Keeping your audience: presenting a visitor engagement scale

Babak Taheri, Aliakbar Jafari, Kevin D. O'Gorman

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

57 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding visitors’ level of engagement with tourist attractions is vital for successful heritage management and marketing. This paper develops a scale to measure visitors’ level of engagement in tourist attractions. It also establishes a relationship between the drivers of engagement and level of engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 625 visitors at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, UK. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Whilst prior knowledge, recreational motivation and omnivore-univore cultural capital positively affect visitors’ level of engagement, there is no significant relationship between reflective motivation and level of engagement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitor engagement in tourist attractions. A series of managerial implications are also proposed.
LanguageEnglish
Pages321–329
Number of pages9
JournalTourism Management
Volume42
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014

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tourist attraction
Museums
tourist
Marketing
museum
marketing
cultural capital
structural model
driver
management
knowledge

Keywords

  • scale development
  • heritage
  • visitor engagement

Cite this

Taheri, Babak ; Jafari, Aliakbar ; O'Gorman, Kevin D. . / Keeping your audience : presenting a visitor engagement scale. In: Tourism Management. 2014 ; Vol. 42. pp. 321–329.
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Taheri, B, Jafari, A & O'Gorman, KD 2014, 'Keeping your audience: presenting a visitor engagement scale' Tourism Management, vol. 42, pp. 321–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2013.12.011

Keeping your audience : presenting a visitor engagement scale. / Taheri, Babak ; Jafari, Aliakbar; O'Gorman, Kevin D. .

In: Tourism Management, Vol. 42, 06.2014, p. 321–329.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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T2 - Tourism Management

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AU - Jafari, Aliakbar

AU - O'Gorman, Kevin D.

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - Understanding visitors’ level of engagement with tourist attractions is vital for successful heritage management and marketing. This paper develops a scale to measure visitors’ level of engagement in tourist attractions. It also establishes a relationship between the drivers of engagement and level of engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 625 visitors at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, UK. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Whilst prior knowledge, recreational motivation and omnivore-univore cultural capital positively affect visitors’ level of engagement, there is no significant relationship between reflective motivation and level of engagement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitor engagement in tourist attractions. A series of managerial implications are also proposed.

AB - Understanding visitors’ level of engagement with tourist attractions is vital for successful heritage management and marketing. This paper develops a scale to measure visitors’ level of engagement in tourist attractions. It also establishes a relationship between the drivers of engagement and level of engagement using Partial Least Square, whereby both formative and reflective scales are included. The structural model is tested with a sample of 625 visitors at Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, UK. The empirical validation of the conceptual model supports the research hypotheses. Whilst prior knowledge, recreational motivation and omnivore-univore cultural capital positively affect visitors’ level of engagement, there is no significant relationship between reflective motivation and level of engagement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of visitor engagement in tourist attractions. A series of managerial implications are also proposed.

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Taheri B, Jafari A, O'Gorman KD. Keeping your audience: presenting a visitor engagement scale. Tourism Management. 2014 Jun;42:321–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2013.12.011

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