Towards Developing a Multisensory Scale to Capture Attributes of Heritage Boutique Hotels

Zahra Pourabedin (), Tracey Mahony () and Josephine Pryce ()
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Zahra Pourabedin: James Cook University
Tracey Mahony: James Cook University
Josephine Pryce: James Cook University

A chapter in Community Empowerment, Sustainable Cities, and Transformative Economies, 2022, pp 355-375 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Heritage tourism is one of the fastest-growing global segments of the Tourism and Hospitality industry, with associated products and experiences generating substantial benefits for tourism operators, promoting economic growth and making social contributions to the local communities. Heritage tourism should rely on recognition and valuation of attributes including aesthetics, uniqueness, cultural elements, and historical significance by tourism operators, visitors, and communities to be successful and sustainable. As an emerging field of study, knowledge and promotional use of specific heritage attributes to target visitors’ needs are still being developed. This study seeks to fill that important gap by focusing on ‘heritage boutique hotels’ (HBHs), where heritage buildings are being repurposed or refurbished to accommodate visitors. The purpose of this study is to identify if, and how, customers are recognising and communicating satisfaction on attributes unique to HBHs. This study forms the first phase of a larger research project examining (HBHs) practices in Singapore and Malaysia with a view to later expanding the study to more widely cover the Asia-Pacific region following JCU’s focus on the tropics. Using a qualitative and inductive approach, thematic analysis was utilised for online customer reviews that were collected from a promotional website for six HBHs located across Singapore and Malaysia. Leximancer analysis assisted the contextual and relational analysis affording an opportunity to identify the important attributes and explore relationships between respective attributes. The analysis showed that experiences were multisensory, drawing on visitors’ affective, cognitive, and social complexities to gain satisfaction from their experiences of visiting HBHs. These findings provide preliminary insights into the key drivers for the economic, social and cultural sustainability of HBHs and inform operators and communities on strategic planning for future use.

Keywords: Heritage tourism; Boutique hotels; Visitor experiences; Multisensory; Hotel attributes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-16-5260-8_20

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-5260-8_20

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