Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 29, Issue 3, June 2008, Pages 525-537
Tourism Management

Visitors’ experience, mood and satisfaction in a heritage context: Evidence from an interpretation center

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2007.06.004Get rights and content

Abstract

The study examines how expectations, experiences, and satisfaction are related in the context of cultural tourism and the services provided by cultural organizations. A model is proposed that combines two complementary approaches in the analysis of satisfaction: a cognitive approach based on quality and disconfirmation and an affective approach based on emotions. The empirical analysis carried out on a sample of visitors to an interpretation center allows us to confirm that the perceived quality is a direct determinant of satisfaction, as are emotions. The results also reveal that there is a significant relationship between quality and emotion. Finally, the way in which mood state moderates the cognitive path is studied, as generator of visitor satisfaction.

Introduction

The application of marketing in heritage, cultural tourism and cultural services is becoming more and more crucial. An example is the interest indicated by many cultural organizations, such as museums, exhibitions or art collections in visitors’ opinions and experience evaluation and perceptions’ link to satisfaction. In fact, customer experience becomes a key concept in artistic and cultural heritage marketing as tourist satisfaction is often determined by the global experience obtained. Visitors seek a total experience, including leisure, culture, education, and social interaction. For this reason, business-oriented museums and heritage organizations are increasingly emphasizing the participation of the public in their policies and programs (Gilmore & Rentschler, 2002), specifically those individuals not usually attracted to traditional museums. To create positive experiences for visitors, museums organize an increasing number of large-scale events and provide a variety of learning experiences. The visiting experience becomes more than simply an inspection of exhibits, but an opportunity for further elaboration of visitors’ understanding (Colbert, 2003). In this sense, it is necessary to note that museums provide more than just exhibition. The museum service, i.e., the global product, comprises of the exhibition and the other tangible or intangible services. These services include the organization of courses and seminars, bookshops, restaurants and cafés, brochures and other facilities for better accessibility and interpretation, and even the attitudes and values transmitted to the visitor.

Consumer satisfaction has been widely debated in marketing literature (Bowen, 2001; Oliver (1980), Oliver (1993); Yuksel & Yuksel, 2001), even though there is no clear consensus as to what the determinant variables are. While past literature has concentrated on describing satisfaction by the evaluation consumers make of perceived quality (confirmation/disconfirmation theories) from their expectations, more recent trends have perceived the emotions consumers experienced as the determinant factors in creating satisfaction.

Within this theoretical framework, this study is concerned with an analysis of the explanatory factors of visitor satisfaction in heritage and cultural expositions (as promoters of cultural and patrimonial goods) and the integration of disparate theoretical approaches. Even if the relationship between perceived quality and expectations appear essential to evaluate visitor satisfaction, emotions and experiences are fundamental to cultural activities. In the range of services provided by museums, the inclusion of emotions in the concept of satisfaction is particularly relevant given that the majority of services are based upon consumers’ participation and experiences (Szymanski & Henard, 2001; Wirtz, Mattila, & Tan, 2000). In the study of museum visitors’ satisfaction, previous works have emphasized the effect of service quality on satisfaction (Caldwell, 2002; De Ruyter, Wetzels, Lemmink, & Mattsson, 1997; Harrison & Shaw, 2004), but do not consider emotion. There has been little research on the experience of museums’ visitors (Rowley, 1999), and the effect of this experience on satisfaction. For instance, Goulding (2000) observes the behavior of museum visitors in order to evaluate the impact of exhibitions and experience on visitor satisfaction.

In this research, a model is proposed to explain the formation of visitor satisfaction from the relationship between their evaluation or cognitive opinion (perceived quality/disconfirmation) and visitor evaluation or affective opinion (positive emotions). Homburg, Koschate, and Hoyer (2006) indicate that few studies have investigated cognitive and affective antecedents of customer satisfaction simultaneously. Furthermore, we introduce the moderator ‘visitor's mood’ in order to evaluate how the visitor's state of mind enhances or lessens the effect of their experience on satisfaction. Analyzing “post-purchase” visitor behavior completes the model. All proposed relationships are tested jointly by a structural equation model. Empirical analysis performed in the Queen Isabel Interpretation Center allows us to make conclusions and determine managerial implications.

Section snippets

Cognitive and affective determinants of visitor satisfaction

On a theoretical level, visitor satisfaction is widely debated in literature. Satisfaction has been defined repeatedly (Oliver, 1997; Vanhamme, 2000) in forms that diverge significantly from one another (Babin & Griffin, 1998; Szymanski & Henard, 2001). This suggests that the nature of satisfaction is ambiguous. Traditionally satisfaction was considered to be (i) a cognitive state, (ii) influenced by previous cognition, and (iii) has relative character (the result of the comparison between a

The moderator role of moods

Moods occur “when the cognitive system is maintained in an emotion mode for a period” (Oatley, 1992, p. 64, taken from Bagozzi et al., 1999). Moods can be caused by the human system (such as sickness, fatigue, previous exercise, and good health), or pharmacological agents, general conditions of the environment, and side effects of activities (heat, noise, changes in surroundings, stress) (Frijda, 1986).

According to Bagozzi et al. (1999), the line between an emotion and mood is frequently

Sample and data collection

In order to test the proposed hypotheses, the empirical study performed is based on information collected by means of a questionnaire presented to visitors of the cultural center called the Queen Isabel Interpretation Center. The center is located in the Royal and Testamentary Palace in Valladolid, Spain. The Royal and Testamentary Palace, in which Queen Isabel I of Castile (1451–1504) lived, made her will, and died, was restored and converted into a historical interpretation center. In this

Analysis and results

The following step of the analysis consisted of the evaluation of the proposed model by means of a path analysis. First, each of the scales was reduced to only one indicator or index (extracted factor for each latent variable based on CFA). With these values, and after calculating the error measurement of each indicator based on the values of reliability, the proposed model was evaluated. The result of the evaluation is shown in Fig. 2. The indicators of goodness of fit (χ2(7)=19.28, p=0.007;

Discussion and conclusions

This study began with the aim of analyzing a specific aspect of marketing applied to cultural tourism, art and cultural exhibitions, and the formation of visitor satisfaction. Our proposal is based on combining two complementary approaches in the analysis of satisfaction: a cognitive approach, according to which satisfaction derives from stimuli and quality received and from the confirmation–disconfirmation of expectations; and an affective approach, according to which satisfaction also

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