Normative Meanings of Experiences for a Spectrum of Tourism Places

Abstract

Within a tourism system, some places have a predominantly tourism clientele, other places cater to both tourists and locals, and still others focus on locals and only incidentally tourists. These places may be viewed as a spectrum with different demand structures. This article investigates how a community with a large tourism economy defined the normative meanings of experiences for the spectrum. Three places represented the spectrum: Yellowstone National Park, the downtown shopping district, and big-box stores. A quasi-experimental design of community residents assessed consumption, hedonic, utilitarian, and social meanings for the places while controlling for background characteristics. The high-, mixed-, and low-tourism-demand places differed on meanings. Correlation analysis indicated that some of the places shared meanings, whereas others did not. Discriminant analysis predicted the correct place 86% of the time based on the meanings. The article concludes by discussing some recommendations for future research.