Tourists’ experiential value co-creation through online social contacts: Customer-dominant logic perspective

Abstract

In the era of connectivity, the development of information and communications technology has immensely changed the way people travel, behave, and appreciate experience. The understanding of online experiential value co-creation remains limited considering the changes in modern travel and tourists. This study followed an eight-step scale development procedure and adopted a mixed-method approach to establish a reliable and valid measurement scale for online experiential value co-creation. By adopting a customer-dominant logic, this study positioned tourists at the center of the quest and explored the experiential value co-created via online social contacts. Results indicated that three distinct values, namely, intrinsic/extrinsic enjoyment, logistics, and efficiency values, were created online during travel. The proposed measurement scale is a pioneering tool for assessing tourists’ experiential value co-creation online. This scale also assists tourism professionals in appraising the effectiveness of different online activities and monitoring the progress toward identifying and creating positive experiential value for tourists.