Assessing Tourism Supply Quality Using Formative Indicators: Implications for Destination Management

Abstract

Perceived tourism supply quality influences a visitor's satisfaction with a particular destination as well as his or her post-visit behaviour. It is therefore an important source of a destination's competitive advantage. To identify those destination attributes that are the most influential in forming visitors' quality perceptions, the authors conceptualize tourism supply quality as a formative (as opposed to a reflective) construct. The conceptual model is validated empirically on three destination samples using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that relevant destination attributes are destination-specific, while the hypothesized relationships between destination attributes, overall destination quality, visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions are largely supported. In addition, formative measurement models are found to have larger explanatory power than reflective measurement models.

Keywords

destination quality destination attributes formative measurement visitor satisfaction loyalty destination management

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acock

A.C.

(2005), ‘Working with missing values’, Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol 67, No 4, pp 1012–1028.

Aktas

Aksu

A.A.

Cizel

(2007), ‘Destination choice: An important – satisfaction analysis’, Quality and Quantity, Vol 41, pp 265–273.

Anderson

J.C.

Gerbing

D.W.

(1988), ‘Structural equation modeling in practice: A review of recommended two-step approach’, Psychological Bulletin, Vol 103, No 3, pp 411–423.

Bagozzi

R.P.

Phillips

L.W.

(1982), ‘Representing and testing organizational theories: A holistic construal’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol 27, No 3, pp 459–489.

Baker

D.A.

Crompton

J.L.

(2000), ‘Quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 27, No 3, pp 785–804.

Bentler

P.M.

Chou

C.P.

(1987), ‘Practical issues in structural modeling’, Sociological Methods and Research, Vol 16, No 1, pp 78–117.

Bigne

Sanchez

Sanz

(2005), ‘Relationships among residents' image, evaluation of the stay, and post-purchase behavior’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol 11, No 4, pp 291–302.

Bollen

K.A.

(1984), ‘Multiple indicators: Internal consistency or no necessary relationship?’, Quality and Quantity, Vol 18, No 4, pp 377–385.

Bollen

K.A.

(1989), Structural Equations with Latent Variables, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

10.

Bollen

K.A.

(2007), ‘Interpretational confunding is due to misspecification, not to type of indicator: Comment on Howell, Breivik, and Wilcox (2007)’, Psychological Methods, Vol 12, No 2, pp 219–228.

11.

del Bosque

I.R.

Martín

H.S.

(2008), ‘Tourist satisfaction a cognitive-affective model’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 35, No 2, pp 551–573.

12.

Brady

M.K.

Cronin

J.J.

Brand

R.R.

(2002), ‘Performance-only measurement of service quality: A replication and extension’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 55, pp 17–31.

13.

Brady

M.K.

Knight

G.A.

Cronin

J.J.

Tomas

Hult

Keillor

B.D.

(2005), ‘Removing the contextual lens: A multinational, multi-setting comparison of service evaluation models’, Journal of Retailing, Vol 81, No 3, pp 215–230.

14.

Buhalis

(2000), ‘Marketing the competitive destination in the future’, Tourism Management, Vol 21, No 1, pp 97–116.

15.

Campo

Yague

M.J.

(2008), ‘Effects of price on tourist satisfaction’, Tourism Economics, Vol 14, No 3, pp 657–661.

16.

Campos-Soria

J.A.

Gonzalez Garcia

Ropero Garcia

M.A.

(2005), ‘Service quality and competitiveness in the hospitality sector’, Tourism Economics, Vol 11, No 1, pp 85–102.

17.

Chen

C.-F.

Tsai

(2007), ‘How destination image and evaluative factors affect behavioral intentions?’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, pp 1115–1122.

18.

Chi

C.G.-Q.

(2008), ‘Examining structural relationship of destination image, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty: An integrated approach’, Tourism Management, Vol 29, pp 624–636.

19.

Cole

S.T.

Illum

S.F.

(2006), ‘Examining the mediating role of festival visitors' satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol 12, No 2, pp 160–173.

20.

Cooper

Fletcher

Gilbert

Wanhill

, eds (1993), Tourism: Principles and Practice, Longman Scientific and Technical, Harlow.

21.

Cracolici

M.F.

