the past in a visual way. If you don’t like to read books or
receive a lot of information at once, the museum is an ideal way of getting an idea of how
life was before (Female, teacher, Genoa Italy).

Sensory stimulation was reflected in definitions emphasizing various positive

sensory and spiritual feelings and emotions that respondents experience in muse-
ums. Amazement, excitement, and reflection were among those feelings and
emotions described by the majority of the respondents.

A place to get inspired, surprised, enriched (Female, company director, The Netherlands).
A place where I learn and I am amazed. It reminds me of the Bible, mythology, history in
general (Female, student, France).
Wealth of the soul (Female, sculptor, Florence Italy).
Memory and youth, not only a historical site but soul, inspiration and civilization (Male,
lawyer, France).
Places that inspire you (Male, farmer, Belgium).
Place of interest and culture where you can spend your time in peace and harmony with the
art that surrounds you (Female, employee, Florence Italy).
A place to exercise the spirit (Male, employee, Milan Italy).

Wonder and discovery were reflected in definitions specifically addressing

descriptions of wonder and discovery encountered during museum visits. In these
definitions, respondents mostly emphasize that they enjoy learning or seeing new
things. The following definitions include descriptions of such experiences:

A world of wonder (Female, civil servant, UK).

A place of cultural discovery (Male, consultant, France).
Place of culture, wealth, discovery and rediscovery of values. The place where the greatest
feelings are expressed (Female, teacher, Rome Italy).
Place where you can discover the culture of the country you visit and the objects of the past
centuries for the pleasure of learning and observing (Female, surgical assistant, France).
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 151

Relation between culture, pleasure, and cultural discovery (Male, lawyer, France).
The place where I discover something new (Male, merchant, Japan).
Museums mean for me a very nice way of learning new things, of seeing new things and of
discovering things about our past (Male, student, Romania).

Although entertainment was not reflected often in definitions made by the

respondents, there are still some examples for those fun and entertaining experi-
ences in museums.

Places to learn. Places to see exhibitions from other countries and cultures. Places which
keep the treasure of your own country. Great entertainment on a rainy day! (Female,
retired, UK).
Place where you can learn a lot, playful, attractive (Female, unemployed, France).
Place of interest, sharing and fun (Female, teacher, La Spezia Italy).
Fun places (Female, retired, Finale Italy).
Conservation, animation, exhibition, meditation (Female, designer, France).
Amazing, fun, joyful (Female, student, France).

Socializing is another element not often reflected in the definitions. In these

available definitions, respondents mostly mention museums as meeting places to
share with others.

Museums should also be meeting places for sharing ideas as in London (Female, house-
wife, Varese Italy).
Places of culture, emotions, aesthetic enjoyment, meeting (Male, employee, Genoa Italy).
A friendly space, culture and sharing (Male, school director, France).
Places of knowledge and meeting (Male, student, Genoa Italy).
Place to share extraordinary artworks (Female, psychologist, France).

Finally, in addition to these themes explored above, a number of respondents

defined museums as places for protection and preservation. When defining muse-
ums, it was clear that respondents emphasized the purpose of museums in safe-
guarding historical objects and cultural heritage and preventing them from being
lost. Care and preservation of heritage is viewed as being an important function of
museums. Accordingly, in the following definitions, respondents emphasized
preservation to ensure the past is kept safe and learnt from.

Place where cultural heritage is preserved and exhibited (Female, professor, France).
Museums are an open box of beauty, past and future (Female, advisor, UK).
A place where historic collections are preserved and shared with the public (Male, IT
manager, The Netherlands).
Protected reserve of the traces left by humanity through ages (Male, designer, France).
A place where the past is protected (Female, professor, France).
Places of cultural interest where objects and theme stories are preserved for us and our
future generations (Female, curator, The Netherlands).
Special place to get to know and preserve the cultural and artistic heritage (Male, doctor,
Switzerland).

From the definitions made by the participants, it is evident that a museum visitor
can experience various influences of different elements in a museum. Museum
visitors in general seem to be capable of having a number of different kinds of
152 E. Gurel and A. Nielsen

visitor experiences. Nevertheless, regarding the discussions concerning the content

of experience, scholars agree on the fact that “experience usually includes various
elements, and it provides an emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually
mixed feeling” (Sheng and Chen 2012: 53).

5 Conclusion

As important cultural organizations in the service of society, museums have been

going through a change from being predominantly custodial institutions to
becoming increasingly focused on audience attraction (Gilmore and Rentschler
2002). In order to increase visitation and survive in the long run, today’s museums
need to understand their visiting publics involving cultural tourists.
As pointed out by Brida et al. (2013), for a long time, visitors of cultural
attractions were assumed homogeneous. However, recent literature suggests that
visitors of cultural attractions are made up of a heterogeneous market with different
characteristics, perceptions and needs. Thus, this research aimed to understand
various publics, their perceptions and experiences in museums. The findings of this
research confirm that as the most popular cultural attractions usually followed by art
galleries and monuments, museums offer visitors different kinds of experiences. As
Falk (1998) stated, museum-going is a complex subject and the measurement of
demographic categories alone cannot offer much insight into understanding visitors.
Therefore, in order to offer exhibitions and services that visitors look for, an attempt
have been made in this research to understand why people visit museums, how they
feel there and what meaning they take from the experience by conducting a qual-
itative research.
The analysis of the museum definitions of the respondents in this study revealed
seven core factors of museum visitor experience. These museum experiences provide
visitors historical and/or cultural reminisce and awareness, learning and
self-development, exposure to tangible evidences, sensory stimulation, wonder and
discovery and to a lesser level entertainment and socializing. However, the findings
of this research confirm Falk (2009) that museum visitor experience is a series of
nested and seemingly interrelated experiences as most of the definitions of the
respondents included various elements (themes). In addition, every visitor is a unique
individual capable of having a wide range of different kinds of visitor experiences but
most of them seem to select from a limited palette of possible experiences.
These results provide important implications. In this research, an attempt has
been made to explore common experience characteristics in multiple visitor
experiences. As pointed out by Sheng and Chen (2012), this subject is rarely
studied and investigated in studies on museum visitors. However, without distin-
guishing the common characteristics of experience, it is difficult to measure and
understand visitor experiences. Hence, the findings of this research can help
managers develop and design measurement tools to understand visitor satisfaction
in their museum. The findings can also help managers segment the visitors based on
Exploring the Visitors’ Perceptions and Experiences … 153

their experience expectations to develop the right marketing strategies. In this

regard, future research can investigate the possible significant differences of
experience expectations of museum visitors with different characteristics. Based on
these experience expectations, museum visitors’ selection can also be investigated.
However, further research might well suggest that within the general museum
visitor experiences revealed by this research, there is likely to be much greater
complexity when looking at individual experiences and their needs.
This study only focused on visitors of two museums in Genoa Italy, therefore the
application scope of the findings is limited. The analysis is also based on a
non-random sampling technique. Thus, in order to verify whether the results are
valid for other museums, a future study may be conducted in other museums and
places.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable help in data collection and
support for this research provided by Dr. Piero Boccardo, Dr. Adelmo Taddei, Dr. Elizabetta
Papone, Ms. Tina Russo, Ms. Paola Barbara Villa and the museum community of Genoa, Italy.

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Creating Value for Restaurant
Customer: The Role of Other Customers
in Dining Experience

Ezgi Erkmen and Murat Hancer

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to understand the different roles of dif-
ferent dining experience attributes in creating value for restaurant customers. This
research is one of the first study to examine the role of other customers as a part of
dining experience along with other restaurant satisfaction attributes to better
understand value creation in restaurant industry. A conceptual model is proposed
and tested to investigate the different effects of restaurant attributes on creating
value as well as behavioral intentions by adopting multidimensional conceptual-
ization of consumer perceived value. A quantitative research design performing
structural equation modeling is used to test series of linear relations between study
constructs. Data were collected from customers of a restaurant group, which
operates different restaurant brands in İstanbul. The findings supported the
sequential link of restaurant attributes—customer value and behavioral intentions.
The results also identify other customers as being part of dining experience in
creating value. Moreover, this chapter also confirms that different restaurant attri-
butes satisfy different needs of restaurant guests in creating overall perceived value
and affecting future behavioral intentions.

1 Introduction

Turkey has experienced tremendous growth in the food industry during recent
years. In 2015, Turkish food and beverage sector has reached up to $300 billion
market with 40,000 companies in the sector (Atalaysun 2015). Several factors
explain the increased motivation of Turkish people to dine out more often. These

E. Erkmen (&)
School of Tourism and Hospitality, Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
M. Hancer
Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 157

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
158 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

factors are mainly; increasing participation of women in the labor force, longer
workdays, growing number of households living on at least two-income sources,
decreasing household sizes, urbanization, growth in tourism, longer life expecta-
tion, increasing education level of consumers, increasing per capita income, and
increasing number of restaurants (Akbay et al. 2007).
All of these factors resulted in people having food experience outside more. As
people dine out more often, restaurant customers have become more experienced
and demanding. It is much more difficult to satisfy restaurant guests than before (Hu
2009). They are progressively looking for higher quality food and service. As a
result, meeting customer expectations in the restaurant industry is consistently
becoming much difficult with the increased choices in the market. With the
increased competition, customers have many choices so that they can easily switch
from a restaurant to another (Kang et al. 2004).
One of the biggest misleading perception among restaurateurs is that the most
important factor for people to dine out is food (Massawe 2013). Even the research
in restaurant industry consider food the most important attribute (Sulek and Hensley
2004), service and restaurant setting are also mentioned as important attributes for
selecting a particular restaurant (Susskind and Chan 2000). Therefore, as customers
become more sophisticated, they consistently look for a dining experience that goes
beyond food and satisfy their different needs (Kivela et al. 1999).
As dining out has become a more sophisticated experience, planning and
managing various restaurant attributes are much more crucial for the restaurant
business in hospitality industry. To understand customer satisfaction in restaurants
and how satisfaction affects post-consumption behaviors of customers, different
restaurant attributes are identified in previous studies (Ha and Jang 2010; Sulek and
Hensley 2004). These studies have mainly focused on food quality, atmospherics as
well as service quality to explain satisfaction and future behavioral intentions.
However, customer dining experience has seldom been studied by analyzing the
service encounter with all social factors in a restaurant setting. The service scape
framework in restaurant studies mainly focused on physical aspects of service
environment and ignored the role of social factors (Harris and Ezeh 2008). Even the
importance of other customers as a part of the social factors in a service environ-
ment has been acknowledged in the literature (Antun et al. 2010; Kim and Lee
2012; Wu and Liang 2009), relatively little is known about how other customers as
a part of service experience affect satisfaction well as future behaviors of restaurant
guests.
As a result, the purpose of this chapter is to address this gap by developing and
testing a conceptual model that explains the effect of other customers along with
other restaurant attributes on perceived value and behavioral intentions of restaurant
customers in İstanbul, Turkey. More specifically, this chapter aims to understand
the role of other customers along with other attributes in creating value for
restaurant guests as well as in affecting their future behavioral intentions.
Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role … 159

