A Visitor Experience Scale: Historic Sites and Museums

Abstract

Since Pine and Gilmore (1999) proclaimed the arrival of the experience economy era, research on tourists’ experiences has become an area of growing interest among scholars and practitioners. Gaining knowledge of the experiential features of tourist activities at historic sites and museums is of paramount importance for tourism operators to understand and satisfy tourists’ wide-ranging needs. With this concern in mind, the purpose of this study was to develop a multiple-item scale to measure tourists’ experiences of visiting historic sites and museums. Following the scale construction procedure suggested by DeVellis (2003), we developed an experiential scale with 17 embedded items in five dimensions: entertainment, culture identity-seeking, education, relationship development, and escapism. The data support this dimensional structure as well as its internal consistency and validity. This study serves as an initial attempt to explore the seemingly amorphous nature of tourists’ experiences at historic sites and museums. The findings offer important practical implications for historic sites and museums in relation to experiential marketing.

自Pine与Gilmore（1999）宣布体验经济时代的来临，对旅客体验的研究成为众学者和从业者们日益关注的一个领域。汲取从历史古迹及博物馆所得的旅游特色体验的认知，对旅游经营者了解和满足旅客的广泛需求产生了非常重要的作用。本研究旨在建立一个多项的量表来衡量参观历史古迹和博物馆的旅客的旅游体验。根据DeVellis（2003）的量表编制程序，研究员建立了一个包含17个项目的量表，此17个项目来自5个层面，包括娱乐、文化身份的探寻、教育、关系发展及逃避主义。研究结果支持了此量表的结构、内部一致性和效度。本研究是作为探索旅客在历史遗迹和博物馆所得的旅游体验的初次尝试。其研究成果亦为针对历史遗迹和博物馆的体验营销提供了实用涵义。

KEYWORDS:

• Historic sites
• museums
• tourist experience
• scale development
• experiential tourism

关键词:

• 历史古迹
• 博物馆
• 旅游体验
• 量表发展
• 体验旅游

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hoffer M. Lee

Hoffer M. Lee, Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau (E-mail: [email protected]).

Stephen L.J. Smith

Stephen L.J. Smith, School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada (E-mail: [email protected]).