Measuring Attribute-Specific and Overall Satisfaction with Destination Experience

Abstract

Abstract Researchers have measured tourist satisfaction at both overall (global) and attribute levels, and found that attribute-specific satisfaction significantly influences overall satisfaction. When satisfaction is operationalized at two levels, the measurement structure presents "specific-general" questions, which may yield psychological effects due to the ordering of questions. This study examined question order effects when measuring attribute and overall satisfaction with destination experience and investigated the role of information satisfaction. Results revealed that information satisfaction is a significant predictor of attribute and overall satisfaction, and overall satisfaction was consistently higher than the average of attribute-specific satisfaction which was asked prior to overall satisfaction. Therefore, it can be inferred that overall emotional satisfaction reflects something more than the aggregated satisfaction level with attributes of destinations. Keywords: attribute–overall satisfactioninformation satisfactionpart-whole question effectpsychology of survey response Notes †An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the ISTTE (International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators) 2009 conference.