2 Literature Review

In restaurant industry, dining experience is related with how customers perceive

different attributes during their consumption. Previous research confirm that this
perception of attributes is the source of customer value as well as an important
determinant of future behaviors (Ha and Jang 2012; Jang et al. 2011; Ryu et al.
2012) Over the recent years, researchers have increasingly studied how restaurant
attributes influence customers’ dining experience as well as create value for them.
Reuland et al. (1985) argued that hospitality services are composed of mainly three
elements, which are product, attitude and behavior of the employees as well as the
environment. In line with this conceptualization, previous research has acknowl-
edged different attributes affecting customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions
within the context of restaurant industry. More specifically, studies in the restaurant
industry have identified food quality, service quality, and atmospherics as the most
important attributes to understand the satisfaction of the customers as well as their
future behaviors (Ha and Jang 2010; Sulek and Hensley 2004).
Among different restaurant satisfaction attributes, food quality was suggested as
being the most important factor to understand the consumers’ choice of a restaurant
as well as satisfaction (Ha and Jang 2010; Namkung and Jang 2007; Sulek and
Hensley 2004). In order to assess food quality, customers mainly evaluate tastiness
of food, nutritional value, menu variety, freshness of food, smell, presentation,
serving size (Kivela et al. 2000; Raajpoot 2002; Ryu et al. 2012).
Despite, food has been identified as the most crucial factor in restaurant industry,
atmospherics is offered to be another attribute affecting customers’ evaluation of
their dining experience. Bitner (1992, p. 58) identified (1) ambient conditions
(2) spatial layout and functionality, (3) signs, symbols, and artifacts as the primary
dimensions forming the customers’ perception of service scape. Mainly, these
tangible attributes provide the first impression for guests so that they form a mental
picture of the service setting (Berry et al. 2006).
Aside from a restaurant’s food quality and atmospherics, service quality has
been also acknowledged to be a significant factor due to the interactive nature of
service experience. In the literature, service quality is usually conceptualized as
consisting of service behaviors of employees in terms of providing dependable and
prompt service, showing courtesy as well as caring for customers (Ryu and Jang
2008). Therefore, service quality mainly depends on the interaction between cus-
tomers and employees through which employees deliver an appropriate service as
promised (Ryu and Han 2010). In fact, the quality of the interaction provides a
tangible cue for customer experience (Namkung and Jang 2008; Parasuraman et al.
1985). However, the interaction is not only limited to customer—employee inter-
action but also includes the interaction with other customers in the restaurant
environment (Butcher 2005).
Since one of the distinguished characteristics of services is their interactive
nature, it is imperative that both employees and customers represent an integral part
of service scape. Bitner (1992) conceptualized service scape as consisting of
160 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

different physical environmental dimensions, which are ambient conditions, space

and function as well as signs and symbols. Even this service scape framework has
formed the basis for many studies in literature, the conceptualization only includes
physical factors but not the social factors. Social factors include people sharing the
same service environment (Baker et al. 1994). Therefore, a social service scape
does not only include employees but also includes customers in the same service
setting (Rosenbaum and Montoya 2007). Tombs and McColl-Kennedy (2010) have
found that other customers affect the experience of focal customer through direct or
indirect interaction. Lovelock and Wright (1999) described customers’ role as a
product element and proposed that other customers’ traits such as appearance, age,
apparent income bracket, and dress could influence customers in high-contact,
interactive services. Therefore, the authors suggested that the construct, other
customers, should be approached strategically. As a result, this study included other
customers as one of the attributes that might affect the experience of restaurant
guests.

2.1 Customer Perceived Value

In a restaurant setting, customers’ service experience is mainly based on how they

perceive these different restaurant attributes during their dining experience (Jeong
and Jang 2011). These perceptions mainly form the basis for perceived value of
customers, which in turn, affects their satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Zeithaml (1988, p. 14) defines perceived value as “the customer’s overall assess-
ment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is
given”. Even this definition measures perceived value as “value for money”, the
concept is more complex and requires “more sophisticated measure” that addresses
different value perceptions (Sweeney and Soutar 2001, p. 207). As many
researchers have agreed on the complex nature of perceived value, two common
value perceptions are offered to understand consumer behavior based on functional
and non-functional motives of customers (Sheth 1983).
Babin et al. (1994) have conceptualized perceived value as having two dimen-
sions that are utilitarian and hedonic value. While utilitarian values are more related
with functional attributes, hedonic values are more related with subjective attributes
such as the interaction or service process (Arnold and Reynolds 2003). Based on
this multidimensional conceptualization, Overby and Lee (2006) defined hedonic
value as “an overall assessment of experiential benefits and sacrifices, such as
entertainment and escapism”. On the other hand, the authors defined utilitarian
value as “an overall assessment of functional benefits and sacrifices”. Referring to
these definitions, it is imperative that hedonic dimension represents the emotional
aspects of consumer experience, while utilitarian dimension represents economical
aspects of consumption.
In order to better understand perceived value in restaurant industry, the adap-
tation of both utilitarian and hedonic values is also applicable due to the nature of
Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role … 161

dining experience. Park (2004) suggest that customers have several different
motivations for dining out including taste, fun, interaction, enjoyment, pleasure, or
excitement. Therefore, restaurateurs need to address to both emotional and func-
tional needs of customers in order to create value for restaurant guests. Because
services offer a total experience for customers, creating value and how customers
evaluate this value will depend on their perception of different restaurant attributes.
Both tangible and intangible factors in terms of food quality, service quality, and
atmospherics would be affecting customers’ perception of value, which in turn,
result in their satisfaction (Wilson 1995).
Previous studies suggest that restaurant environment and physical facilities
influence customers’ evaluation of overall dining experience (Han and Ryu 2009).
This evaluation based on the physical service facilities also help customers to assess
their satisfaction with restaurant (Wu and Liang 2009). In addition, atmospherics,
food quality and service quality have been also identified as being important
antecedents of perceived value and customer satisfaction (Ryu and Han 2010).
However, besides all these three factors, Ha and Jang (2010) argue that interaction
with employees is also an integral part of dining experience evaluation. Even
interaction with employees is related with service quality, the concept also reflects
the social aspects of dining experience. However, not only the employees but also
the customers are part of the service setting. Therefore, other customers also have
an impact on service environment through direct and indirect interaction (Tombs
and McColl-Kennedy 2010). As a result, this study included other customer
component of social service setting (Jang et al. 2015; Wu and Liang 2009) as
another factor determining the perceived service quality.
Thus, in the light of these findings and subsequent discussions, the following
hypotheses are proposed:
H1a: Food quality positively affects utilitarian values.
H1b: Service quality positively affects utilitarian values.
H1c: Atmospherics positively affects utilitarian values.
H1d: Other customer positively affects utilitarian values.
H2a: Food quality positively affects hedonic values.
H2b: Service quality positively affects hedonic values.
H2c: Atmospherics positively affects hedonic values.
H2d: Other customer positively affects hedonic values.
H3: Utilitarian values positively affect perceived value.
H4: Hedonic values positively affect perceived value.
In fact, the reason for many organizations to create value is to enhance the
relationship with customers through affecting their future behavioral intentions.
Even, satisfaction is usually preferred to explain intentions, recent studies argue that
perceived value could be a better predictor of future behavioral intentions (Cronin
et al. 2000). As a result, this study has also adopted perceived value to better
understand the intentions of customers.
162 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

2.2 Behavioral Intentions

Significant number of research has argued for the role of perceived value to explain
satisfaction and behavioral intentions of customers in the service context.
Especially, behavioral intentions to predict future consumption behaviors have
become crucial in recent years. Zeithaml (1988) suggest that customers’ perceived
value has crucial impact on their future purchases. Therefore, it is reasonable to
argue that future behavioral intentions result from customers’ evaluation of per-
ceived value after their experience. Warshaw and Davis (1985, p. 214) has defined
behavioral intention as “a conscious action plan which functions as a major
determinant of future behavior … the degree to which a person has formulated
conscious plans to perform or not perform some specified future behavior”.
Therefore, when customers perceive high value as a result of their experiences, they
are more likely to show positive behavioral intentions of revisit the service setting,
positive word-of-mouth, and willingness to recommend the service (Jin et al. 2012).
Several research studied the effect of perceived value and its effect on beha-
vioural intentions. Specifically, for restaurant industry, previous studies indicated
that perceived value affects restaurant selection decisions, customers’ revisit
intention, and behavioral intentions (Liu and Jang 2009). Ha and Jang (2010) found
that both utilitarian and hedonic values positively influence future behavioural
intention of restaurant customers. Moreover, Ryu and Han (2010) investigated the
effect of food quality, service quality, and atmospherics on behavioural intentions
and found similar results.
In particular, hedonic values are related with behavioural intentions of customers
because positive emotional experiences could be antecedent of approach behaviour
(Donovan and Rossiter 1982) as well as an emotional response to positive expe-
rience (Swan and Oliver 1989). On the other hand, not only hedonic values but also
utilitarian values are related with future behavioural intentions. Customers, who
perceive high value as a result of service experience, would be more likely to revisit
the facility due to positive economical and functional gains (Swinyard 1993). In
addition, more positive cognitive evaluations of value would result in positive word
of mouth and willingness to recommend (Bowen and Shoemaker 2003). Therefore,
it is reasonable to assume that both hedonic and utilitarian values, which reflect
overall perceived value, might result in positive behavioural intentions of cus-
tomers. Therefore, based on subsequent discussions and previous findings, the
following relationship is postulated:
H5: Perceived value positively affects behavioral intentions of customers.
Based on the above discussions and theoretical foundations, this research pro-
posed the following conceptual research model (see Fig. 1).
Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role … 163

Fig. 1 Conceptual research model

3 Methodology

For the purpose of the study, this research collected data from a restaurant group,
which operates different restaurant brands in İstanbul. A convenience sample of
restaurant customers was selected to collect data. A self-administered structured
questionnaire was conducted to the respondents, who were willing to participate in
the study. The surveys were conducted after restaurant guests finish their meal.
They were approached by restaurant employees and asked whether they would like
to participate the study. At the end of the data collection, 227 usable questionnaires
were used for the further analysis.
The data were collected via structured self-administered questionnaire consisting
of six sections. Restaurant customers were asked to rate their perceptions for each
item on a five-point Likert-type scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. For
the convenience of restaurant customers, surveys were translated into Turkish. The
first section included 19 questions regarding how customers perceive different
restaurant attributes. The questions to assess how restaurant guests evaluate food
quality, service quality, atmospherics, and other customers were adopted from
previous studies in literature (Kim and Lee 2012; Kivela et al. 2000; Namkung and
Jang 2007; Ryu et al. 2012). For hedonic and utilitarian values, respondents were
asked to report their perceptions for 9 items. The questions for perceived value and
behavioral intensions are both measured through 3 items each. The scale items are
adopted from the previous study of Ryu et al. (2008).
Once data were collected from respondents, they were checked for missing
values and response bias. List wise deletion, which is the most common method
(Jackson et al. 2009), was used to deal with missing values. At the end, 227 usable
surveys were included in further data analysis.
164 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

First, descriptive data analysis was performed to get descriptive statistics of

observed variables and to assess demographic profile of the study participants.
Univariate analysis was conducted by using SPSS 20.0. On the other hand, pro-
posed research model was analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) by
using Mplus v.6 (Muthén and Muthén 2010). SEM was chosen to test hypothesized
paths between construct due to the nature of proposed research model because the
method allows testing series of relationships between constructs by modelling a
regression structure for latent variables (Hair et al. 2005).

