Tourism experiences within an attributional framework

This paper reports on a conceptualization of previously reported data by the authors. Using the critical incident technique, tourists were asked to recount their most positive and most negative tourism experiences. These qualitative data were reduced using the attribution theory. This framework allows researchers to determine which of four causes (ability, effort, task ease/difficulty, and luck) they use to explain their experiences. Results showed an attribution bias where tourists are more likely to use internal (dispositional) attributions for positive tourism outcomes compared to more external (situation) attributions for negative experiences. Tourists perceive less personal control for both positive and negative experiences. Implications for the industry, tourism education, and tourists themselves are discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd