Effects on the “self-organization- satisfaction” relationship of changes in the economic context

ABSTRACT

Noting increasingly independent traveling by tourists, as well as changes on the tourist activity worldwide due to the 2008 economic crisis, this study analyzes the relationships between an economic crisis, tourist’s self-organization in trip planning, and tourist’s trip satisfaction. Data from a panel (2006–2011) on how residents in Spain complete their accommodation and transport bookings are used, including data on their trip satisfaction. The study identifies a negative relationship between the 2008 economic crisis and trip satisfaction, a positive relationship between self-organization and satisfaction, as well as positive moderating effects of the crisis on the relationship between self-organization and satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Independent traveling
• self-organized trips
• Internet usage
• trip planning
• accommodation booking
• transport booking
• tourist satisfaction
• economic crisis
• economization
• moderating effects

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Rosa M. Hernández-Maestro http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6226-6777

Óscar González-Benito http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0586-556X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain), project ECO2014-53060-R.