Memorable Tourism Experience Scale

What it measures

The MTE scale measures seven dimensions of tourism experiences that contribute to memorability. Hedonism captures pleasurable feelings of excitement and enjoyment; Novelty reflects the psychological sense of newness from unique experiences; Local Culture taps close engagement with destination people and culture; Refreshment measures feelings of liberation, freedom, and revitalisation; Meaningfulness captures a sense of significance, importance, and self-discovery; Involvement reflects personal engagement with desired places and activities; and Knowledge represents exploratory, informational, and cross-cultural learning. Developed following Churchill (1979) from an initial pool of 84 items drawn from literature review and open-ended interviews with 62 individuals, purified via item-total correlations to 24 items across seven factors. CFA was conducted on split calibration (n=200) and validation (n=200) subsamples from a total sample of 511 US college students.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much)

Scale items

Hedonism (4 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• Thrilled about having a new experience.
• Indulged in the activities.
• Really enjoyed this tourism experience.
• Exciting.

Novelty (4 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• Once-in-a-lifetime experience.
• Unique.
• Different from previous experiences.
• Experienced something new.

Local Culture (3 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• Good impressions about the local people.
• Closely experienced the local culture.
• Local people in a destination were friendly.

Refreshment (4 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• Liberating.
• Enjoyed sense of freedom.
• Refreshing.
• Revitalized.

Meaningfulness (3 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• I did something meaningful.
• I did something important.
• Learned about myself.

Involvement (3 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• I visited a place where I really wanted to go.
• I enjoyed activities which I really wanted to do.
• I was interested in the main activities of this tourism experience.

Knowledge (3 items). Response format: 7-point Likert (1=I have not experienced at all, 7=I have experienced very much).

• Exploratory.
• Knowledge.
• New culture.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Note that this scale (MTE, Kim et al. 2012, JTR) is distinct from the Memorable Tourist Experience Scale (MTES, Kim 2014, Tourism Management; ID 308), which measures destination attributes associated with memorable experiences across 8 dimensions and 23 items. The present scale measures the experiential components of memorability itself. Initial item pool of 84 items reduced to 25 via item-to-total correlations (r > .4), then to 24 after EFA. A second-order factor model (with affective, cognitive, and behavioural superordinate factors) was tested but rejected due to low AVE values for higher-order constructs; the first-order seven-factor model was retained. Configural and metric invariance confirmed across calibration and validation subsamples (RMSEA = .05, CFI = .98 for both). AVE by dimension (calibration/validation): Hedonism .61/.54; Novelty .67/.64; Local Culture .59/.67; Refreshment .63/.56; Meaningfulness .75/.63; Involvement .68/.63; Knowledge .64/.70. All AVE values exceed corresponding squared intercorrelations, confirming discriminant validity. Sample was US college students (mean age 20.8); generalisability to broader tourist populations should be considered.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Kim, J. H., Ritchie, J. R. B., & McCormick, B. (2012). Development of a scale to measure memorable tourism experiences. Journal of Travel Research, 51(1), 12–25.

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