Implications
Generally, the contrast bias at the experience level is more apparent than at the expectation level. Moreover, the contrast bias of the perceived quality is more significant than the contrast bias of types at both levels. In previous studies in marketing, neither the expectation vs. experience level nor the contrast bias of perceived quality vs. contrast bias of types has been distinguished, and consumer products rather than tourism services have been considered. This result implies that the sequence of information on attractions provided to tourists influences their expected satisfaction and the organization of the actual trip affects their experience satisfaction with each destination/attraction.
This result will further assist tourism service providers in their decisions regarding marketing and pricing strategy. These providers can then compete well with others, obtain a competitive stance and establish a distinct “brand”. However, changes in the perceived variety seem to have minimal influence on the total satisfaction. This finding suggests that when the service provider intends to promote its tourism products (e.g., guided tour), adding various attractions or destinations alone, which comprise the whole trip cannot ensure increased satisfaction with the entire trip. Moreover, the quality of each attraction should be monitored.
This work showed that participatory simulation through VEs is a promising approach for studying tourist ratings on destinations or attractions. In the future, VE platforms, such as OpenSimulator, should be further utilized for the development of interactive experimental tools to study the assessment of tourists of their experience.