In tourism, the product is the experience. The destination sets the stage, which
facilitates the experience. First impressions, based largely on visual cues in the
environment, help to determine the level of quality tourists should expect from their
encounter. While much research has focused on destination image in advertising, little
attention has been given to on-site assessments of tourists’ perceptions of the visual
environment.
This study had three specific objectives. The first was to determine if changes in
the visual environment affect respondents’ attitudes, perceptions of quality and
satisfaction. The second objective set out to determine which visual quality elements
have the strongest influence on respondents’ attitudes, their perceptions of quality and
satisfaction. The final objective was to explore the interrelationship between attitudes,
quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Utilizing a series of digitally modified photographs and an experimental design
approach with three treatments, this study examined how selected visual environmental cues affected respondents’ perceptions. The relatively high adjusted R2 values across the
three treatments suggests the strong influence of visual quality elements on hedonic (R2
values ranging from .16 to .27) and utilitarian attitudes (R2 values ranging from .16 to
.24), and particularly on satisfaction (R2 values ranging from .31 to .44) and overall
quality (R2 values ranging from .28 to .35). The visual cues having the strongest
influence on perceptions were level of crowding, available seating, maintenance and
upkeep, and type of signage.
Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study examined the interrelationship
between the endogenous variables in the model. The influence of hedonic attitude on
overall quality and satisfaction was confirmed, but the influence of utilitarian attitude on
overall quality and satisfaction was not. This suggests that some tourism experiences are
more hedonic in nature. This research supports previous literature suggesting that a high
level of quality will result in a high level of satisfaction for the visitors (significant path
estimate of .422). Additionally, standardized path coefficients indicate that overall
quality (.416) and satisfaction (.486) were both related to behavioral intentions, with
satisfaction being a stronger predictor.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2116 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Tomas, Stacy Renee |
| Contributors | Crompton, John L. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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