Cultural Tourists’ Satisfaction from a Leisure Experience Perspective: An Empirical Study in China

ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine cultural tourists’ leisure experience characteristics and their relationship with satisfaction. Using a sample of cultural tourists (n = 850) in the Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Area (HCEPEA) collected via questionnaire surveys. Of the overall samples, 215 was used for scale development and the rest was used for structural model evaluation. The results showed that both the measurement and structural models exhibited acceptable model fit indices. Nine ‘leisure experience characteristics’ factor was identified (i.e., sense of accomplishment, self-actualization, effort/persistency, self-enrichment, self-esteem/self- expression, socialization/social interaction, fun/enjoyment/freedom, recreation/regeneration, and self-reinvention). Overall, cultural tourists in HCEPEA showed higher levels of casual leisure/serious leisure characteristics than serious leisure characteristics, and serious leisure characteristics displayed a stronger influence on tourist satisfaction than casual leisure/serious leisure characteristics. These findings suggest cultural tourism is a form of tourism dominated by casual, and the more serious of leisure experience leads to the higher tourist satisfaction for cultural tourists.

摘要

本研究旨在验证文化旅游者的休闲体验特征及其与满意度的关系。问卷调查收集了徽州文化生态保护实验区的文化旅游者样本（n = 850）。总样本中的215份被用于量表开发，其余用于结构模型评估，测量模型和结构模型的拟合度指标均达标，并识别出9个休闲体验特征因子（成就感、自我实现、努力/坚持不懈，自我满足、自尊/自我表现，社会化/社交互动、快乐/享受/自由感、再创造/再生、自我重塑）。研究发现，文化旅游者的随性/深度休闲特征较深度休闲特征更显著，但深度休闲特征对游客满意度的影响比随性/深度休闲特征更显著。这说明文化旅游是一种以随性参与为主导的旅游方式，且深度的休闲体验有助于提高游客满意度。

Abbreviation: leisure experience characteristics (LEC), serious leisure (SL), casual leisure (CL).

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural tourism
• leisure experience
• satisfaction
• serious leisure
• casual leisure

关键词:

• 文化旅游者
• 休闲体验
• 满意度
• 深度休闲
• 随性休闲

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 41230631) (to LU Lin） .

Notes on contributors

Yuchen Xu

Yuchen Xu is a doctoral candidate in the School of Tourism Management at the Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China (E-Mail: [email protected]).

Haizhou Zhang

Haizhou Zhang is a postgraduate student in the School of Geography and Tourism at the Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China (E-Mail: [email protected]).

Lin Lu

Lin Lu is a professor in the School of Geography and Tourism at the Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China (E-Mail: [email protected]).

Xiaoli Zha

Xiaoli Zha is a lecturer in College of Tourism and Historical Culture, Chizhou University, Chizhou, China (E-Mail: [email protected]).