Measuring Experience Economy Concepts: Tourism Applications

The authors develop a measurement scale tapping Pine and Gilmore's (1999) four realms of experience that is applicable to lodging and, potentially, tourism research across various destinations. Focusing on the bed-and-breakfast industry, the authors conducted preliminary qualitative studies and a subsequent field survey to collect data from bed-and-breakfast owners and guests to develop and test a proposed model of experience economy concepts. The proposed measurement model includes four realms of experience and four theoretically justifiable nomological consequences. The data supported the dimensional structure of the four realms of experience, providing empirical evidence for both face and nomological validities of these realms and a starting point for measuring emerging experience economy concepts and practices within lodging and tourism settings. The authors discuss ways the measurement scale can be further refined for adoption by destination marketers and directions for future research.