Experimental research in tourism

Experimental design is well-recognized as a method to study causality (Viglia & Dolnicar, 2020). While it has been widely adopted in the disciplines/fields such as psychology, education, behavioral economics, and marketing, experimental design remains relatively under-utilized in studying tourism-related phenomena (Fong et al., 2016). Although cross-sectional survey has been the prevailing method in tourism research, the findings only exhibit correlations or predictive relationships between variables, but not causal relationships. In this regard, experimental design has the advantage because of the controlled setting which allows minimizing or ruling out the extraneous effect of other variables. Through the control of extraneous effect, experimental design is useful for researchers to test theories and compare relations between variables under different settings. In this vein, experimental design is ideal for drawing theoretical and practical implications. It refines and expands theories, while it also provides useful practical guidelines to professionals on how to design and implement business practices for achieving optimal results under different settings. Definitely, when applying the implications, practitioners need to take into consideration of the limitations in experimental design, especially if the experiments are low in realism.

Nonetheless, experimental research is very useful in supporting and expanding the role of tourism research for providing implications for practitioners and contributing to theory. The strength of experimental design in theory testing lends credence to extend its adoption in addressing tourism-related research questions. Recent behavioral research literature has witnessed suggestions on using innovative approaches in experimental design and data analytical methods in experimentation, for examples, single-case experimental design (Bentley et al., 2019), recording physiological responses (Morales et al., 2017), single-paper meta-analysis(McShane & Böckenholt, 2017), Bayesian ANOVA (Wedel & Dong, 2020), Multiple Indicator Multiple Causes model and Structured Means Model (Breitsohl, 2019). These contentions signal that experimental design in behavioral research is evolving. It is imminent to create the momentum of experimental research in tourism, given the fact that corresponding publications have remained the minority. The momentum will allow tourism research to keep pace with the evolvement of experimental design in behavioral research. To this end, we initiated this special issue in Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research (APJTR) which aims to promote the adoption of experimentation to resolve tourism problems.

The special issue has attracted a great interest with numerous submissions coming from scholars all over the globe. After the peer-review processes, six papers have been accepted for publication in the special issue. The major merits of these papers include: a holistic view of recent experimental research in tourism, field experiment, multi-studies experimental research, using virtual reality (VR) together with measuring physiological responses amid experiments, as well as examining important industry issues such as technology application and disabilities of service staff. The following presentation further explains the contribution of each paper in the field.

Authored by Sunny Sun, Rob Law, and Mu Zhang, the first paper entitled “An updated review of tourism-related experimental design article” portraited a state-of-the-art and comprehensive picture of the topics, theoretical foundations, participants, manipulations, and data analysis in tourism-related experimental research papers published in the period of 2010 and July 2019. Based on their review, the authors suggested that future experimental research should ground their ideas in theories. While most previous papers focused on the topic of consumer behavior and experience, more scholarly effort should be devoted to social media. Furthermore, as ANOVA was the primary analysis used in previous research, diversification of data analytical methods was recommended.

The second paper is authored by Eun Joo Kim, Choongbeom Choi, and Sarah Tanford, and entitled “Influence of scarcity of travel decisions and cognitive dissonance.” The paper used two studies to examine the effect of limited availability on hotel booking decision and intention to undo, as well as the moderating role of price discount. The results showed that booking intention decreases if the scarcity is demand-based (e.g. 67 travelers are considering this right now), but increases if the scarcity is supply-based (e.g. we have 3 left). The moderating role of price discount was inconclusive as it was significant in Study 1 but not in Study 2.Scarcity also led to intention to undo the decision.

The paper authored by Xiao-Ting Huang, Zhen-Da Wei, and Xi Yu Leung, and entitled “What you feel may not be what you experience: A psychophysiological study on flow in VR travel experiences” examined participants’ psychophysiological responses in interactive (versus sightseeing) VR travel experiences. Grounded their research in flow theory, the authors found that arousal was higher, but control was lower for interactive VR experience than sightseeing VR experience. Arousal, but not control, mediated VR experience effects on time distortion and enjoyment. However, self-reported measures (arousal and control) did not align with physiological reactions (heart rate and respiratory rate).

The paper authored by Valentini Kalargyrou, Panagiotis Trivellas, and Marianna Sigala, and entitled “Guests’ stereotyping and quality evaluations of service delivered by employees with disabilities: Does service failure matter” examined the effects of disabled service providers on hotel customers’ stereotyping response and evaluation of service quality under the service failure condition and the control condition. The authors found that customers’ rating of service quality and stereotyping response was not influenced by disability of service providers in both conditions. Furthermore, the effects were contingent on customer characteristics such as ethnicity, religiosity, and familiarity with disabled persons.

The paper authored by Xi Y. Leung, Bharath M. Josiam, and Bailey M. Moody, and entitled “I’d like to order with a server: An experimental study of restaurant menu performance” conducted a field experiment to compare the effect of menu in self-service tablets (versus paper menus) on attribute perceptions, pleasure state, and perceived value. Results showed that compared with menu in self-service tablets, paper menu demonstrated better performance in communication and was perceived with higher value; but recorded a lower rating on design. Furthermore, self-service tablets elicited higher pleasure among female customers than their male counterparts.

The paper authored by Lina Zhong, Sunny Sun, Rob Law, and Xiaoya Zhang, and entitled “Impact of robot hotel service on consumers’ purchase intention: A control experiment” compared attitude, purchase intention, and purchase behavior between two conditions which were a hotel providing robotic service and a hotel providing traditional service. Results showed that participants’ positive attitude and purchase intention were higher for the hotel with robotic service. However, purchase behavior in the conditions was indifferent. Furthermore, the authors found that differences between conditions only applied to participants with low level (but not high level) of technology acceptance.

All in all, the six papers demonstrated the versatility of experimental design in tourism research and its ability to enrich theoretical understanding and industry practices. We trust the readers will find the papers useful. More importantly, through this special issue, we hope the momentum of conducting experimental research in tourism will be brought to the next high and more high-quality tourism papers using experimental design will appear in the near future.

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to every individual who has made this special issue possible and successful. We deeply appreciate Professor Kaye Chon, the Editor-in-chief of APJTR, for his support of our idea and for his valuable advice throughout the process. We would also like to thank all authors for their submissions and reviewers’ altruism for their devotion of time and effort to ensure the quality of papers.