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.