Evaluating Tourism Market Regulation from Tourists’ Perspective: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Despite the increasing attention given to tourism regulation in recent years, great ambiguity surrounds this concept and no valid and reliable instrument exists to measure tourism market regulation (TMR). This study uses multi-step mixed methods to develop a measurement scale of TMR from the perspective of tourists. In the first step, interviews and focus groups are undertaken to formulate a clear definition of TMR and its attributes. In the second step, a scale development procedure is adopted to analyze two rounds of data for dimension exploration via exploratory factor analysis and confirmation via confirmatory factor analysis. Through these analyses, five dimensions are generated: regulatory oversight, truth in advertising, tourism contract compliance, fulfilling tourism contracts, and travel feedback processing. The reliable and valid results contribute to refining TMR in the context of China. They also provide a useful tool for tourists and destination marketing organizations to measure and govern TMR in other regions/countries.