Development of a Scale for Tourism Facilitators

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale of tourism facilitators that may play a significant role in participating in tourism activities. A scale of tourism facilitators was developed directly from the results in this study. One of the most important findings is that the tourism facilitator scale shows relatively acceptable measurement properties and reasonable levels of fit. The investigation of internal consistency and the CFA of the scale confirm the sufficient reliability and validity of the proposed model. The results also provide evidence that the three dimensions of tourism facilitators were negatively related to the three dimensions of tourism constraints, except for the relationship between intrapersonal facilitators and interpersonal constraints. Future studies should examine other countries to validate a more stable tourism facilitator scale and its relationships with related variables. The further testing of the concept of tourism facilitators can determine the role of facilitators at different stages of the destination decision-making process. The findings also provided preliminary evidence supporting the feasibility and value of using the new instrument as well as its relevance to both fundamental and applied research in investigating tourist behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism facilitator
• tourism constraint
• repeat visit intention
• multiple regression analysis

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Daegu University Research Grant, 2012

Notes on contributors

Byung-Gook Kim

Byung-Gook Kim, PhD, is a Assistant Professor, Department of Hotel & Tourism, Daegu University, Jillyang, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 712–714, South Korea (E-mail: [email protected]).

Jinmoo Heo

Jinmoo Heo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA (E-mail: [email protected]).