A Favorability-Satisfaction Model of Tourists' Evaluations

Abstract

While there have been some recent developments in tourist research, the psychological effect of tourist-local contact on the tourist has been largely ignored. The present study proposes a 4-cell model of tourist-host intercultural contact from the perspective of the tourist. According to this model tourist post-travel evaluation of the hosts depends on the tourists' pre-travel favorability toward the visited nationality, and the tourists' post-travel holiday satisfaction ratings. Two of the four predictions of the model were then tested by studying travelers to Greece and Morocco. Simple single-item rating scales were used to determine pre-travel favorability to the hosts, the post-travel holiday satisfaction scores, and post-travel evaluation scores of the hosts. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that both for travelers to Greece (n = 31) and for travelers to Morocco (n = 41), favorability and satisfaction significantly predicted post-travel evaluation of the hosts as predicted by the model. The high percentage variance accounted for with both travel groups, albeit with small samples, was interpreted as encouraging evidence for this kind of controlled, model-building, psychological approach to tourist research.