A Multisector Analysis of Tourist Delight and Positive Visitor Outcomes

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research provides new insights into how customer delight functions across the tourism experience. Drawing from literatures on delightful experiential encounters, service encounters, cognitive appraisal theory and multisectoral satisfaction index studies, we develop and test a comprehensive model of tourist delight that integrates multisectoral delight, destination delight, and destination loyalty. Results from a novel application of multivariate probit analysis to data from an exit survey administered to 1,240 visitors to Barbados suggest that destination delight is strongly associated with delight across tourism sectors, and that traveler, trip and planning characteristics explain variation in delight. Tourists’ behavioral intentions are associated with delight in all tourism sectors. Delight with accommodation, food and beverage, and the overall destination provide the strongest avenues for economic returns through visitor loyalty. Understanding the key sectors and elements of tourist delight gives tourism stakeholders a practical way to design targeted marketing strategies that yield destination loyalty.