Creative Atmosphere and Tourists’ Post-Experience Behaviors–Model Inventory

Abstract

The Creative Atmosphere and Tourists’ Post-Experience Behaviors—Model (Wei et al., 2023) is a 27-item psychometric inventory designed to quantify the influence of the creative atmosphere of a destination on tourists’ subsequent behaviors. Specifically, the model investigates the outcomes of creative tourism experiences, focusing on two critical dimensions: experience intensification and experience extension. Furthermore, the inventory incorporates the mediating variables of tourist inspiration (divided into “inspired-by” and “inspired-to” states) and place attachment. The measure was developed and validated in China using a sample of Chinese domestic tourists visiting three representative creative tourism sites in Xiamen. The development process included adapting items from established scales, employing the rigorous back-translation procedure (Brislin, 1980) for linguistic equivalence, and obtaining content validity confirmation from three academic experts. Validation was primarily achieved through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), providing evidence for the scale’s reported reliability and validity.

Keywords

Creative Tourism, Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors, Creative Atmosphere, Tourist Inspiration, Place Attachment, Experience Intensification, Experience Extension, Xiamen, China

Authors

Wei, Min, Liu, Min, Peng, Yan, Zhou, Xing, Li, Shuhao

Purpose

The primary objective of this measurement model is to systematically evaluate the causal relationship between the perceived creative atmosphere of a destination and the resulting post-experience behaviors exhibited by tourists. The two key behavioral outcomes analyzed are experience intensification (deepening engagement with the activity or place) and experience extension (extending the experience through future visits or related activities).

A secondary, yet crucial, purpose is to test the underlying psychological mechanisms. The model specifically investigates the mediating roles of tourist inspiration (comprising both the receptive “inspired-by” state and the motivational “inspired-to” state) and place attachment. This comprehensive approach aims to elucidate how a creative environment translates into deeper psychological connections and subsequent behavioral intentions, offering crucial insights for destination management and creative tourism strategy development.

Construct

The inventory measures six distinct but interrelated constructs crucial to understanding the tourism experience flow in creative environments. These constructs include Creative Atmosphere (the perceived environment), two dimensions of Tourist Inspiration (inspired-by and inspired-to), Place Attachment (the emotional bond to the destination), and two dimensions of Post-Experience Behavior (experience intensification and experience extension).

The model posits that a positive creative atmosphere fosters tourist inspiration, which in turn strengthens place attachment. These psychological states then drive the two forms of post-experience behaviors, providing a holistic framework for analyzing consumer responses in specialized tourism settings.

Validity

The validity of the model was established through rigorous psychometric testing, including content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. For content validity, a crucial step involved inviting three academic experts to review the translated Chinese items. This ensured that the items accurately represented the theoretical meanings of each construct and were comprehensible to the target tourist population.

Convergent validity was confirmed by analyzing the Average Variance Extracted (AVE). The requirement that the AVE for all constructs must exceed 0.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) was met, demonstrating that the items within each construct converge effectively to measure the intended latent variable. Furthermore, discriminant validity was established by ensuring that the square roots of the AVE for each construct were greater than the correlation coefficients between that construct and all other constructs in the model, confirming the uniqueness and distinctiveness of each measured factor.

Reliability

The internal consistency and overall reliability of the Creative Atmosphere and Tourists’ Post-Experience Behaviors—Model were assessed using two standard metrics: Cronbach’s alpha and Composite Reliability (CR).

Results indicated robust internal consistency across all measured constructs, as all calculated Cronbach’s alpha and CR values exceeded the commonly accepted threshold of 0.70 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Nunnally, 1978). This high level of reliability confirms that the items within each subscale consistently measure the same underlying construct.

Factor Analysis

A key component of the scale validation involved analyzing potential bias introduced by Common Method Variance (CMV), which was tested using Harman’s single-factor method and the common method factor approach.

The results of the principal component factor analysis indicated the emergence of four distinct factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Crucially, the variance explained by the first factor was 46.8% of the total variance. Since this value falls below the recommended 50% threshold (Podsakoff et al., 2003), the researchers concluded that CMV was not a significant concern for the measurement model.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Items are rated using a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (extremely disagree) to 7 (extremely agree).

Language Available: Chinese

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older), including Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs), Thirties (30-39 yrs), and Middle Age (40-64 yrs).

Population Details: The study was conducted exclusively in China, targeting Chinese domestic tourists. Data collection took place at three specific creative tourism destinations in Xiamen: Shapowei Art Zone, Reddot Design Museum (Xiamen), and Huamei Park.

Test Methodology: The validation process encompassed Test Validity, Content Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis (CMV assessment), and Measurement Model testing.

Keywords

Consumer Attitudes, Consumer Behavior, Creativity, Tourism, Consumer Measures, Psychological Scales, Post-Experience Behavior

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Liu, Min: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5696-5405

• Peng, Yan: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3670-7916

• Li, Shuhao: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9794-8655

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Peng, Yan: [email protected]

• Li, Shuhao: [email protected]

• Wei, Min, Liu, Min, Zhou, Xing: No data is Available

Correspondence Address:

• Peng, Yan: Xiamen University, School of Management, No. 422 Siming South Road, Xiamen, Fujian, China, 361,005

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author (Peng, Yan).

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Commercial: No

References

Wei, M., Liu, M., Peng, Y., Zhou, X., & Li, S. (2023). Effects of creative atmosphere on tourists’ post‐experience behaviors in creative tourism: The mediation roles of tourist inspiration and place attachment. International Journal of Tourism Research, 25(1), 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2553

Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.

Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.

Items of the Creative Atmosphere and Tourists’ Post-Experience Behaviors–Model Inventory

Number of Items: This is a 27-item measure.

Factors and Subscales:

• Creative Atmosphere

• Inspired by (Because of the visit to Shapowei Art Zone/Reddot Design Museum (Xiamen)/Huamei Park)

• Inspired to (Because of the visit to Shapowei Art Zone/Reddot Design Museum (Xiamen)/Huamei Park)

• Place attachment

• Experience intensification

• Experience extension

Test Items Availability: No data is Available.