Development and validation of a tourism fatigue scale

Abstract Fatigue is a pervasive physiological and psychological phenomenon in tourism experiences, but remains almost unexplored in the existing literature on tourist perception and behavior. The possible reason for this deficiency is the vagueness of the tourism fatigue concept and the lack of a measurement tool in addition to the influence of the traditional paradigms and ideas of the tourism research. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring tourism fatigue based on its conceptualization. Taking Zhouzhuang Ancient Town and Huangshan Mountain as examples, 926 samples were collected through two rounds of data collection. Following construct definition, initial item production, scale purification, EFA, CFA, reliability and validity testing, a four-dimensional (physical, motivational, affective and cognitive) tourism fatigue model with 16 items was established. This study extends the current knowledge of tourist perceptions and behaviors and provides a tool for further related investigation for academics and managers.