4 Results

The demographic profile of respondents participated in this study is provided in

Table 1. Of the 227 restaurant customers, males accounted for 54.6% (124) and
females accounted for 45.4% (103) of the sample. Most of the customers were over
26 years old. 24% (54) of the respondents was 46 or above and 31% (71) of them was
between 36 and 45. While customers between 26 and 35 accounted for 30% (68) of
the sample, the rest of the respondents was between 18 and 25 representing 15%
(34) of study participants. Regarding their marital status, 53% (121) of the customers
was single and 47% (106) was married. For the education level of restaurant cus-
tomers, most of them hold bachelor degree that represents 76% (173) of the sample.
5% (11) of the respondents was the customers with high school degree and 18%
(41) of the respondents was having a graduate degree. Only 1% (2) of the sample had
a pre-college degree. In terms of income level, people with a monthly income level of
between TL 3001 and 6000 were representing the 32% (73) of the sample. 30%
(67) of the customers reported their income level between TL 6001 and 9000. The
rest of the participants’ income level was less between TL 1001 and 3000 (26%),
between less than TL 1000 (10%), and TL 9001 or above (2%).
In order to test the hypothesized paths in the study, structural equation modeling
was used by Mplus. The measurement model was estimated by using
Satorra-Bentler procedure in Mplus (Satorra and Bentler 2001) due to its advantage
of being robust against non-normality and multicollinearity. The model fit indices
reported as comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.923; Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) =
0.912; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.045; standardized
root mean residual (SRMR) = 0.06, indicating a good fit for the model to the
empirical data (Hooper et al. 2008). Table 2 summarizes all path coefficients of
hypothesized paths as well as their significance.
The results supported the hypothesized effects of food quality, atmospherics and
other customers on utilitarian values (H1a, c11 = 0.303, t = 5.776, p < 0.01; H1c,
c13 = 0.167, t = 1.976, p < 0.05; H1d, c14 = 0.207, t = 3.215, p < 0.01).
However, the effect of service quality on utilitarian value was not significant (H1b,
c12 = 0.232 t = 1.672, p > 0.05). For the effect of restaurant attributes on hedonic
values, the effects of food quality, and service quality were all significant supporting
H2a and H2b (H2a, c21 = 0.418, t = 7.385, p < 0.01; H2b; c22 = 0.474,
Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role … 165

Table 1 Demographic profile of respondents

Variable n %
Gender Male 124 54.6
Female 103 45.4
Total 227 100
Age 18–25 34 15
26–35 68 30
36–45 71 31
46 or above 54 24
Total 227 100
Marital status Single 121 53
Married 106 47
Total 227 100
Education level High school 11 5
Pre-college 2 1
Bachelor 173 76
Graduate 41 18
Total 227 100
Income Less than 1000 TL 23 10
1001–3000 58 26
3001–6000 73 32
6001–9000 67 30
9001 or above 6 2
Total 227 100

Table 2 Results of path analysis

Path to Path from Std. Coeff. t-value
Utilitarian value Food quality 0.303 5.776**
Atmosphere 0.167 1.976*
Service quality 0.232 1.672
Other customers 0.207 3.215**
Hedonic value Food quality 0.418 7.385**
Atmosphere 0.047 0.648
Service quality 0.474 4.981**
Other customers 0.022 0.198
Perceived value Hedonic value 0.518 14.614**
Utilitarian value 0.165 4.322**
Behavioral intentions Perceived value 0.455 8.824**
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01
166 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

t = 4.981, p < 0.01). On the other hand, the study could not find statistical support
for H2c and H2d, which propose a positive effect of other customers and atmo-
sphere on hedonic values (H2c, c23 = 0.047, t = 0.648, p > 0.05; H2d,
c24 = 0.022, t = 0.198, p > 0.05). Moreover, both hedonic and utilitarian values
were found to positively and significantly affect perceived value of restaurant
guests, supporting H3 and H4. Lastly, the overall perceived value positively
influenced the behavioral intentions of customers in the restaurant setting (see
Table 2).
To sum up, the findings supported the sequential link for: restaurant experience
attributes—perceived value and future behavioral intentions. While food quality,
atmospherics and other customers influenced utilitarian values of restaurant guests,
the effect of service quality was insignificant. For the effect of restaurant experience
attributes on hedonic values, only service quality and food quality were found to
have a significant effect on hedonic values of customers. On the other hand, both
utilitarian and hedonic values positively influenced the overall perceived value for
dining experience, which in turn, affected future behavioral intentions of restaurant
guests.

5 Conclusion

The purpose of this research was to understand the effect of different restaurant
attributes on different perceived value dimensions as well as to investigate the
influence of overall perceived value on behavioral intentions of customers. In line
with its purpose, this study has extended the existing knowledge of customer value
in restaurant industry both theoretically and practically. From a theoretical stand-
point, the study contributed to the understanding of dining experience and its effect
on perceived value as well as behavioral intentions. First, this research adopted
two-dimensional conceptualization consumer value to achieve more comprehensive
picture of overall value for dining experience. Because services have a complex
nature, unidimensional measurement of perceived value might fail to capture
overall customer value. Adopting a multidimensional measure of value helps to
understand both functional and emotional motives of consumers (Sheth 1983).
Second, the study integrated the role of other customers as a part of restaurant
experience. Even previous research has studied the effect of restaurant attributes on
customer value (Ha and Jang 2010; Han and Ryu 2009; Jin et al. 2012; Namkung
and Jang 2007; Sulek and Hensley 2004), dining experience has seldom been
studied by analyzing the service environment with all social factors. However social
factors in a service setting are not limited to only employees but also include
customers sharing the same service environment. As a result, this study addressed
this gap by developing and testing a conceptual model that explains the effect of
other customers along with other restaurant attributes on perceived value and brand
behavioral intentions.
Creating Value for Restaurant Customer: The Role … 167

Aside from theoretical implications, this study provides important practical

implications for restaurant industry. First, restaurateurs need to adopt a more
holistic approach in creating service environment. Babin et al. (1994) suggest that
overall value is created through appealing both utilitarian and hedonic values.
Similarly, the finding of this study also confirm that different restaurant attributes
have different influences on consumer perceived value. While food quality, atmo-
spherics, and other customers have an impact on utilitarian values, service quality
and food quality addresses the hedonic values. Therefore, restaurants should not
devote their efforts to only one attribute but design their dining experience as an
augmented product.
Similar to previous research (Ha and Jang 2010; Namkung and Jang 2007; Sulek
and Hensley 2004), the results indicate that food quality is the most important
attribute for dining experience because food quality affects both hedonic and util-
itarian values. This finding might further indicate that food does not serve to satisfy
the basic functional needs of people anymore. Customers expect more than satis-
fying their hunger and looking for something fancy. Therefore, restaurants need to
pay more attention to details such as menu design, taste, and presentation of food. It
is obvious that food represents the core offering for restaurants. However, other
attributes should be approached as crucial parts of the experience supplementing the
core product to create an overall customer value.
Moreover, the results suggest that as a part of service setting, customers have an
important role in creating value for restaurants. In other terms, it might be argued
that restaurant customers perceive other guests sharing the restaurant environment,
atmosphere of the restaurant as well as the food as a part of the product in restaurant
context. Therefore, restaurateurs should consider the other customers as a part of the
service physical environment when they are designing their restaurant concept and
determining their target customers for their business. This is why restaurateurs need
to target the right customer for the success of business. All marketing activities need
to focus on targeting and selecting the right customer profile because these cus-
tomers would be sharing their dining experience. In other terms, restaurant oper-
ators are not only responsible for managing the attitude and behavior of employees
but they also need to manage their customers. This is why targeting the right
customer is especially important for service business.
In addition to the role of customers, this study confirm that employees also have
a crucial role in creating value. The findings suggest that service quality, which is
conceptualized as behaviors and attitudes of employees during service delivery, is
found to affect hedonic values of restaurant guests. Therefore, service employees
could be a source of differentiation because their behaviors satisfy the emotional
needs of customers by addressing their hedonic values. Restaurant operators could
be better to adopt internal branding activities to manage the attitudes and behaviors
of employees to create a distinguished brand in the minds of customers. Functional
attributes could be easily copied by competitors, but appealing to emotional needs
could provide the opportunity of competitive advantage over other restaurants.
Therefore, managing attitudes and behaviors of employees is especially important
in highly competitive restaurant industry. As a result, in line with subsequent
168 E. Erkmen and M. Hancer

discussions, the results of the study supported the role of other customers and
employees as the social factors contributing to service scape (Harris and Ezeh
2008).
Lastly, the study also found that overall perceived value is an important predictor
of future behavioral intentions. Therefore, restaurateurs should put an effort to
increase customer value by creating a service environment satisfying both hedonic
and utilitarian needs of customers. This means that restaurant operators need to be
long-term oriented. As restaurants create value, customers would be more likely
develop long-term relations and loyalty with service providers. Thus, restaurants
could increase their customer share as well as financial success by successful
relations with their guests. Customers who leave the restaurant satisfied and per-
ceive high quality of value, would be more likely to choose the same restaurant in
future purchases and recommend to the others. Therefore, restaurant could increase
the is the amount of spending allocated to the restaurant rather than choosing
another one as well as they could attract new potential customers.
Even this study has acknowledged the importance of other customers in creation
value for restaurant customers as well as the importance of different restaurant
attributes on perceived value, it has its own limitations. First of all, this study
analyzed the proposed conceptual model based on the data collected from the
customers of a specific restaurant management company. Therefore, sampling
method used in this study may affect the external validity and generalizability of
results. Additionally, the selection of customers depends on their own will and the
participants asked to indicate their self-reported attitudes regarding scale items.
However, it is difficult to guarantee that participants truly reflected their own atti-
tudes and beliefs. Lastly, previous studies also used price fairness to understand
restaurant experience (Sulek and Hensley 2004). As a result, future study may
benefit from incorporating price fairness to understand its contribution to perceived
value and behavioral intentions. Although this research has limitations; the findings
of this study may serve as a guide to better understand the role of customers along
with other restaurant attributes in creating value for restaurant customers.

