Measuring Tourists’ Emotional Experiences: Further Validation of the Destination Emotion Scale

This study is an extension of Hosany and Gilbert’s original research on the development of a scale measuring the diversity and intensity of tourists’ emotional experiences toward destinations: the Destination Emotion Scale (DES). The DES consists of 15 items, representing three emotional dimensions: joy, love, and positive surprise. Although the DES displays solid psychometric properties, additional evidence is required of the scale’s validity. Using data collected from international tourists visiting two distinct destinations, Petra (Jordan) and Thailand, this study further examines the scale’s construct validity. Adopting state-of-the-art procedures guiding scale validation, results confirm the unidimensionality, reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the DES. In particular, discriminant validity tests show that emotions and place attachment are related but distinct constructs. The DES provides a useful tool for marketers and researchers to measure tourists’ emotional responses toward destinations.