Developing and Validating a Scale to Measure Tourists’ Personality Change after Transformative Travel Experiences

Tourist transformation has recently received ample attention. Although personality traits are considered to be overall stable across time, there is evidence that personality might change under the influence of different environmental and contextual factors such as those offered in transformative travel experiences. This study developed and validated a scale to measure travelers' personality changes after transformative travel experiences. The steps of the study include personality change scale item generation, scale purification, and construct validation with principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The study results indicated the validity of a six-dimensional tourist transformation scale that may be effective in capturing travelers' personality change through travel experiences.