Working Holiday Tourist Learning: Scale Development and Validation

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore the learning of working holiday tourists (WHTs) and to develop a relevant scale. Firstly, in-depth interviews and content analysis were employed to generate the initial items. Secondly, 11 factors were extracted from an exploratory factor analysis with 273 samples. Thirdly, a confirmatory factor analysis with 522 samples was performed to identify the validity of the WHT learning scale. The results show that the 11-factor and 35-item WHT learning scale has good fit, reliability and validity. The findings expand the current knowledge of tourist learning and working holidays, and provide marketing implications and suggestions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist learning
• scale development
• in-depth interview
• content analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive and invaluable comments on this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, ROC [grant number MOST 103-2420-H-415-004-DR].

Notes on contributors

Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur

Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur is Professor, Graduate Institute of Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality Management, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).

Chung-Ching Huang

Chung-Ching Huang, is a PhD Student, Graduate Institute of Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality Management, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan (E-mail: [email protected]).