Tourist experience expectations: questionnaire development and text narrative analysis
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
ISSN: 1750-6182
Article publication date: 22 March 2013
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a questionnaire on tourist experience expectations, and to conduct a qualitative study to analyze the factors and related texts of the questionnaire.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis on travel diaries written by museum tourists was conducted to develop a questionnaire of tourist experience expectations (TEE). The survey results were analyzed by factor analysis.
Findings
The tourism experience expectations include five factors: experience expectations of easiness and fun; cultural entertainment; personal identification; historical reminiscences; and escapism. In addition to these factors, this study reorganized the travel diaries to extract representative texts for narrative analysis, in order to develop the situational factors of tourist experiences.
Research limitations/implications
This study only investigated museum tourists in Taiwan, and thus the scope for wider application of the results is limited.
Practical implications
The study findings revealed that during a trip, appropriate situational factors – including satisfying tourists' curiosity and intimate locations or events that trigger tourists' active participation – resulted in pleasant experiences for the tourists and could possibly lead to future experience expectations.
Originality/value
The paper explores museum tourists' experience expectations in Taiwan.
Keywords
Citation
Sheng, C. and Chen, M. (2013), "Tourist experience expectations: questionnaire development and text narrative analysis", International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 93-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506181311301390
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited