Operationalization of Tourist Satisfaction
Visitor satisfaction is a central concept in tourism but definition of the term remains varied. One of the more cited definition is that satisfaction is the degree to which one believes that an experience evokes positive feelings. But in tourism research,Hunt argues that "satisfaction is not the reasonableness of the experience, it is the evaluation rendered that the experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be". Hence, the central tenet of visitor satisfaction measurement in tourism research has been the dis-confirmation theory, whereby satisfaction arises when consumer compare their perceptions with their initial expectation. If perceived performance is greater than expectations, the consumer is satisfied.
This conceptualization of satisfaction has been the subject of intense academic debate in the marketing literature due to its its limitations. For example, some authors argue that if expectation decreases, the probability of satisfaction increases. Another limitation relates to the fact that expectation are dynamic in nature and that the service experience might vary across encounters, as is often the case in tourism and hospitality services. There is also the fact that the tourist is an actor in the service delivery process and can engage in cognitive dissonance by downgrading bad experiences and upgrading good ones. Thus,there is inconclusive evidence whether expectations directly lead to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For this reason,performance measurements may be more critical in determining future behavior instead of expectation or dis-confirmation. Thus,satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be regarded as a measure of performance and the ability to manipulate it can be an important source of competitive advantage.
Tourist satisfaction has been measured by summation of tourist evaluation of destination attributes. This kind of satisfaction measurement can be regarded as an evaluation of the quality of destination performance, where tourist are satisfied not only with what they experience; that is, hoe they were treated and served at a destination, but also how they felt during the service encounter. It is also important to distinguish between overall satisfaction and satisfaction with individual components, since overall satisfaction is a broader concept, which includes an evaluation of the accumulated experiences of a visitor's expectation, purchase, and consumption experiences. Therefore, overall satisfaction is a holistic impression after the purchase and consumption of a holiday. Hence, a single global measure of satisfaction may be a better measure than using the dis-confirmation paradigm.