Exploring the crowding-satisfaction relationship of skiers: the role of social behavior and experiences

Figures & data

Table 1. Qualitative sample overview

Interviewee	Age	Gender	Ski days per Year	Preferred ski resort
Int.1	25	male	30	Zillertal Arena
Int.2	31	male	20	Wilder Kaiser
Int.3	48	male	10	Wilder Kaiser
Int.4	51	female	10	Stubaier Gletscher
Int.5	54	male	5	Ischgl
Int.6	26	female	15	Kitzbühel
Int.7	25	male	15	Sölden
Int.8	26	male	25	Ski Arlberg
Int.9	27	male	15	Sölden
Int.10	53	male	5	Kitzbühel
Int.11	18	female	5	Ski Arlberg
Int.12	19	female	10	Stubaier Gletscher
Int.13	28	male	5	Fieberbrunn
Int.14	55	male	15	Ischgl
Int.15	27	male	10	Ischgl
Int.16	20	male	5	Wilder Kaiser
Int.17	50	female	10	Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis
Int.18	48	female	5	Stubaier Gletscher
Int.19	48	male	5	Zillertal Arena
Int.20	25	male	15	Sölden
Int.21	24	male	20	Kitzbühel
Int.22	26	male	5	Stubaier Gletscher
Int.23	49	female	5	Fieberbrunn
Int.24	25	female	10	Ischgl
Int.25	48	female	10	Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis
Int.26	29	male	30	Sölden
Int.27	27	female	35	Stubaier Gletscher

“Int.27, 4” etc. refers to interviewee “27”, paragraph “4” of the transcript

Table 2. Psychometric properties of the constructs

Constructs and items	Loading
Perceived crowding (CR = .890, AVE = .669)
PC1 The ski area was a little too busy	.860
PC2 There were lot of skiers in the ski area	.834
PC3 There was much traffic in the ski area during my skiing trip	.802
PC4 The ski area seemed very crowded to me	.771
Social behavior (CR = .838, AVE = .722)
SC1 I find that this ski area’s other customers leave me with a bad impression	.856
SC2 Other skiers have attracted my attention through bad manners	.843
Skill level (CR = .863, AVE = .680)
EL1 I really enjoy skiing	.927
EL2 I am a good skier	.785
EL3 I go skiing a lot	.651
Satisfaction (CR = .935, AVE = .742)
SAT1 I am satisfied with my decision to visit this ski area	.910
SAT2 I am satisfied with this skiing day	.895
SAT3 This skiing day met my expectations	.892
SAT4 I would revisit this ski area	.812
SAT5 I would recommend this ski area to other people	.792
Crowding location (single items)
CL1 The ski slopes were crowded	-
CL2 The valley stations of the ski lifts were crowded	-
CL3 The gastronomic facilities were crowded	-

Note: The item “This company’s other customers do negatively affect my skiing experience” was dropped because of factor loading .582

Figure 1. Crowding location, perceived crowding, skill levels, social behavior, demographics and satisfaction

Note: n.s. = not supported, p.s. = partially supported

Table 3. Crowding location, perceived crowding and satisfaction

			Estimate	T-value	P-level
Valley station	→	PC	.200	2.816	.005
Slopes	→	PC	.613	11.177	.000
Gastro	→	PC	.073	1.244	.214
PC	→	SAT	−.159	2.509	.012
SL	→	SAT	.413	4.315	.000
SB	→	SAT	−.153	2.330	.020
PC*SL	→	SAT	−.182	2.056	.040
PC*SB	→	SAT	−.105	2.085	.037
Sex	→	PC	−.024	.542	.588
Sex	→	SAT	.103	2.184	.029
Age	→	PC	−.086	1.982	.048
Age	→	SAT	.143	2.248	.025
Country	→	PC	.081	1.932	.053
Country	→	SAT	.027	.474	.635

Appendix A. List of items

Items and constructs	Sources
Satisfaction
I am satisfied with my decision to visit this ski area	Eroglu & Machleit, 1990; Machleit et al., 1994
I am satisfied with this skiing day
This skiing day met my expectations
I would revisit this ski area
I would recommend this ski area to other people
Skill level
I really enjoy skiing	Matzler et al., 2008; Won et al., 2008
I am a good skier
I go skiing a lot
Perceived crowding
The ski area seemed very crowded to me	Machleit et al., 1994
There was much traffic in the ski area during my skiing trip
There were lot of skiers in the ski area
The ski area was a little too busy
Crowding location (single item measures)
The valley stations of the ski lifts were crowded	Machleit et al., 1994
The ski slopes were crowded
The gastronomic facilities were crowded
Social behavior
I find that this ski area’s other customers leave me with a bad impression	Brady & Cronin, 2001
This company’s other customers do negatively affect my skiing experience
Other skiers have attracted my attention through bad manners
Demographics
Gender Age Country of origin	Neuts & Nijkamp, 2012; Zehrer & Raich, 2016

Appendix B. Construct descriptives and correlations

Construct means, standard deviations and correlations
	Mean	SD	PC	SB	SL	SAT	CL1	CL2	CL3
PC	3.52	1.34	1
SB	2.81	1.46	.288**	1
SL	5.41	1.23	.030	.136*	1
SAT	6.35	0.82	−.273**	−.228**	.263**	1
CL1	2.88	1.75	.520**	.180**	.067	−.229**	1
CL2	3.17	1.57	.739**	.283**	.034	−.185**	.452**	1
CL3	2.99	1.63	.374**	.195**	.002	−.235**	.393**	.340**	1

N = 224, *p < .05,**p < .01,***p < .001

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