Tourism experiences in a lifestyle destination setting: The roles of involvement and place attachment

Use of the involvement construct in tourism research contexts has been increasing in recent years. This study examined the role of involvement in combination with place attachment in tourism experiences in South Australia, a state that has positioned itself as a lifestyle tourism destination. A survey of tourists at Visitor Information Centres in five tourism regions was conducted. Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the dimensionality of scales designed to measure tourists' involvement in tourism experiences, place attachment, and elements of lifestyle tourism. A reliable set of scales was developed, with relatively higher dimension levels of attraction, food and wine, and self expression, and relatively lower levels of place attachment and centrality. Analysis of variance showed that there was a difference between the two wine regions compared to the three other regions. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.