Understanding the effects of multi-dimensional tourism experiences on tourists’ positive emotions and satisfaction in the context of casino hotels

Purpose This study aims to evaluate casino-hotel visitors’ tourism experiences which consist of multiple dimensions, and test their joint effects on visitors’ positive emotions and satisfaction. The findings are expected to reveal how multi-dimensional tourism experiences could shape visitors’ positive emotions, and empirically support positive emotions as the mediator between tourism experiences and satisfaction in the context of casino hotels. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey was conducted for this study. In all, 500 valid questionnaires were collected at four major casino hotels in Macao. Respondents were Chinese tourists who visited casino hotels in June. A structural model was developed and tested to understand the relationships between multi-dimensional tourism experiences, positive emotions and satisfaction. Findings Positive emotions were identified as “light pleasure” and “intense fun” emotions based on the context-specific measurement of casino hotels. The “light pleasure” emotions were found to be more effective in influencing respondents’ satisfaction than “intense fun” emotions. Different dimensions of tourism experiences were found to have different levels of impact on respondents’ positive emotions. The findings revealed how multi-dimensional tourism experiences influenced respondents’ positive emotions which in turn determined their satisfaction. Originality/value The findings advanced the understanding of the relationships between tourism experiences, positive emotions and satisfaction in the context of casino hotels. The two types of positive emotions identified in the study add values to the literature of casino-hotel visitors and emotional experiences. This study suggests a further investigation into the scope and measurement of each dimension of tourism experiences in different tourism settings in future research. The findings provided some practical suggestions for the management of positive emotions and tourism experiences in casino hotels.