Tourist experiences and attractions

It is argued that general assessments of satisfaction are insensitive to a variety of differences in subjective experiences. The how-simplex is introduced as an alternative method to provide differentiated information about the tourist experience. Data from on-site experiences were gathered by questionnaires at six Norwegian attractions. With regard to overall satisfaction, only minor differences were found among the six attractions. The flow-simplex, on the other hand, revealed a meaningful and differentiated pattern of affective responses to these attractions. The results show Interesting differences among tourists from different countries, and lend support to fundamental assumptions made by cognitive theory concerning the relationship between cognition and affect. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.