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Tourists’ participation and preference-related belief in co-creating value of experience: a nature-based perspective

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Abstract

We draw theoretical support from the concept of customer participation and cognitive dissonance theory to investigate the moderating effects of the preference-related belief of nature-based tourists, that is, the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP), on relationships between tourist experiential components and outcomes. The responses of 500 visitors to the Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan indicate that actively participative experiences (APEs)—that is, education and escapism—are more positively related than passively participative experiences (PPEs)—that is, entertainment and esthetics—to pleasure and memorability. Furthermore, tourists’ NEP appears to reinforce the effects of APEs and to weaken the effects of PPEs. We also found that tourists’ NEP has a stronger reinforcing effect than a weakening effect. Our study contributes further evidence to current insights into the importance of tourists’ participation in co-creating value of tourist experiences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, 510, Chung Cheng Rd., Hsinchuang, New Taipei City, 24205, Taiwan

    Che-Jen Su

  2. UFR STAPS, University of Burgundy, Campus Universitaire, BP 27877, 21078, Dijon Cedex, France

    Anne-Marie Lebrun & Patrick Bouchet

  3. Department of Recreation and Leisure Industry Management, National Taiwan Sport University, No. 250, Wenhua 1st Rd., Guishan, 33301, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Jun-Ren Wang

  4. Master of Sport Administration, Canisius College, 83 Manchester Place, Buffalo, NY, 14213, USA

    Nicolas Lorgnier

  5. Department of Business Administration, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Jin-Hsing Yang

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  1. Che-Jen Su
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Correspondence to Che-Jen Su.

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Su, CJ., Lebrun, AM., Bouchet, P. et al. Tourists’ participation and preference-related belief in co-creating value of experience: a nature-based perspective. Serv Bus 10, 823–846 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-015-0292-z

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