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The Active Senior Tourist: The Case
of the Balearic Islands

Francisco Rejón-Guardia, María Antonia García-Sastre

and Margarita Alemany-Hormaeche

Abstract Tourism in mature, seasonal destinations such as The Balearic Islands

should be redirected towards more sustainable products and policies. The present
chapter examines hiking tourists, underlining the role and great potential they have
for the destination. A sample of hikers approached in the Tramuntana mountain
range was segmented by age, differentiating between senior hikers of 60 years and
above, and the rest of respondents. The analysis of results showed distinct
socio-demographic characteristics and motivations for choosing the tourist desti-
nation, as well as different patterns of tourist behaviour, spending and levels of
satisfaction. The findings have important practical applications for the promotion of
hiking destinations as tourism products.

1 Introduction

The Balearic Islands are one of the major international tourist destinations, wel-
coming more than 11 million tourists annually. Their limited territory (5.014 km2)
concentrate more than 1% of world tourism, and is internationally renowned for its
hegemony in the sun and beach segment. However, new tourist demands and
intense competition are compelling the Balearic Islands to diversify the products on
offer as a destination, and to propose new experiences for visitors in order to
combat the seasonality derived from a highly seasonal tourism model
(García-Sastre et al. 2015). The recent addition of the Serra de Tramuntana
mountain range to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites provides an appropriate
context to explore the potential of this cultural landscape as a tourist resort for
senior hikers. The 150 km long-distance trail GR-221, which runs the length of the
Sierra de Tramuntana, is becoming one of the main hiking destinations for
European outbound markets (Ceballos 2010).

F. Rejón-Guardia (&)
M. A. García-Sastre
M. Alemany-Hormaeche

University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 173

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
174 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

Some of the main objectives of this chapter were: to identify the profile of the
hiking tourist in the Balearic Islands (Serra de Tramuntana), to analyze their
motivations for visiting the destination to do sport, and to analyze tourist behaviour
patterns. To this end, the hikers were segmented according to age range, using the
age of 60 as the differentiation criterion. This allowed the participants within the
sample to be classified into two groups: senior hikers (60 and over), and non-senior
hikers (under 60) respectively.

2 Literature Review

The most relevant research is described below as follows: First, on the main studies
on hiking as a sports tourism product, the definition of a sportive hiker, tourist
behaviour and the benefits of sport at the personal and economic level. Second, it
explains the studies on senior tourists as an actual target group, emphasising the
concept of senior tourists and underlining the importance of the economic potential
of this expanding sector. The review concludes with the importance of sports
tourism and specifically senior tourism as a tool to control over the seasonality of
mature tourist destinations such as the Balearic Islands.

2.1 Hiking

According to Urry (2007), hiking is a slow-paced simple mobility characterized by

intermittent face-to-face relationships with other people, places and events
(Collins-Kreiner and Kliot 2016). Therefore, it can be said that hiking is one of the
most gratifying and healthiest activities that can be done at any age in the natural
environment. According to Pomfret’s classification of outdoor activities on the
basis of the physical environment in which they take place, that is, water, air or
land, or a combination of all three, hiking is associated with land (Pomfret 2006).
Certain conditions need to be fulfilled for the activity to be considered as hiking,
such as: the paths preferably not being asphalted and that the areas in question are
under no legal restriction against the practice of the activity. The areas must be of
natural or scenic interest, located in close proximity to populated areas and with
gentle topography (Luque-Gil 2003).
Literature on hiking covers a wide range of topics related to the same, from the
analysis of the experiences of these type of tourists (Li 2000) their behaviour
towards and relation with the environment, or their levels of satisfaction (DeLucio
and Múgica 1994; Hull and Stewart 1995; Ryan and Glendon 1998; Tribe and
Snaith 1998; Vittersø et al. 2000) to contributions pertaining to theories of moti-
vation (Goldenberg et al. 2008; Hill et al. 2009) how push and pull factors influence
tourist and hikers decision-making (Lee et al. 2002; Kim et al. 2003; Jang and Wu
2006) the approach of the theory of Particularism versus Universalism
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands 175

(Collins-Kreiner and Kliot 2016) and even the study of the benefits that hiking can
generate from the point of view of both the hiker and the local host communities.
For the hiker, walking along marked pathways produces various benefits related
to both physical and mental health (Herzog et al. 1997; Maas et al. 2006; Hansmann
et al. 2007) the reduction of stress (Maas et al. 2006), other educational and cultural
benefits can be found in Berg et al. (2003), Holden and Sparrowhawk (2002) and
Niefer et al. (2002).
The communities through which the trails and routes pass can also obtain
important advantages associated with hiking. On the one hand, economic benefits
as hiking helps to promote the development of rural areas with the creation of
employment and the generation of new opportunities (Flink et al. 2001), without
incurring major costs for the public administration. In addition, there may also be
environmental benefits (Roca 2000; Madureira 2004) social and cultural benefits
produced by the contact and exchange of experiences between the rural community
and the visitors (Nylander and Hall 2005) and those derived from research, edu-
cational and training projects which are based in or around the aforementioned
natural areas.

2.2 Senior Tourism

The senior segment represents an interesting tourist market for its large size, growth
potential and purchasing power (Cho 2002; Moniruzzaman et al. 2013). When
defining the senior tourist, there seems to be no clear consensus among researchers
when it comes to establishing the age. Authors such as Sellick (2004), Kim et al.
(2003), Littrell et al. (2004), Cleaver (2000), establish the turning point at aged 50
and above, whereas Fleischer and Pizam (2002), Hsu and Lee (2002), Huang and
Tsai (2003), Reece (2004) and Shim et al. (2005) consider seniors to be from the
age of 55. Meanwhile, Zimmer et al. (1995) suggest that the senior segment is
comprised of tourists between 65 and 74 years of age. Other authors such as, Jang
and Wu (2006), Lee and Tideswell (2005) maintain that those of the age of 60
should be considered senior tourists. For the purposes of this study, the age of 60 is
established as the minimum age to belong to the senior tourist group.
The ageing population which many European countries are experiencing, means
that senior tourist is increasingly being taken into consideration as a large tourism
market to (Cleaver et al. 1999; Jang et al. 2009; Alén et al. 2015). Europe has large
numbers of people belonging to the “golden generation” and the demographic
projections of Eurostat (2012) point to continued growth of this segment in the
coming years. This demographic represents monumental challenges for the welfare
state, both economically and socially, while at the same time offering a unique
opportunity for the tourist industry. In addition, the senior market of the coming
decades will increase due to the ageing baby boomers, becoming one of the most
important segments of the tourism industry (Ryan 1995; Cooper et al. 2007; Glover
and Prideaux 2008) The future senior generations belonging to the baby boomer
176 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

period present changes in behavioural models in comparison to the seniors of today,

as the former are considered to be more active individuals, with a higher level of
education and above all, they travel more frequently (Patterson 2006; Alén et al.
2015). Changes related to generational values, patterns of emigration, family
composition and levels of income should also be studied in order to assess this
demographic more accurately (Martínez-Garcia 2013). The World Tourism
Organization (2001) estimates that in the year 2050, the population of 60-year-olds
and above will take more than 2 billion international trips. As a group, they are a
more inclined than others to stay away longer while travelling, as they have more
free time, fewer family responsibilities and more resources available resources
(Alegre and Pou 2003; Nicolau and Mas 2006; Alén et al. 2015).
The senior market appears to be far more heterogeneous than the younger market
in terms of preferences, motivations and purchasing power (Cleaver et al. 1999;
Sellick 2004; Alén et al. 2015). There are several motivations which drive seniors to
take the decision to travel, from the need to socialize, live new experiences, do
physical activity, or escape from stress, to overcoming the loss of a loved one
(Horneman et al. 2002; Acevedo 2003; Huang and Tsai 2003; Lee and Tideswell
2005). According to Nielsen (2011) motivations related to health, well-being and a
more active tourism are becoming increasingly more prominent in the
decision-making process in the senior market.

2.3 Seasonality

The Balearic Islands are one of the tourism regions most affected by the phe-
nomenon of seasonality. The influx of tourists to the islands does not develop in the
same way throughout the year. Two clearly defined seasons can be distinguished:
the high season, beginning in April and ending in October. During this period in
2014, the islands received 12,440,194 tourists. Meanwhile, in the low season,
between November and March of the same year, the islands received 1,084,307
tourists.
The evolution of seasonality in the Balearic Islands has been accelerating in
recent years (García-Sastre et al. 2015), jeopardizing the sustainable growth of a
model that is near saturation point in high season. In view of this situation, it is
necessary to react and strengthen the tourism products which balance the flow of
tourists towards the islands. Products associated with nature, physical activity, and
culture, together with programmes of social tourism promoted by the administration
seem to be the most suitable way to reduce seasonality and rebalance tourist flows
(Kozak and Rimmington 2000).
The present study proposes the exploration of the following research proposals,
based on the existence of behavioral differences and differences in levels of satis-
faction between active senior tourists and non-senior active tourists. Firstly, RQ1
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands 177

(Research Question) is that senior hiker and non-senior hiker consumers present
differences with regard to length of stay in destination for the purpose of sport.
Consequently, it would seem reasonable to propose RQ2: that senior and non-senior
hikers present differences with regard to the volume of expenditure. Finally, in
relation to the possible different levels of satisfaction expressed by both groups,
RQ3: that senior and non-senior hiker consumers show differences with regard to
the level of satisfaction with various dimensions concerning sport activity evaluated
in the tourist destination.

3 Methodology

A sample of Spanish and foreign hikers were interviewed in order to ascertain their
socio-demographic characteristics, tourist behavior (preferences, accommodation
and expenditure), motivations and perceived satisfaction. The information was
gathered by approaching hikers in the Sierra de Tramuntana (Mallorca) during the
months of April and June 2014. Residents of the Balearic Islands were excluded
from the study sample. A panel of experts on hiking were involved in the design of
the questionnaire, in conjunction with assistance from the Balearic Federation of
Mountaineering and Climbing. Together they determined the variables and items
which would allow information to be gathered regarding the most relevant factors
to explain active tourist behaviour. The majority of the variables and items
employed were Likert-type scales, used previously by other authors in the field of
consumer behavior in tourism, tourism sustainability and environmental psychol-
ogy (Légaré and Haider 2008; Hill et al. 2014; Jeong 2014).
The questionnaire was structured in three blocks. The first block gathered
general and socio-demographic information such as: membership of a federation or
mountaineering association, regular practice of this type of nature tourism, and
years of experience; the type of sports activity; aspects related to safety, equipment,
route planning and signage. The second block was composed of questions related to
the organization of and preparation for the trip, motivations and sources of infor-
mation. The third block covered the description of the characteristics of the trip
such as: length of stay (number of days) number of days hiking, purpose of the trip,
levels of expenditure and satisfaction with activities carried out in the tourist des-
tination. The method used was non-probabilistic quota sampling, reaching a sample
size of 238 individuals with a level of confidence of 95%, and sampling error of
6.3%. The sample was formed of 104 individuals aged 60 or over, who were called
seniors, and 134 individuals of various age groups: 15–25-year-olds (9%); 26–
40-year-olds (46.3%); and 41–59-year-olds (44%).
178 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

4 Results

The sample interviewed showed a balanced distribution of gender 55.8% males and
44.2% females. The average age of the sample was 60.94 years. Of the total, 42.3%
stated they were still working, while 40.4% were retired or pensioners. With regard
to educational background, 49% had a university education (diplomas or degrees)
while 42.3% had finished secondary education, and 4.8% had completed primary
education. With regard to nationality, 62.5% of the sample were domestic tourists,
and 37.5% foreign tourists, of which the majority were German (50%), followed by
Welsh (7.7%), Swiss (5.8%), English (3.8%), and Dutch (1.9%), among other
nationalities.
As far as tourist behaviour is concerned, of the total simple of hikers, the average
length of stay for was 6.6 days, of which 3.93 were spent doing sport. In the
category of total expenditure, 55.8% of the sample declared to have spent between
601 and 1500 euros, followed by 18.3% spending between 301 and 600 euros, and
16.3% spending between 0 and 300 euros, 9.6% of the respondents spent more than
1500 euros, 59.6% travelled with family members, 17.35% with friends, 10.6%
alone, and 2.9% with work colleagues.