Nijkamp

(2009), ‘The attractiveness and competitiveness of tourist destinations: A study of southern Italian regions’, Tourism Management, Vol 30, No 3, pp 336–344.

22.

Craggs

Schofield

(2009), ‘Expenditure-based segmentation and visitor profiling at the Quays in Salford, UK’, Tourism Economics, Vol 15, No 1, pp 243–260.

23.

Craig

C.S.

Douglas

S.P.

(1999), International Marketing Research, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

24.

Dabholkar

P.A.

Shepherd

C.D.

Thorpe

D.I.

(2000), ‘A comprehensive framework for service quality: An investigation of critical conceptual and measurement issues through a longitudinal study’, Journal of Retailing, Vol 76, No 2, pp 139–173.

25.

Diamantopoulos

(2008), ‘Formative indicators: Introduction to the special issue’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 61, No 12, pp 1201–1202.

26.

Diamantopoulos

Siguaw

J.A.

(2006), ‘Formative versus reflective indicators in organizational measure development: A comparison and empirical illustration’, British Journal of Management, Vol 17, No 4, pp 263–282.

27.

Diamantopoulos

Winklhofer

H.M.

(2001), ‘Index construction with formative indicators: An alternative to scale development’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 38, No 2, pp 269–277.

28.

Diamantopoulos

Riefler

Roth

K.P.

(2008), ‘Advancing formative measurement models’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 61, No 12, pp 1203–1218.

29.

Dwyer

Forsyth

Rao

(2000), ‘The price competitiveness of travel and tourism: A comparison of 19 destinations’, Tourism Management, Vol 21, No 1, pp 9–22.

30.

Dwyer

Forsyth

Fredline

Derry

Jago

Lundie

(2007), ‘Yield measures for special-interest Australian inbound tourism markets’, Tourism Economics, Vol 13, No 3, pp 421–440.

31.

Dwyer

Edwards

Mistilis

Roman

Scott

(2009), ‘Destination and enterprise management for a tourism future’, Tourism Management, Vol 30, No 1, pp 63–74.

32.

Enright

M.J.

Newton

(2005), ‘Determinants of tourism destination competitiveness in Asia Pacific: Comprehensiveness and universality’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol 34, pp 339–350.

33.

Fallon

Schofield

(2006), ‘The dynamics of destination attribute importance’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 59, No 6, pp 709–713.

34.

Fornell

Larcker

D.F.

(1981), ‘Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 18, pp 39–50.

35.

Howell

R.D.

Breivik

Wilcox

J.B.

(2007), ‘Reconsidering formative measurement’, Psychological Methods, Vol 12, No 2, pp 205–218.

36.

Hoyle

R.H.

(1995), Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

37.

Hui

T.K.

Wan

(2007), ‘Tourists' satisfaction, recommendation and revisiting Singapore’, Tourism Management, Vol 28, pp 965–975.

38.

IMF (2008), Report for selected countries and subjects (www.imf.org, accessed 7 June 2009).

39.

Jarvis

C.B.

MacKenzie

S.B.

Podsakoff

P.M.

(2003), ‘A critical review of construct indicators and measurement model misspecification in marketing and consumer research’, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol 30, September, pp 199–218.

40.

Korda

A.P.

Snoj

(2007), ‘Direct and indirect effects of perceived price and perceived value of the mobile phone’, Annals of Telecommunications, Vol 62, No 9–10, pp 913–935.

41.

Kozak

(2001a), ‘Comparative assessment of tourist satisfaction with destinations across two nationalities’, Tourism Management, Vol 22, No 4, pp 391–401.

42.

Kozak

(2001b), ‘Repeaters' behavior at two distinct destinations’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 28, No 3, pp 784–807.

43.

Kozak

Rimmington

(1999), ‘Measuring tourist destination competitiveness: Conceptual considerations and empirical findings’, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol 18, No 3, pp 273–283.

44.

Law

K.S.

Wong

C.-S.

(1999), ‘Multidimensional constructs in structural equation analysis: An illustration using job perception and job satisfaction constructs’, Journal of Management, Vol 25, No 2, pp143–160.

45.

Lee

Yoo

(2000), ‘The determinants of perceived service quality and its relationship with satisfaction’, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol 14, No 3, pp 217–231.

