CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2 Research Results of MTEs
2.2.2 Dimension of MTEs
souvenirs), which can help managers to carry out strategic planning and project design in destination management (Sotiriadis & Gursoy, 2016). This conceptual framework looks deeper into previously developed seven-dimensional scale, rather than just focusing on positive emotions (e.g Hedonism, Involvement, Novelty, Local culture, Refreshment, Knowledge, Meaningfulness), and Negative emotions (e.g., adverse feelings).
Figure 2.7 A Conceptual Framework for the Design and Delivery of MTEs Source: Sotiriadis & Gursoy (2016, p. 440).
Table 2.4 Main Dimensions of the MTEs
Authors Dimensions Method
(Tung & Ritchie, 2011a)
1) Affection 2) Expectations 3) Consequentiality 4) Recollection
Qualitative, Grounded Theory, in-depth interviews, 208 students from a Canadian university.
(Tung & Ritchie, 2011b)
1) Identity formation 2) Family milestones 3) Relationship development
4) Nostalgia re-enactment 5) Freedom pursuits
Qualitative, Grounded Theory, 42 in-depth
interviews with people aged 55 or older, semi-structured, snowball.
(Ballantyne, Packer, &
Sutherland, 2011)
1)sensory impressions 2) emotional affinity 3) reflexive response 4) behavioural response
Qualitative, 240 open survey responses, four marine wildlife destinations, Queensland,
Australia.
(J.-H. Kim et al., 2012)
1) Hedonism 2) Refreshment 3) Local Culture 4) Meaningfulness 5) Knowledge 6) Involvement 7) Novelty
Quantitative, proposition and scale test, Survey, 511 students from a US university.
(Bharwani, 2013) 1) Emotional intelligence 2) Cultural intelligence 3) Hospitality experiential intelligence
Theoretical study. Hospitality Intelligence contributes to the co-creation of MTEs
(Ali et al., 2014) 1) entertainment, 2) education, 3) esthetic
examine the influence of four factors (4E) of customer experience on their memories
Authors Dimensions Method 4) escapism and loyalty. Quantitative,
PLS,450 customer in Malaysian resort hotels (Chandralal et al.,
2015)
two major findings: (a) bloggers mostly report positive MTEs in their experiential narratives and (b) such positive MTEs are often associated with seven experiential themes:
1) local people, life and culture
2) personally significant experiences
3) shared experiences 4) perceived novelty 5) perceived serendipity 6) professional guides and tour operator services 7) affective emotions associated with
memorable experiences.
Qualitative, an interpretive net no graphy approach, a purposive sample of 100 blog narratives, MAXQDA10 software
(Y.-J. Lee, 2015) 1) Motivation: Personal emotion, Knowledge learning, Culinary, Cultural inheritance 2) Nostalgia
3) MTEs: Hedonism, Local Culture, Refreshment,
Heritage tourism, Quantitative, SEM, 615 respondents who visited Taiwan, AMOS.
Knowledge and Personal Emotions were not significant predictors of MTEs.
Authors Dimensions Method Meaningfulness,
Knowledge (Pezzi &Vianna,
2015)
1) Entertainment 2) Education 3)Escapism 4) Aesthetics 5) Memory 6) Hospitality 7) Security
8) New Experience
Mixed.
Quantitative: Survey, 107 respondents visitors of Gramado, RS, Brazil.
Descriptive statistics.
Qualitative: Interviews, 11 tourists Gramado. Content analysis.
(Knobloch, Robertson,
& Aitken, 2017)
1) memorable 2) extraordinary 3) special 4) peak
Qualitative, 25 semi- structured interviews with tourists from 14 different countries who visited New Zealand. Thematic Content Analysis.
(Ali, Ryu, & Hussain, 2015)
1) Escape and recognition 2) peace of mind
3) unique involvement 4) interactivity
5) learning
A convenient sampling technique,600 visitors who had stayed at resort hotels in Malaysia, PLS
(Aroeira, Dantas, &
Gosling, 2016)
1) Hedonism 2) Involvement 3) Novelty
4) Local Culture and Knowledge
5) Refreshment
Quantitative, SEM, Survey, PLS, 664 Brazilian
respondents.
(Kim & Jang, 2016) 1) Animation 2) Personality traits 3) Auditory
MTEs Event Influences.
Quantitative, 285 potential participants of the memory
Authors Dimensions Method 4) Olfactory suggestion
5) Memorabilia
test.
(Tsai, 2016) 1) Hedonism 2) Involvement 3) Novelty
4) Meaningfulness 5) Refreshment 6) Local Culture 7) Knowledge
Quantitative, SEM, 378 tourists who visited Tainan.
(Coudounaris &
Sthapit, 2017)
1) Hedonism 2) Refreshment 3) Local Culture 4) Meaningfulness 5) Knowledge 6) Involvement 7) Novelty
Mixed.
Qualitative (i-structured interviews)
Quantitative (AMOS) 314 visitors
(Coelho & Gosling, 2018)
1) Environment 2) Culture
3) Relationship with companions
4) Relationship with tourists
5) Relationship with local Agents
6) Novelty 7) Emotions 8) Dream
9) Meaningfulness 10) Refreshment 11) Hedonism
Quantitative, SEM,1193 Brazilians, EFA, CFA
Authors Dimensions Method 12) Involvement
(Coelho et al., 2018) 1) Ambiance 2) Socialization 3) Emotions and Reflection.
qualitative, grounded theory, narrative research,76
travelers.