4.1 Differences Between Senior and Non-senior Tourists

An analysis was then made of the differences between the established groups of
tourist hikers, making a distinction between the senior segment (60-years-old and
above) and non-senior (less than 60-years-old). In particular, the differences shown
in terms of socio-demographic variables, travel behaviour, attitudes towards the trip
and the activity of hiking were analysed. Thus, a Chi-squared test was carried out
for the nominal variables, tests and analysis of variance and a non-parametric test
for interval data, with 0.05 being considered as an acceptable level of statistical
significance.
With regard to nationality of the respondents, 21.8% of the senior hikers were
German, while the Spanish population was mainly among the non-seniors (29.4%)
(Chi-Square = 70.257; df = 9; p < 0.00). With regard to level of education, 21.4%
of the total sample were seniors with university education, while 17.2% of the
non-seniors were graduates, 18.5% of seniors had completed secondary education,
compared to 29.8% of the non-seniors (Chi-Square = 11.826; df = 5; p < 0.05).
With regard to professional occupation, 18.5% of the seniors were still working,
17.6% were retired or pensioners, while 42% of the non-seniors were working,
11.2% were students, and 8.2% stated they were unemployed.
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands 179

4.2 Length of Stay and Expenditure Analysis

A comparison was made between the senior and non-senior groups with regard to
tourist behaviour (length of stay, number of days doing sport, and money invested in the
trip as a whole). In particular, for the number of days stay on the island, the mean
value was higher for the senior hikers than the non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 8:23 [
Xno senior ¼ 5:35; F(1) = 483.21; p < 0.00). The average number of days doing sport
was greater for the seniors than the non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 5:16 [ Xno senior ¼ 2:96;
F(1) = 282.747; p < 0.00). With regard to quantitative expenditure in euros on
accommodation on the island, the senior hikers spent considerably more on average
than the non-seniors hikers (Xsenior ¼ 105:07 [ XNo senior ¼ 51:68; F(1) =
166,874.924; p < 0.00). A categorical variable with five positions, from 0 to more
than 1500 euros, was used for the total expenditure during the stay variable. The
seniors declared having spent more in the destination than the non-seniors
(Xsenior ¼ 2:85 [ Xno senior ¼ 1:51; F(1) = 103.769; p < 0.00). Moreover, 13% of
the seniors declared having spent between 600 and 1,000 euros, and 15.8% spent
more than 1,001 euros, while those spending the least in total expenditure can be
found amongst the non-seniors with 26.1% spending between 0 and 300 euros, and
18.1% spending between 301 and 600 euros (Chi-Square = 50.471; df = 4;
p < 0.00).

4.3 Motivational Factors

A factor analysis is a technique of interdependence, in which the variables are not

separated into independent and dependant variables, but rather the interdependence
of the variables is examined as a whole. This technique is used to reduce and
synthesise data, where the relation between sets of large numbers of variables are
examined and represented by fewer factors. Application of a factor analysis tech-
nique determined that for senior hikers, there are four major motivational factors
where the measure of sampling adequacy (KMO = 0.754) and Bartlett’s test of
sphericity were significant (X2 = 1,097,708; df = 105; sig. < 0.001). The deter-
mination of the number of factors was carried out through eigenvalues, retaining
those values greater than one. Table 1 shows that when four principal factors were
used, 74.82% of the variance was explained. Thus, the factorial group called safety
is comprised mainly of signage and topographical maps/guides of routes and paths,
information in the media, the suitability of routes, previous knowledge of the island,
advice from experts and magazines, sporting events (climbing competitions, treks),
accessibility of information on route, and accommodation. The second largest
group of motivational factors, called destination, accounts for motivations related to
the weather and ease of access to the tourist destination, such as accessibility, travel
cost, and charm of the coast. The third factor, called family includes motivations
associated with having friends and relatives on Mallorca and advice given by these.
180 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

Table 1 Seniors hikers—total variance explained by the factor analysis

Total explained variance: extraction method—principal components analysis
Component Sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings
Total % variance Cumul. % Total % variance Cumul. %
1 6,628 44,185 44,185 4291 28,606 28,606
2 1,918 12,784 56,969 3220 21,464 50,070
3 1,578 10,520 67,489 2106 14,042 64,112
4 1,100 7334 74,823 1607 10,711 74,823
Rotated component matrix
Factors Reasons for choosing the destination Component
for sports tourism 1 2 3 4
1 Safety Signage and topographical maps of 0.811
routes and paths
Information in the media 0.803
Suitability of routes 0.752
Previous knowledge of the island 0.722
Advice from experts and magazines 0.718
Sporting events (climbing 0.590
competitions, treks)
Accessibility of information on route 0.588
Accommodation 0.548
2 Destination Weather 0.859
Ease of access to the Balearic Islands 0.850
Travel costs 0.751
The charm of the coast 0.724
3 Family Friends and relatives in Majorca 0.836
Advice from friends and relatives 0.832
4 Additional Leisure facilities (discotheques, 0.813
services restaurants, etc.)—nightlife
Extraction method: principal components analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization

The fourth factor is characterized by additional services at night, that is to say, the
motivations of leisure facilities such as discotheques and restaurants, and nightlife.

4.4 Levels of Satisfaction

A comparison was also made between the mean value of the senior hiker tourist
groups and the younger non-senior hikers with regard to levels of satisfaction with
different dimensions of the trip, such as: the cost of the trip, the price of services, the
ease of access to the destination, accessibility of information, signage and topographic
maps of routes and paths, suitability of routes, attractiveness of scenery, weather,
qualified mountain sports personnel, hospitality of local people and nightlife.
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands 181

Regarding satisfaction with the cost of the trip, the average/median value was
greater for the senior hikers than the non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 3:47 [ XNo senior ¼ 2:61;
F(1) = 43.228; p < 0.00). Senior hikers were considerably more satisfied with the
price of services, senior than the non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 2:61 [ XNo senior ¼ 1:96;
F(1) = 24.781; p < 0.00). As for satisfaction with the ease of access to
the Balearic Islands, the senior hikers presented a higher average (Xsenior ¼ 3:56 [
XNo senior ¼ 2:24; F(1) = 24.781; p < 0.00). As for satisfaction in relation to ease of
access to standardized routes, the senior hikers were more satisfied than the
non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 2:25 [ XNo senior ¼ 1:65; F(1) = 101.853; p < 0.00). In
respect of satisfaction with the signage and topographic maps of the routes and paths,
the senior hikers showed a higher average (Xsenior ¼ 2:03 [ XNo senior ¼ 1:60;
F(1) = 10.919; p < 0.00). However, there was no significant difference in satisfac-
tion with the suitability of routes (Xsenior ¼ 2:42; XNo senior ¼ 2:14; F(1) = 4.633;
p > 0.0.05). The satisfaction with the attractiveness of the coast was once again
higher amongst senior hikers than non-seniors (Xsenior ¼ 3:85 [ XNo senior ¼ 2:60;
F(1) = 90.277; p < 0.00). This was also the case for satisfaction with the weather in
the destination (Xsenior ¼ 2:79 [ XNo senior ¼ 3:96; F(1) = 80.223; p < 0.00). The
satisfaction with qualified mountain sports personnel was also higher among senior
hikers (Xsenior ¼ 3:53 [ XNo senior ¼ 2:04; F(1) = 130.265; p < 0.00), as well as in
relation to the degree of hospitality of the locals (Xsenior ¼ 3:24 [ XNo senior ¼ 2:22;
F(1) = 60.451; p < 0.00). Finally, there were no significant differences between the
two groups with regard to satisfaction with the leisure facilities such as discotheques
and restaurants (Xsenior ¼ 2:37 [ XNo senior ¼ 2:14; F(1) = 32.723; p > 0.05).

5 Discussion

One of the objectives of the present study was to confirm differences in terms of
tourist behaviour, such as length of stay for sports purposes, and levels of expen-
diture and satisfaction. The research reveals that the senior hiker in the Sierra de
Tramuntana is a tourism segment predominantly consisting of German nationals
with university or secondary education. These findings are consistent with Freyer
and Gross (2002) who affirm that 60% of Germans intend to do some kind of sport
during their holidays; that 36% of these go for walks, and 29% do gentle or light
sports activities. The findings are also in line with those of Martínez-Garcia (2013)
who confirmed that the source markets of senior tourism in Europe are Germany
and the UK. Nielsen (2011) reports in the same direction, and his study on the Costa
del Sol and senior citizens points to the United Kingdom and Germany as the
principal source markets of senior tourists for Spain.
The study has focused on the analysis of socio-demographic differences between
two groups, composed of senior hiker tourists aged 60 and over, and of hikers under
this age, with the aim of characterizing the target market, and in line with the
research framework of Jeong (2014) or Needham et al. (2011) to identify the role
182 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

