Satisfaction vs experienced utility: current issues and opportunities. Issue 18 (16th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Godovykh, Maksim; Tasci, Asli D. A.
• Is Part Of: Current issues in tourism. Volume 23:Issue 18(2020)
• Page Start: 2273
• Page End: 2282
• Publication Date: 2020-09-16
• Subjects: Experienced utility -- satisfaction -- anticipation -- instant utility -- remembered utility; Tourism -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Tourism -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Travel -- Periodicals; 338.479105
• DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2020.1769573
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-3500

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Satisfaction is one of the most studied constructs in many fields, including tourism. As an important marketing metric, satisfaction is typically measured with self-reported retrospective evaluations of travel experience. However, the memory-based approaches have numerous limitations related to social desirability, availability heuristics, previous knowledge, mood at the time of answering questions and do not reflect the moment-by-moment nature of visitor experience. The shortcomings and limitations of self-reported retrospective evaluations could be eliminated by introducing pre-visit, on-site, and post-visit instant components of experienced utility as measures of visitor experience. The experienced utility allows eliminating the majority of self-report biases, capturing the affective components of visitor experience, analysing relationships between anticipation, experienced, and remembered utilities, and applying emerging moment-based research techniques. Therefore, this manuscript proposes a measurable definition of experienced utility and appropriate measures to assess visitor experience.