Reevaluating tourism experience measurements: an alternative Bayesian approach

Tourism businesses pay significant attention to creating unique tourism experiences for their customers. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the tourism experience is developed. With a sample of 277 respondents, this study examines three well-established tourism experience scales and tests whether they hold separately as well as collectively. The study follows a Bayesian paradigm, where we extract the model from the quantitative data, the data drives our study and not a predefined model. We identify a composite tourism experience scale with five factors (reverie, tourismscape, contemplation, transformation, and amusement) and test its influence on perceived value and revisit intention toward the destination. The results show that instead of measuring the tourism experience comprehensively, the three tested scales only do so partially. The calculations propose a diverging item assignment to the dimensions. The results suggest that when researchers and practitioners apply these scales, their instability might mislead them. The study recommends a combined five-dimensional scale that measures the entire tourism experience better. We discuss the results’ theoretical and managerial implications, as well as further research directions arising from this study.