that destination factors play in the analysis of tourist motivations, or how the
dimensions of the destination affect the behaviour of the visitor and their experi-
ences (Chhetri et al. 2004).
From the present research, active senior tourist hikers can be seen to be char-
acterized as mainly German, as staying longer in the destination than non-seniors,
and thus tending to spend more in general terms, particularly on accommodation.
Another aspect to highlight from the study is the length of stay. Senior hikers
spend an average of 8.23 days in Mallorca, which is significantly higher than the
5.35 days of the non-senior hikers. These findings can be justified by the personal
circumstances of senior hikers, as they tend to have more free time and fewer family
responsibilities (Alegre and Pou 2003; Nicolau and Mas 2006; Patterson 2006;
Alén et al. 2015) which allow them to extend their holidays in the destination. In
light of the results obtained, RQ1, suggesting that senior hiker tourists and
non-senior hiker tourists present differences with regard to the length of stay in the
destination for sports purposes, is supported by the research. It has been demon-
strated that the longer senior hikers stay in the destination, the higher total
expenditure. The expenditure during stay variable, for which a categorical variable
of five scales was used, determined that the average expenditure of the senior hikers
was 2.85, above almost double the 1.51 of the non-senior hiker (RQ2). This same
thesis is sustained by Alegre et al. (2011) who affirm that various authors have
demonstrated the importance of length of stay for income generated in destination.
Based on the results of the analysis obtained, in the case of proposal RQ2, which
suggested that senior and non-senior hikers present differences with respect to
volume of expenditure, observable differences can be confirmed, as the senior
tourist hiker spends more in destination.
The Push factor theory, originating from Maslow’s pyramid of the hierarchy of
needs has been the source of multiple studies analyzing motivation in the senior
market from this viewpoint (Cleaver et al. 1999; Muller and O’Cass 2001; Hsu
et al. 2007; Sangpikul 2008; Boksberger and Laesser 2009; Jang et al. 2009).
Current research incorporates a new dimension, the Pull factors, forming the
Push-Pull framework (Prayag and Ryan 2011; Prayag 2012), widely accepted in
Travel Motivation Theory. This study has developed in line with recent approaches
which analyze Push and Pull motivations of an emerging product such as senior
hiking in the Serra de Tramuntana, with the intention of contributing to the con-
struction of a strategy of conceptualization and commercialization of the product.
In relation to the levels of satisfaction declared by the active senior tourist, this
results from the confluence between individual needs and perceived experience.
This is a useful management tool for the tourist destination, as it allows for veri-
fication of whether tourist expectations have been met or unfulfilled and for the
identification of the main sources of dissatisfaction which will allow future courses
of action to be pursued. With regard to levels of satisfaction, it should be noted that,
as opposed to the affirmations of Martínez-Garcia (2013), who classifies seniors as a
more demanding segment, the senior hikers of the Serra de Tramuntana appear to
be more satisfied than the non-senior hikers in the majority of items evaluated. In
this sense, the results obtained support research proposal RQ3 which suggested that
The Active Senior Tourist: The Case of the Balearic Islands 183

senior and non-senior consumers present differences with regard to levels of sat-
isfaction with the various dimensions related to doing sport in the tourist destination
under analysis. The results reflect a high degree of satisfaction of the senior hiker
tourist, justifiable due to the timing of the study which coincided with low season in
the destination, and the observations gathered at this time are partly influenced by a
lower tourist influx, which could predispose the observations towards greater levels
of satisfaction (Kozak and Rimmington 2000).

6 Conclusion

The lack of statistics and qualitative and quantitative data mean it is essential to
promote studies in this field, with the aim of contributing information for the
improvement of new tourist products to which the Balearic Islands are firmly
committed. From the present research into hiking in the Balearic Islands, it is clear
that there are two groups of hikers, seniors and non-seniors segmented by their age
group. This analysis, focused on the senior segment, reveals that this segment is
mainly comprised of educated German tourists who invest time and money in their
stay in the Balearic Islands. In addition, the results show that these tourists are
generally satisfied with the destination, which could convert them into ambassadors
or opinion leaders for the tourist destination.
Thus, among the main findings of the study are the verification of a series of
research proposals focused on establishing differences between the subgroups
analyzed in terms of motivations, analysis of tourist behaviour and levels of
satisfaction.
Analyzing the differences in terms of segments by age of hikers, has clear
practical implications, such as the possibility of improving the design of the product
or hiking experience adapted to the specific needs of the target group.
In a mature tourism destination such as the Balearic Islands, it would be inter-
esting to promote hiking as an activity among international tourists during the low
season, which coincides with the most suitable weather conditions for hiking,
facilitating deseasonalization of the destination and attracting a type of active
tourism that spends more on average, and is (generally) more satisfied.
The concern of governments with promoting a healthier lifestyle in order to
improve health and quality of life for citizens, lends value to the study of indi-
viduals growing old actively. This information would enable both the public and
private sector to improve their management of and adaption to the emerging
demand for these new tourism tendencies.
As with all research, this study has its limitations which could serve as the basis
for further research. One of the main limitations of the study is that the sample
analyzed is only composed of tourists hiking in the Tramuntana mountain range in
the Balearic Islands. This means that the results obtained in terms of the charac-
teristics and motivations of tourists when choosing a tourism destination may be
difficult to extrapolate.
184 F. Rejón-Guardia et al.

For future research the size of the study sample should be increased, and
observations taken throughout the whole year.
In addition, only pull factors motivations were analyzed and for further inves-
tigations should include push and pull factors and compare them with other types of
sports tourists.

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Understanding Chinese Travellers’
Motivations to Visit Europe

Jessica Mei Pung and Giacomo Del Chiappa

Abstract Despite the relevant economic contribution that Chinese outbound travel
generates, very little research examining motivations of Chinese travellers’ behaviour
has been conducted so far. This is evident when the specific segment of students from
Gen Y travelling to Europe is considered. Therefore, this chapter deepens the aca-
demic debate about this under-investigated research area. A qualitative approach was
adopted conducting five focus groups with Chinese postgraduate students in UK;
each focus group included up to six participants, recruited by employing a snowball
sampling technique. Findings reveal that Gen Y Chinese students travelling to Europe
are driven by both push and pull motivations. Push factors are related to the travellers’
desire to find novelty, to relax, to express social status and prestige, and to satisfy
what is defined as a “life-long dream”. Moreover, pull factors correspond to the
respondents motivated by the possibility of experiencing different cultures and
landscapes, learning about local history and typical food, as well as attending events.
Contributions to the body of knowledge and managerial implications are also dis-
cussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.

1 Introduction

China outbound travel has gained attention for its impact on international tourism,
together with its high spending power (Chan 2006). Chinese outbound tourism
began to assume a role in 1978, when the “open door” policy was established. An
increasing openness to outbound tourism became evident in 1995, when the system
of Approved Destination Status (ADS) agreements started and the Chinese gov-
ernment institutionalised 5-days work weeks, while appointing 1996 the “Year of

J. M. Pung (&)
University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]
G. Del Chiappa (&)
University of Sassari & CRENoS, Sassari, Italy
e-mail: gdelchiappa@[Link]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 187

M. Kozak and N. Kozak (eds.), Tourist Behavior, Tourism, Hospitality & Event
Management, [Link]
188 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

Leisure and Travel” (Arlt 2006; Breakey et al. 2008; Chan 2006; Guo et al. 2007).
These revolutionary actions determined the exponential increase of Chinese out-
bound travel and “craze for travel”, from Mandarin Chinese luyou re (旅游热). For
the first time, affluent population could use savings to travel overseas for leisure,
generating a change of perspective and demand in a previously “closed” country
(Breakey et al. 2008; Chan 2006; Guo et al. 2007). Based on quite recent studies,
expenses by Chinese in international travel amounted to US$165 billion in 2014,
with half of Chinese tourists engaging in outbound tourism more than once a year
(Ipsos 2015; European Commission 2016). When it comes to Asian outbound
tourism, Europe attracted 12 million Chinese tourists out of 84 million worldwide
in 2015 (European Commission 2016). For European authorities, it is important to
acknowledge the Chinese outbound market to attract such massive expenditures so
as not to lose positions in the visitors’ number ranking, with Australia and
South-East Asia representing the main competitors (Prayag et al. 2014).
Meanwhile, Generation Y also demonstrates to be an appealing market as young
tourists made up for 23% of international travellers in 2015, and its total number is
estimated to be some 370 million by 2020 (UNWTO 2016). Furthermore, a sub-
stantial and growing number of international students are travelling abroad to
undertake study programs. According to Glover (2011), young people often man-
ifest their intention to visit new places while studying abroad, contributing to the
general knowledge of Gen Y being active in the market and being involved in major
consumption (Benckendorff et al. 2010; Noble et al. 2009).
Despite the relevant growth in Chinese outbound travel, limited research
examining motivations of Chinese travellers’ behaviour has been conducted so far;
this is evident when the specific segment of students from Gen Y travelling to
Europe is considered. Therefore, this study was carried out to explore the Chinese
tourists’ motivations to travel to Europe and views from Gen Y. Benckendorff et al.
(2010) argued that Gen Y tourists demonstrate a “unique pattern of characteristics,
motivations and expectations” (p. 45). Moreover, there is a need to further segment
Gen Y travel market for marketing and knowledge purposes (Jin et al. 2014; Lee
and King 2015). This study explores Chinese Gen Y tourists’ motivations to travel
to Europe. Previous research on Generation Y and Chinese outbound travel is
examined, together with emerging literature on characteristics of Chinese Gen Y
tourists. A brief literature about travel motivations is then provided, analysing
Chinese outbound travel motivations and evidence of Chinese international stu-
dents’ motivations to travel. Methodology and results are finally presented and
discussed.

2 Literature Review

Generation Y encompasses those born between 1981 and 1994 (Weiler 2005) and
has been subject of numerous studies regarding online behaviour (e.g. Bolton et al.
2013; Djamasbi et al. 2010; Nusair et al. 2013; Sun et al. 2015a). When it comes to
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 189

travelling, Generation Y expresses a strong desire to travel abroad. Moreover, it is

characterised by the intention to engage in social relations during the trip, as well as
having exciting or relaxing experiences according to personal needs and traits
(Benckendorff et al. 2010; Kattiyapornpong 2009). Together with the high
involvement in spending and consuming, these motivations are considered specific
to the considered age group, making it a target segment for service marketing
research (Benckendorff et al. 2010). Moreover, Varasteh et al. (2014) found that
international students are characterised by an important correlation between travel
purpose and their nationality, providing rationale to analyse travel motivations of
Chinese Gen Y.
Considering Chinese nationality as one single category of tourists presents
multiple limitations. Heterogeneity of such a large population and the presence of
different factors (e.g. age, gender, background) should be recognised by organi-
zations when selecting their market targets (Arlt 2006; Li et al. 2013). As far as
Chinese outbound market is concerned, international travel is estimated to be
mostly engaged by Southern, Northern and Eastern Chinese, with the main sources
of outbound tourists being coastal provinces and large cities like Beijing, Shanghai
and Guangzhou (WTCF and Ipsos 2014). Here, the wealthiest citizens are con-
centrated, and the middle class is expanding (Arlt 2006; Guo et al. 2007).
According to Arlt (2006), individuals from these cities have different travel beha-
viour: people from Beijing are interested in discovering cultural heritage and tra-
ditions, tourists from Shanghai look for shopping opportunities, while novelty and
culinary experiences are favoured by Cantonese individuals. Three main markets
are formed to describe Chinese outbound travellers (Du and Dai 2005, from
Breakey et al. 2008): seniors, who engage in off-peak travel and value time and
money when overseas; families, who prevalently visit South-East Asia for the
proximity and offers; young people who seek adventure and opt for independent
travel. Furthermore, a study by Wei et al. (2016), revealed that younger Chinese
citizens, as well as those educated and without time and financial constraints,
present a higher inclination to travel to Europe and to US.
Chinese international students are believed to be independent travellers that are
well-experienced in outbound travel, and the importance of comprehending their
culture and background is stressed for improving expertise in Chinese youth travel
behaviour (Gardiner and Kwek 2016). Due to the rapid and dramatic transforma-
tions in Chinese economy and society, what has been called the Social
Transformation Generation possesses unique features and values compared to
previous cohorts. Chinese Gen Y experienced globalization, materialism and
one-child policy, which has gradually shifted the attention on self-development and
on enhancing social status and relations with the society (Chung et al. 2016; Lian
2014; Sun and Wang 2010). Chinese Gen Y’s increasing participation to con-
sumption has also reflected on travel behaviour, with more engagement in planning
independent trips and carefully minimising costs (Jin et al. 2014; Lee and King
2015; Sparks and Pan 2009; Sun et al. 2015a).
190 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

