Digital Experience Scale Development: An Application in Rural Heritage Tourism

Abstract: By using qualitative and quantitative research approaches, this study aims to develop a measurement scale for evaluating digital experience in the context of heritage tourism. The three-step procedure was used to con­ceptualize, create, and validate a digital experience scale. Conceptualization is based on key digital experience dimensions extracted from the literature re­view. The developed digital experience scale consists of seven dimensions: ex­pectation confirmation, perceived enjoyment/entertainment, engagement, perceived ease of use, education, escapism, and aesthetics. The scale was test­ed in a small heritage site located in a rural tourist destination in Croatia. The results show adequate reliability and validity of the measurement scale, im­plying its applicability in future research on the digital experience of heritage visitors. Therefore, this study extends the experience measurement literature and adds to the knowledge of digital technology implementation in small ru­ral heritage sites.

9th International Scientific ERAZ Conference – ERAZ 2023 – Conference Proceedings: KNOWLEDGE BASED SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, hybrid – online, virtually and in person, Prague, Czech Republic, June 1, 2023

ERAZ Conference Proceedings published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans – Belgrade, Serbia

ERAZ conference partners: Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Maribor (Slovenia); University of National and World Economy – UNWE, Sofia (Bulgaria); Center for Political Research and Documentation (KEPET), Research Laboratory of the Department of Political Science of University of Crete (Greece); Institute of Public Finance – Zagreb (Croatia); Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Ohrid, University of St. Kliment Ohridski from Bitola (North Macedonia)

ERAZ Conference 2023 Conference Proceedings: ISBN 978-86-80194-72-1, ISSN 2683-5568, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/ERAZ.2023

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission. 

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Additional reading

Emilova, I. (2023). Socio-cultural dimensions of urban tourism in the context of an experience economy. In Collection of scientific reports from the VI International Scientific and Practi­cal Conference “Sociocultural Codes of Modern Development” – Plovdiv, 2023.

National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Development in the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2030 and Action Plan 2017-2020 – November 2019.