Cultural/Heritage Tourist Satisfaction: A Qualitative Expectancy/Disconfirmation Paradigm

According to the economic theory, in tourism destination management, maximizing travel satisfaction is crucial for a successful business. The quality management theories indicate that many key product and service attributes have a non linear relationship with satisfaction. Most of the studies conducted to evaluate consumer satisfaction have utilized models of expectation/disconfirmation, equity, norm, and perceived overall performance. Models of expectation/disconfirmation are very popular in tourist research. This article relies on the information provided by 1,500 responses to a questionnaire specially designed to measure tourist satisfaction in Toledo City. A qualitative alternative to the models of expectation/disconfirmation is given for simple questionnaires where tourists only have to answer whether their expectative about some tourist services have been exceeded, equal or not exceeded.