Tourist experience expectations: questionnaire development and text narrative analysis

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a questionnaire on tourist experience expectations, and to conduct a qualitative study to analyze the factors and related texts of the questionnaire.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis on travel diaries written by museum tourists was conducted to develop a questionnaire of tourist experience expectations (TEE). The survey results were analyzed by factor analysis.FindingsThe tourism experience expectations include five factors: experience expectations of easiness and fun; cultural entertainment; personal identification; historical reminiscences; and escapism. In addition to these factors, this study reorganized the travel diaries to extract representative texts for narrative analysis, in order to develop the situational factors of tourist experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThis study only investigated museum tourists in Taiwan, and thus the scope for wider application of the results is limited.Practical implicationsThe study findings revealed that during a trip, appropriate situational factors – including satisfying tourists' curiosity and intimate locations or events that trigger tourists' active participation – resulted in pleasant experiences for the tourists and could possibly lead to future experience expectations.Originality/valueThe paper explores museum tourists' experience expectations in Taiwan.