ABSTRACT
This study presents a chronological review of methodological and empirical issues of the perceived crowding literature in the contexts of tourism and recreation. A content analysis was performed on 178 empirical articles gathered from online databases and published during the period of 2000–2019. The findings are presented in three sections – specifically, research scope, research methodology, and empirical issues consisting of antecedents and consequences of perceived crowding. The integrative review demonstrates that perceived crowding research is methodologically characterized by (1) a dominance of single-country setting studies mostly sampling visitors as opposed to other units of analysis and (2) an overwhelming number of quantitative studies with high response rates but a lack of sampling method reporting. Regarding the empirical issues, personal factors, external factors, and site-related factors are highly examined as antecedents of perceived crowding. In terms of crowding consequences, satisfaction-related consequences, and behavioural and affective responses constitute the main consequences discussed in the literature. The two substantial contributions of this article to the existing literature are as follows: (a) filling the gap in the relevant body of research with a comprehensive review of empirical articles on the subject and (b) providing theoretical and methodological guidelines for future research.
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Humeyra Dogru-Dastan
Humeyra Dogru-Dastan is a PhD candidate and a research assistant at the Department of Tourism Management in Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. She was a visiting scholar at the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Event Management in University of Florida during the conduct of this study. Her main research interests include sustainable tourism, consumer behaviour in tourism as well as digital tourism.