Channeling Life Satisfaction to Tourist Satisfaction: New Conceptualization and Evidence

ABSTRACT

This study developed a model that predicts tourist satisfaction with a destination based on their life satisfaction in their home country. The model was grounded on an assumption that tourist consumption does not necessarily entail consuming commodities, on which the expectancy-disconfirmation framework is built. The model was tested with 1,048 inbound tourists in Switzerland from eight countries. We found that among all the structural relationships, those between life satisfaction, positive affect, destination image, and tourist satisfaction were the most significant and robust across all nine models. This suggests that life satisfaction at home boosts tourist satisfaction at the destination through the mediations of positive affect and destination image. By contrast, all structural relationships related to negative affect were either nonsignificant or extremely weak. We conclude that life satisfaction at home can be channeled to the destination through experience-based affect and destination image, which eventually affects tourist satisfaction.

摘要

本研究旨在探讨旅游者在其惯常环境中的生活满意度对其在目的地的旅游满意度影响的成因和机制。与其他消费活动相比，旅游体验可以但无需完全建立在消费具体的商品和服务的基础上，因此旅游者在旅游过程中未必会产生基于具体商品和服务的购买前的期望与购买后的评判，而这二者的差异则是经典消费者满意度建立的基础。基于这一假设，本研究认为旅游满意度可以部分来自于旅游者在其惯常环境中生活满意度的溢出，即较高的生活满意度可以产生较高的旅游满意度。通过收集1048名来自八个国家的游客在瑞士的旅游数据以检测模型的有效性，本研究发现，所有基于生活满意度、积极情绪、目的地形象以及旅游满意度之间关系的假设都被证实，而所有与消极情绪相关的假设都不显著或者非常微弱。这一发现表明，旅游者在其惯常环境中所获得的生活满意度会影响其在目的地的旅游满意度，而生活满意度对旅游满意度的影响是通过旅游者在旅游过程中所产生的积极情绪和对目的地形象的正面感知而形成的。

KEYWORDS:

• Happiness
• life satisfaction
• tourist satisfaction
• destination image
• Chinese tourists
• Switzerland

关键词:

• 幸福感
• 生活满意度
• 旅游满意度
• 目的地形象
• 中国旅游者
• 瑞士

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, HES-SO under Grant N° SAGE-X: 42116.

Notes on contributors

Yong Chen

Yong Chen, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), Switzerland, where he lectures on tourism and hospitality economics. Dr Chen’s research interests include tourist behavior, tourism demand, the sharing economy, and Chinese outbound tourism.