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Tourist experience has gradually become the focus of tourism management. with the arrival of the experience economy. It has been an important practical proposition that how to evaluate and upgrade the tourist experience. At the same time, the research on tourist experience, as the core of tourism theory, also has been an important theme in the field at home and abroad. There are many papers studying on quality of tourist experience, but the papers have a few drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and the structure, and to construct the measurement model of tourist experience. In addition, it will contribute to China’s research and management on tourist experience.Tourist experience is defined as the subjective mental state felt by tourists, and the quality of tourist experience is described as the superiority of the subjective mental state. Tourist experience is a variable which can be measured through quantifying it. The paper reviews the quantitative research on tourist experience, lists all of the measured dimensions, selects the suitable dimensions, and integrates three dimensions, namely emotion, cognitive and consciousness. According to two-pole emotion of tourist experience model, imprinting theory and absorption theory, happiness degree, profound degree and absorption degree are identified to measure the three constructing factors of emotional state, cognitive states and consciousness state. Therefore the measurement model is constructed.The paper includes six chapters. Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the background, the purpose, the content and the structure. Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews the research on the quality of tourist experience, especially on the measurement of tourist experience. Scholars discuss it from elements, factors and measurement. The research on the elements is fragmented. The research on factors forms the conclusion that factors include physical setting, social setting and personal factors. The research on measurement is mainly divided into two opinions. Some scholars, as management scholars, use service quality to measure the quality of tourist experience. The other, as psychologist, use the psychological theory to describe the quality of tourist experience. Chapter 3. Definition, identify its research perspective and basic concept. The paper defines from empirical perspective that tourist experience can be described as the subjective mental state felt by tourists. Chapter 4. Dimension Establishment, proposes three dimensions of the tourist experience quality measurement, which is the key part. Through analyzing the quantitative studies on tourist experience, three constructing factors of tourist experience are summarized. Then according to two-pole emotion of tourist experience model, imprinting theory and absorption theory, happiness degree, profound degree and absorption degree are identified to measure the three constructing factors of emotional state, cognitive states and consciousness state. Chapter 5, Model Construction, constructs the measurement model of tourist experience quality. This model consists of three dimensions, including happiness degree of emotion, profound degree of cognitive and absorption degree of consciousness. Chapter 6, Conclusion and Future Research, summarizes this paper’s results, shortages and future research.
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