46.

Lee

S.Y.

Petrick

J.F.

Crompton

(2007), ‘The roles of quality and intermediary constructs in determining festival attendees' behavioral intention’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol 45, No 4, pp 402–412.

47.

Luo

Homburg

(2007), ‘Neglected outcomes of customer satisfaction’, Journal of Marketing, Vol 71, No 2, pp 133–149.

48.

MacKenzie

S.B.

Podsakoff

P.M.

Jarvis

C.B.

(2005), ‘The problem of measurement model misspecification in behavioural and organizational research and some recommended solutions’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 90, No 4, pp 710–730.

49.

Malhotra

N.K.

(2002), Basic Marketing Research, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

50.

Mazanec

J.A.

Woeber

Zins

A.H.

(2007), ‘Tourism destination competitiveness: From definition to explanation?’, Journal of Travel Research, Vol 46, August, pp 86–95.

51.

Murphy

Pritchard

M.P.

Smith

(2000), ‘The destination product and its impact on traveller perceptions’, Tourism Management, Vol 21, No 1, pp 43–52.

52.

Murray

Howat

(2002), ‘The relationships among service quality, value, satisfaction, and future intentions of customers at an Australian sports and leisure centre’, Sport Management Review, Vol 5, pp 25–34.

53.

Nunnally

J.C.

Bernstein

I.H.

(1994), Psychometric Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York.

54.

Oliver

R.L.

(1997), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective of the Consumer, Irvin/McGraw-Hill, New York.

55.

Omerzel Gomezelj

Mihalic

(2008), ‘Destination competitiveness – applying different models, the case of Slovenia’, Tourism Management, Vol 29, pp 294–307.

56.

Pashardes

Sinclair

M.T.

(2005), ‘Tourism competitiveness: Introduction to the special issue’, Tourism Economics, Vol 11, No 1, pp 5–10.

57.

Ritchie

J.R.B.

Crouch

G.I.

(2000), ‘The competitive destination: A sustainability perspective’, Tourism Management, Vol 21, No 1, pp 1–7.

58.

de Rojas

Camarero

(2008), ‘Visitors' experience, mood and satisfaction in a heritage context: Evidence from an interpretation center’, Tourism Management, Vol 29, pp 525–537.

59.

Ruiz

D.M.

Gremler

D.D.

Washburn

J.H.

Carrión

G.C.

(2008), ‘Service value revisited: Specifying a higher-order, formative measure’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 61, No 12, pp 1278–1291.

60.

Runyan

R.C.

(2006), ‘Tourist dependent small towns: Understanding competitive advantage’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol 12, No 4, pp 329–343.

61.

Seddighi

H.R.

Theocharous

A.L.

(2002), ‘A model of tourism destination choice: A theoretical and empirical analysis’, Tourism Management, Vol 23, No 5, pp 475–487.

62.

STB (2008), Slovenian Tourism in Numbers, Slovenian Tourist Board.

63.

STB (2009), Tourism, Slovenia, Slovenian Tourist Board.

64.

Stevens

(1996), Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.

65.

Tribe

Snaith

(1998), ‘From SERVQAL to HOLSAT: Holiday satisfaction in Varadero, Cuba’, Tourism Management, Vol 19, No 1, pp 22–34.

66.

Truong

T.-H.

Foster

(2006), ‘Using HOLSAT to evaluate tourist satisfaction at destinations: The case of Australia holidaymakers in Vietnam’, Tourism Management, Vol 27, No 5, pp 842–855.

67.

UNWTO (2008), ‘Tourism highlights’ (www.unwto.org, accessed 15 January 2009).

68.

Wilcox

J.B.

Howell

R.D.

Breivik

(2008), ‘Questions about formative measurement’, Journal of Business Research, Vol 61, No 12, pp 1219–1228.

69.

Yoon

Uysal

(2005), ‘An examination of the effects of motivation and satisfaction on destination loyalty: A structural model’, Tourism Management, Vol 26, pp 45–56.

70.

Zeithaml

V.A.

Berry

L.L.

Parasuraman

(1996), ‘The behavioral consequences of service quality’, Journal of Marketing, Vol 60, April, pp 31–46.