Limited research on Chinese Gen Y travel decisions and behaviour still exists;
this is particularly evident when motivation-based studies are considered.
Motivations are “psychological/biological needs and wants, including integral
forces that arouse, direct and integrate a person’s behaviour and activity” (Yoon and
Uysal 2005, p. 46). According to existing studies (e.g. Iso-Ahola 1982), tourists
motivations need to be investigated considering social influences, namely the
effects that interactions with other individuals have on consumers/tourist choices.
Dann (1977) was the first to categorise motivations in “push” and “pull” factors.
Push factors are internal needs that predispose an individual to travel, and can be
identified as psychological factors. On the other hand, pull factors represent external
aspects that characterise tourism destinations and can attract visitors. Furthermore,
Plog’s theory considers two extreme typologies of travellers, namely: psychocentric
and allocentric types. Psychocentric travellers are described as dependable and
cautious individuals that engage in few and short trips; on the other one hand,
allocentric visitors correspond to curious explorers that travel frequently and to
international destinations (Plog 2001).
According to Arlt (2006), culture, history and different customs are the main
European features that attract Chinese tourists in the old continent, together with
being a life-long dream. When it comes to motivations of Chinese travellers, push
and pull factors are distinguished by Hanqin and Lam (1999), who explore the
motivations of tourists from Guangdong to Hong Kong. In this research, absorbing
knowledge, attaining prestige and finding novelty are found to be the main push
factors, while destination image and accessibility, as well as witnessing a variety of
festivals and sceneries are defined as major pull factors. According to Fu et al.
(2016), Confucian values influence Chinese tourist motivations, indicating harmony
with nature, family togetherness, exploration and discovery as primary emerging
motives (Fu et al. 2016). Literature about general tourism motivations of Chinese
outbound travellers is marked by Chen et al. (2014), who found that Chinese
backpackers travel for four main factors: “social interaction, self-actualization,
destination experience and escape and relaxation” (p. 364). Socialisation was also
found to be an important motivation for potential Chinese travellers to West Europe
(Prayag et al. 2014).
Generally, Chinese students have been examined by researchers in multiple
locations and their main motivations to travel correspond to a necessity to discover
a destination’s culture and history, experiencing a sense of novelty, finding relax-
ation and enjoying nature (Heung and Leong 2006; Huang and Tian 2013; Liu and
Ryan 2011; Xu et al. 2009). While previous studies have analysed Chinese inter-
national students’ based in different countries and their overall travel behaviour and
motivations to travel (Kattiyapornpong 2009; Huang and Tian 2013; Lee and King
2015; Liu and Ryan 2011; Sun et al. 2015a; Xu et al. 2009), this research inves-
tigates Chinese Gen Y and focuses on their motivations to visit European
destinations.
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 191

3 Methodology

For this study, a qualitative approach was preferred in order to establish trust and
interactions with the participants. Qualitative tourism research also allows for better
understanding different voices, while contributing to useful knowledge for policy
makers and tourism realities (Sandelowski 2000; Wilson and Hollinshead 2015).
According to Gardiner and Kwek (2016), there is a profound need for qualitative
research to deeply examine the Chinese market characteristics.
In order to conduct an exploratory and descriptive research, focus groups have
been chosen as the source of data collection. Focus groups are known for being a
rich source of recommendations and stimuli for future improvements in manage-
ment and marketing areas (Stewart and Shamdasani 2015). Furthermore, focus
groups concentrate on a particular topic and are found to be useful for obtaining
higher degrees of authenticity in the responses, since the participants’ views are
constantly challenged and shaped by the interaction with the other group members.
One of the authors embodied the role of moderator and the interview guide for the
focus groups was semi-structured, so that the researcher was able to modify the
questions order and was allowed to include or exclude questions according to the
situation.
Firstly, the participants were requested to state their name and the Chinese
province of origin. Their more specific province was also analysed to investigate
whether such component differentiated the respondents in their travel motivations.
The group members were also asked to say whether they travelled to Europe before
and to which countries. The group members were then invited to focus on their
motivations to visit European destinations. In case limited answers had been pro-
vided, the moderator asked probing questions to investigate about emerging con-
cepts and to stimulate argumentation. In addition, popular or controversial travel
motivations were explored during the discussion, drawing from previous studies
about Chinese Gen Y travellers and psychological aspects of Chinese outbound
tourism.
To represent Chinese Gen Y tourists, Chinese overseas students were chosen as
focus groups participants. According to King and Gardiner (2013), Chinese inter-
national students have revealed to be independent travellers that often have trips
around their place of study, within or outside the nation. Moreover, the fact that
Chinese overseas students are considered to freely travel abroad means that itin-
eraries are selected not by a travel agency but by the same individuals for their
specific motivations and interests (King and Gardiner 2013). Their choice of
European destinations is also influenced by the acquirement of the Schengen visa,
which includes a number of European countries (Schengen Visa Info 2017).
Chinese postgraduate students in the UK were the final object of the sampling to
represent Chinese outbound tourism.
For this research, 5 focus groups were carried out, with 4–6 participants for each
discussion. Despite the higher number of female Chinese students, the recruiter
made an effort to include male participants, who finally resulted to be one third of
192 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

the respondents. For the selection of samples, non-probability sampling was

employed, namely snowball sampling. The first recruited participants were also
kindly asked to find other cases that would fit in the same categories. The
researcher/moderator is not a Chinese speaker and English language was employed
throughout the data collection. A minimum degree of bias was expected, trusting
the level of proficiency and confidence in English speaking of both moderator and
participants due to their attendance to a university in the UK.
When analysing the data, patterns and themes were searched through the par-
ticipants’ responses. Thematic analysis was adopted, as it was found to be the most
appropriate for highlighting Chinese Gen Y travellers’ motivations as themes
emerging from the collected data. Each focus group was transcribed from the
respective recording, and the responses were attentively analysed searching for
themes. Coding was then employed to categorise the information in themes so that
data could be quickly referred to in the findings (Saldana 2009).

4 Results

For this research, a total number of 24 individuals were interviewed in the focus
groups. Respondents were aged between 20 and 30 years old, and consisted of 16
female participants and 8 male participants. Table 1 provides a summary of the
participants’ general characteristics. The provinces of origin of the respondents
were various: mostly belonging to central and south areas, followed by North East,
South West and North China. Moreover, three participants came from Beijing. As
far as general behaviour about tourism in Europe is concerned, only two partici-
pants had never travelled outside the UK, and the number of trips to European
destinations varied from one to three. The most visited countries resulted being
France and Italy, followed by Spain and Switzerland. The Netherlands, Belgium,
Turkey and Ireland were also included by a lower number of participants. Lastly,
Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic and Scandinavian countries were the least visited
destinations.

Table 1 Participants’ features

Code name Gender Age Place of origin Number of visited Visited European
in China European countries countries
1. 1A F 22 Wuhan 5 France, Italy, Spain,
(Central) Switzerland, UK
2. 1B M 22 Harbin 4 France, Italy, Spain,
(North-East) UK
3. 1C M 21 Wuhan +6 Most European
(Central) countries
4. 1D F 23 Shandong 2 Turkey, UK
(East)
(continued)
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 193

Table 1 (continued)
Code name Gender Age Place of origin Number of visited Visited European
in China European countries countries
5. 1E F 24 Missing 6 France, Italy, Spain,
Germany, Switzerland,
UK
6. 2A F 23 Dongbei 8 France, Italy, Spain,
(Northeast) Denmark, Norway,
Finland, Sweden, UK
7. 2B F 21 North China 4 France, Italy, Spain,
UK
8. 2C F 28 Beijing 4 France, Italy, Spain,
Monaco, UK
9. 2D M 24 Guangdong 1 UK
(South)
10. 3A F 23 Nanyang 2 Greece, UK
(Central)
11. 3B F 24 Missing 3 France, the
Netherlands, UK
12. 3C F 23 South-West 5 France, Italy, Germany,
China the Netherlands, UK
13. 3D F 23 Beijing 4 France, the
Netherlands, Belgium,
UK
14. 3E M 26 Henan 2 Turkey, UK
(Central)
15. 4A F 21 Guangdong 4 France, Switzerland,
(South) Ireland, UK
16. 4B F 24 Shanxi (North) 6 France, Italy, the
Netherlands, Belgium,
Ireland, UK
17. 4C M 22 Guangdong 4 France, Italy, Spain,
(South) UK
18. 4D M 21 Missing 4 France, Italy,
Switzerland, UK
19. 4E M 24 Hubei (Central) 1 UK
20. 4F M 24 Beijing 1 UK
21. 4G F 23 Hunan (South) 2 Spain, UK
22. 5A F 24 Zhejiang 4 France, Italy, Spain,
(Southeast) Switzerland, UK
23. 5B F 24 South China 6 France, Germany,
Czech Republic,
Austria, Belgium, UK
24. 5C F 23 Dongbei 3 Italy, Portugal, UK
(Northeast)
194 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

The main motivation to travel to Europe is related to the desire to explore

different cultures. The participants remarked that Europe is renowned for presenting
a mix of numerous cultures, which all have different traditions and practices.
I just want to explore the different customs and practices. The culture is the biggest
motivation for me. (5C)
I want to see the different culture and people and maybe different countries have different
histories, and it’s impossible for us to know them all. (5E)

Learning about history was also highlighted as a major interest that resulted in
visiting museums, galleries and churches.
I try to travel here because I’m interested in history. Europe is very well known for castles
and churches. Also for one year I wanted to learn Italian. So it’s very interesting to see the
churches and the sculptures that I saw in the books. (1E)
In museums you can see all the history and all things are different from China. You can also
get a lot of knowledge and you feel like “Wow, it’s such a different culture”. (3C)

Moreover, the famous European landmarks and architecture, such as Eiffel

Tower and Spanish buildings, constitute a vast imagery about the old continent.
According to the respondents, such icons are shown in films and advertisements,
watched since the participants were children. The image and reputation of the place
is also a motivation that represents an opportunity for the different travel interests of
the participants.
For me a motivation can be its background culture or image of the country they want to
show. Because I went to Paris, and the word that directly comes to mind is “romantic”.
I think I went with my girlfriend because we said we’d choose the first destination that has
been described as a romantic place. (1C)

The reputation of the people and the participants’ wish to experience the locals’
specific cultural-based traits and habits were found to be another pull factor that
influenced the choice of European country.
Because British hate French and French hate British. So I wanted to see why it’s that. (1A)
They say Germans are really strict people and very organized, and it could be very
interesting. (5B)