(Cao, Li, DiPietro, &
So, 2018)
1) Affect 2) Sensory 3) Social 4) Intellectual
Memorable dining experiences (MDE) Mixed: Quantitative, PLS- PM
Qualitative, In-depth interviews
(Wei et al., 2019) The results showed that the recollection of MTE was positively affected by novelty, involvement and social interaction.
six influencing factors of MTEs (hedonism,
novelty, involvement, social interaction, serendipity, meaningfulness)
exploring psychological components of MTEs.
301 urban residents, SEM, CFA
According to the related research on MTEs (Table 2.4), this paper will summarize the research methods, dimensions of MTEs, integration model of MTEs and research limitation in light of relevant studies on MTEs.
1) Research Methods
The study on the dimension of MTEs adopts quantitative method, qualitative method or a combination of both. Scholars prefer to adopt quantitative research methods to analyze the correlation between MTEs and other factors. Scholars applied Kim’s (2012) seven-dimension scale, and then conducted structural equation
verification analysis based on questionnaire survey. For example, some researchers directly adopted Kim’s seven-dimension scale to analyze the relationship between MTEs, place dependence, place identity and behavioral intention (Tsai, 2016), as well as an empirical analysis of tourism motivation, satisfaction, destination imagination and behavioral intention (Coudounaris & Sthapit, 2017; Y.-J. Lee, 2015; Tsai, 2016;
Wei et al., 2019; H. Zhang et al., 2018).
In researching on the structure or characteristics of MTEs, scholars prefer to adopt qualitative research methods such as in-depth interview or content analysis method, and the results of qualitative research often vary by the selection of different research objects. For example, Sthapit analyzes the composition of tourists’
memorable hotel experiences with the grounded theory, and the research results reveal three components: comfortable beds, friendly attitude of hotel staff, delicious breakfasts, various choices and excellent restaurant services at the hotel (Sthapit, 2017b). In addition, semi-structured interviews and in-depth interviews have been conducted in other studies (Tung & Ritchie, 2011b).
Qualitative research is often used to determine the dimensions of some new dimensions and new research directions, and then quantitative methods are applied to empirical analysis (Ali et al., 2014; Cao et al., 2018; Chandralal et al., 2015; Coudounaris & Sthapit, 2017). For example, some scholars adopted a mixed method to obtain five first-order dimensions in studying memorable dining experiences (MDE), respectively are feeling, emotion, behaviors, society and knowledge, which fills the knowledge gap in MDE research (Cao et al., 2018).
Therefore, no matter of conducting both qualitative research and quantitative research, appropriate research methods should be chosen in light of actual researches.
2) Dimension of MTEs
No matter of adopting a quantitative or qualitative research, MTEs are composed of multi-dimensional elements. The dimensions of MTEs are mainly divided into the following categories:
Directly drawing from the dimensions developed by predecessors. The existing researches on the dimensions of tourist experience memory mainly cite the seven-dimension scale of Kim (2012) (Coudounaris & Sthapit, 2017; Y.-J. Lee, 2015;
Tsai, 2016; H. Zhang et al., 2018). Subsequently, Kim and Ritchie adopted this scale to conduct cross-cultural research (J.-H. Kim, 2013; J.-H. Kim & Ritchie, 2013).
Other studies have examined these dimensions, such as Lee (2015) believes that enjoyment, local culture, restoration, meaning and knowledge constitute the content of unforgettable heritage tourism experience, and finds that culinary attraction, cultural inheritance and nostalgia will affect the memorable tourism experience of tourists at Tainan Railway Station in Taiwan. According to the study of Lee (2015), knowledge learning and personal emotions were not important predictors of MTEs, which indicated that further research on the antecedents of MTEs in a specific background was needed. In addition, Pine and Gilmore’s 4E (Entertainment, Education, esthetic and escapism) experience theory was also applied (Pine &
Gilmore, 1998). For example, some researcher applied the 4E experience theory to study Malaysian hotels and resorts and found that 4E has a significant impact on tourist memory, while memory has a significant impact on customer loyalty (Ali et al., 2014).
Additions and subtractions were made based on Kim’s (2012) seven- dimensional model. For example, Wei and others conducted research to explore the psychological components of memorable tourism experiences that are most likely to be recalled by visitors. It turns out that three out of the six factors of MTEs (i.e., hedonism, novelty, involvement, social interaction, serendipity, meaningfulness), which are novelty, involvement and social interaction) have a significant positive impact on the vividness of MTEs (Wei et al., 2019). In addition, other researchers have redeveloped the dimensions of MTEs: environment, culture, relationship with peers, relationship with visitors, relationship with local agents (residents and service providers), novelty, emotion, dream, meaning, rejuvenation, hedonism and participation, and the research results show that hedonism and involvement are inappropriate, and prove the multi-dimensional structure of MTEs (Coelho & Gosling, 2018).
Redevelop the dimensions. For example, Tung and Ritchie (2011a) propose four dimensions of memorable experiences: affection, expectations, consequentiality and recollection, and they are the pioneers to research into MTEs.
Emotions include positive emotions such as happiness and excitement; expectations
involve unexpected events and surprises for visitors; outcomes refer to travel outcomes that are considered important, such as progress of social relationships, intellectual development and personal discovery; reminiscence involves memories, photos, and stories of a trip. Based on semi-structured interviews with 314 visitors to zoos and museums, the results show that only hedonism, local culture, involvement and knowledge affect the behavioral intention of tourists. The authors suggest that the scale of MTEs needs to be reconstructed by incorporating other relevant dimensions (Coudounaris & Sthapit, 2017).