Food was found to be a popular motivation among participants. This theme

emerged in each group discussion, and it was one of the first topics to be introduced
by the respondents. The cuisine of some European countries presents excellent
reputation in China, especially Spanish delicacies, along with French and Italian
food. Consequently, in some cases such motivation was also determinant for the
choice of destinations. Some respondents also remarked that typical and local food
is an important characteristic of their trip, and also a fundamental expectation of
European destinations. Food can be here perceived as a pull factor, as the previ-
ously cited Western European cuisines convey a distinctive reputation abroad.
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 195

I think food is also a big motivation for me. (1E)

Well, sometimes I (travel) for food, especially Italy and Spain. These two countries, I chose
them because they’re famous for their food, especially compared to UK. I’ve been here for
a couple of months, so… These countries are very attractive for me. (3D)
I always go to restaurants without so many travellers. I always go to places with local
people there who talk and have fun… I’m always interested in that kind of restaurant than
the popular ones. I prefer local food and people rather than famous ones with not so…
typical food. (3B)

Moreover, a common motivation for travel was also to see natural sceneries,
especially in specific destinations. Switzerland was visited by a number of partic-
ipants, who defined the famous Alps as main attraction of the country. Despite the
majestic environmental resources of China, some European areas are still renowned
for their mountains and valleys, possibly due to the romanticised image of Nordic
regions.
I chose Spain for the sceneries. (5A)
(I also travel) for the landscape. Like, Switzerland is famous for the beautiful views. (3D)

During the group discussions, festivals constituted another motivation factor,

especially those reflecting the local culture and authenticity. Furthermore, some
participants visited some destinations to attend sports events.
I travelled to Italy during Christmas and New Year, for the most important festival there, so
I could see the typical events and what people do for that festival. So it must be a very
unforgettable experience compared to going there during a normal time. (3D)
The Maya festival just happened in Madrid after Easter. So it can be a motivation to attend
that event and then later travel to Madrid. I was planning to go there, unfortunately my visa
failed me to. If there was no visa issue I could have definitely gone there. (1C)
(I went to) London and Birmingham. There was a badminton competition. All England
competitions. (4F)

As mentioned in the literature review, Chinese Gen Y has assisted to its coun-
try’s rapid transformation through the years (Sun and Wang 2010), but China is still
defined as a developing country compared to the developed Europe. Therefore, the
participants stated that travelling in the latter is an opportunity to witness the
supposed advancement and advantages.
I guess there’s something behind because, during the past centuries, Europe is kind of
dominant in the cultural aspect, perceived more as advanced. Let’s say, Africa is also quite
different from our culture China, but if given the choice I would still choose to travel to
Europe because the culture is perceived, or at least branded, as more advanced. I guess
that’s why it attracts us. Personally I would like to see why it’s perceived as better and more
advanced. And more civilized and stuff. (2D)
I think it’s also because in all movies, Chinese movies, in Europe it’s like travelling to
paradise, perfect destinations. So it’s like a first choice. (3B)

This motivation can be also defined as novelty, as it represents the general

interest in approaching a whole new culture, considered to be completely different
196 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

from the Chinese way. Another recurrent theme was the fact that the participants
always dreamt to travel to Europe.
We know a lot of places in Europe from the movies and we dream to come here. So it’s a
chance because we study here, it’s very convenient to go outside just to fulfil your dreams
and what you want. (3E)

Another recurring theme was classified as relaxation, as the respondents stated

that they decided to travel to a destination to have a holiday and rest. This was
partly explained by the fact that the majority of trips were taken during Christmas
and Easter holidays, therefore students chose to travel to relax and take a break from
their studies. In addition, a number of participants stated that during their trips they
looked forward to interacting with locals. Such motive was followed by a corre-
sponding expectation and stories about positive experiences with people in the
destination.
It’s a good opportunity to experience the local culture and food, especially the local people.
I really liked France, because when I was travelling there we met kind local people that
helped us buying some good wine. They were nice. (2B)

Another interesting motivation that was discussed for visiting European desti-
nations was “showing off”. According to some respondents, some famous land-
marks and attractions were visited in order to take pictures in there and share them
in social media with friends and relatives. This would make the individual gain
prestige and social status for their impressive experiences abroad.
For most Chinese it’s not easy to come to Europe, so if I plan to come to Europe I must
choose some cities everyone knows, so I can put my photos in the social media ((laughs)).
To say “I have been there! I have been there! (1C)
I have another motivation. Showing off. This is very important, they want to buy something
or go somewhere to show they’re adventurous. This is a psychological factor. Like you go
to China and you can show off that you’ve been to China. “I am so brave”… ((laughs)) (4E)

Minor themes were also found during the group discussions. For example, the
flight fares were considered a very important factor to prefer a particular destination
rather than another one. Since UK was the participants’ temporary residence, they
selected the cheaper flights from there. Some participants also highlighted that
European cities are an opportunity to find cheaper branded products that are quite
expensive in China. Furthermore, only one participant also stated that she chose to
travel to a number of European cities to visit friends that reside there. Another
respondent will organise a tour around Europe to travel with his family and show
them around. For all the respondents, Schengen visa was considered an opportunity
to travel to multiple countries at a time. Consequently, their past trips usually
included two or three different European countries. Lastly, the origin of the
respondents did not provide any correspondence or affinity with specific motiva-
tions. No patterns were found between their province and travel preferences.
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 197

5 Conclusion

Numerous themes were found when understanding motivations of Chinese Gen Y

tourists for travelling to Europe. Cultural aspects such as learning, interest in history
and landmarks represented the most relevant travel motivations. Despite the
assumption that Mainland China presents a wide range of historical and cultural
assets (Arlt 2006), most of the participants were highly motivated to see as many
European landmarks and sceneries they could. This was followed by other pull
factors: enjoying natural sceneries and participating to festivals and sport events. As
mentioned in the literature review, Hanqin and Lam (1999) include natural
sceneries and local festivals in the pull factors category, as features of sightseeing.
A fundamental pull factor that could be also identified is the destination image, an
asset that strongly attracts tourism (Hanqin and Lam 1999). Moreover, food was a
popular motivation and an important pull factor of some European destinations.
Food preferences of Chinese tourists were investigated by Chang et al. (2010), and
local food was found to be one of the main themes, due to the perception of typical
food as a vehicle of local culture. This was indeed a novel motive, absent in
previous literature about travel motivations of Chinese and Gen Y tourists.
On the other hand, Chinese Gen Y push factors for visiting Europe were rep-
resented by relaxation, as well as experiencing novelty and fulfilling a life-long
dream. Novelty consists in the typical push factor that features the allocentric
traveller, obtained when visiting far and exotic places (Plog 2001). The life-long
dream of visiting Europe is an important motivation that was also found by Arlt’s
research (2006). Most of all, this study provides robust support to the existing
literature on travel motivations of Chinese international students, as these listed
push factors—novelty, being a life-long dream and relaxation—, plus natural
sceneries were all found to be recurring in previous studies (Heung and Leong
2006; Huang and Tian 2013; Liu and Ryan 2011; Xu et al. 2009). Learning and
interest in culture and history can be considered push factors, according to the
classification of Hanqin and Lam (1999), as they are intellectual needs that urge an
individual to travel. Interactions with locals and gaining social status were addi-
tional important motivations found among respondents. Social interaction was
previously identified as a Gen Y travel motivation, as well as characterising Chinese
potential travellers to Western Europe and backpackers (Chen et al. 2014; Prayag
et al. 2014). “Gaining social status” was also included by Guo et al. (2007) in the
push factors of Chinese overseas travel. This further strengthens the importance of
status quo that characterises Chinese Gen Y as a result of progressive individualism
(Chung et al. 2016; Lian 2014; Sun and Wang 2010), and it has significant
repercussions on the importance of the unique image of a destination, which can
bring prestige to the tourist that is associated with that place.
Shopping, sometimes considered the primary motivation of Chinese travellers
(Arlt 2006; Guo et al. 2007), was found to be a minor motive and substituted by
other main interests. This could also be explained by the fact that Chinese students
travelling abroad opt to be considerate about expenses during the trip (Lee and King
198 J. M. Pung and G. Del Chiappa

2015). On the other hand, Schengen visa applications can be defined as an

accessory motivation that allows to add more destinations to the pre-existent
intention to travel to Europe. This can determine a sign of the affirming indepen-
dence of the Gen Y Chinese traveller, now confident in shopping around flights and
destinations (Jin et al. 2014; Lee and King 2015; Sun et al. 2015a). Lastly, the
absence of patterns between the participants’ preferences and original province
refutes the distinction by Arlt (2006) of travellers from Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou for tourism motivations, and it follows the general belief that indi-
viduals carry different meanings and characteristics despite common ethnicities
(Arlt 2006).
These findings suggest several courses of action for management and marketing
of European destinations. Tourism organisations should enhance the popularity of
destinations in Asia, spreading the image of unique historical and cultural heritage.
Therefore, different cultural assets should be preserved and appreciated in order to
attract Chinese Gen Y travellers or international students who are mostly motivated
by visiting the most significant European landmarks and icons. Partnerships and
collaborations with film productions could generate films that advertise natural
landscapes and cultural heritage, thus sustaining the development of film-based
tourism (Hudson and Ritchie 2006). Since the main motivations for travelling to
European destinations ranged from culture, novelty to natural sceneries, relaxation
and typical cuisine, tourism in European destinations could design themed itiner-
aries that would successfully satisfy one or mixed interests of Chinese Gen Y
travellers. Additionally, Chinese travel blogs and renowned social media platforms
such as WeChat could be further employed to introduce specific destinations to
aspiring and potential tourists that use these to select their itinerary (Huang et al.
2015; Sun et al. 2015b). Chinese popular travel bloggers and personalities could be
invited to visit the destination and write a review, to strengthen the place reputation.
Although this study helps to fill a gap in the existing knowledge in the literature,
and proposes some managerial implication for policy makers and destination
marketers, limitations still remain. Qualitative method was employed, which is
often criticised for not providing significant numerical evidence to support a theory,
and therefore does not lend itself to generalisation. Moreover, the sampling was
narrowed into interviewing Chinese postgraduate students in UK, therefore their
travel preferences and experiences in continental Europe could have been influ-
enced by their temporary geographical position. Further, the focus groups discus-
sions were conducted in English, and there is a possibility that conversing in the
participants’ native language would have provided more or different insights.
Further studies could involve Chinese respondents of different ages, so that travel
motivations to visiting Europe can be categorised and defined according to the age
ranges. Moreover, a larger sample with quotas of participants from the same pro-
vince could further assess whether travel preferences change depending on the
specific origin of the respondents. Such approaches would ensure the formation of
different clusters with consolidated characteristics, so that more specific segments
can be easily identified and targeted by tourism marketing and destination man-
agement organizations. Another possible area of future research would be to analyse
Understanding Chinese Travellers’ Motivations to Visit Europe 199

the relationship between the European destinations image and the perceptions of
Chinese Gen Y travellers. This was found to be strong in this research, and it would
present helpful insights for the organizations that are willing to adjust their repu-
tation and corresponding services in the destination.

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