Perceived Value of Tourism Experience Scale (GLOVAL)

Abstract

The Perceived Value of Tourism Experience Scale, universally designated in psychometric and consumer behavior literature as the GLOVAL scale, is a multidimensional instrument developed by Sánchez, Callarisa, Rodríguez, and Moliner (2006) to operationalize the complex, cognitive-affective valuation processes underlying the acquisition and consumption of tourism products. Recognizing the conceptual inadequacy of traditional unidimensional “trade-off” paradigms—which narrowly define value as a simplistic ratio of quality received to monetary price paid—the GLOVAL framework conceptualizes perceived value as an integrative, post-consumption cognitive architecture encompassing functional, affective, and symbolic dimensions. The scale comprises 24 self-report items evaluated on a standard 7-point Likert response scale ranging from 1 (“Strongly disagree”) to 7 (“Strongly agree”).

Structurally, GLOVAL models perceived value across six validated sub-dimensions partitioned into three broader theoretical domains: (1) Functional Value, further decomposed into functional value of the travel agency’s physical installations (4 items), functional value of contact personnel (4 items), functional value of the purchased tourism package (6 items), and functional value price (4 items); (2) Emotional Value (2 items), capturing intrinsic hedonic, pleasurable, and affective feelings aroused by the consumption experience; and (3) Social Value (4 items), indexing social status enhancement, positive reference group recognition, and social self-concept reinforcement. Psychometric evaluations using structural equation modeling (SEM) confirm robust construct validity, high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding .70 to .90 across subscales), robust composite reliability, and definitive convergent and discriminant validity. By establishing that emotional and social dimensions exert direct, substantial effects on tourist satisfaction and repurchase loyalty independent of utilitarian considerations, the GLOVAL scale serves as an indispensable tool for marketing researchers, hospitality scholars, and destination management organizations seeking to dissect and optimize consumer decision-making architectures.

Keywords

GLOVAL scale, perceived value, tourism experience, functional value, emotional value, social value, consumer behavior, post-purchase evaluation, tourist satisfaction, destination loyalty, structural equation modeling, psychometrics

Authors

The GLOVAL instrument was developed and psychometrically validated by a research collective based at the Department of Finance and Accounting / Department of Business Administration and Marketing at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain:

• Joaquín Sánchez García — Professor of Marketing, Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universitat Jaume I, Campus del Riu Sec, 12071 Castellón, Spain. Expert in relationship marketing, service quality, and perceived value modeling.
• Luis J. Callarisa Fiol — Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. Specializes in consumer behavior, tourism management, and brand equity.
• Rosa M. Rodríguez Artola — Researcher and Faculty Member, Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. Research focus on distribution channels, service encounters, and hospitality analytics.
• Miguel A. Moliner Tena — Professor of Marketing, Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. Renowned scholar in customer relationship management, ethical consumption, and advanced psychometric measurement in services.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the GLOVAL scale is to provide an empirically rigorous, psychometrically robust, and theoretically grounded measurement model capable of assessing the multidimensional nature of perceived value within hospitality and tourism environments. Prior to the emergence of multidimensional value frameworks, the literature was heavily dominated by utilitarian economic paradigms derived from transaction utility theory and traditional equity theory. These historical frameworks conceptualized perceived customer value almost exclusively as a cognitive, rational trade-off between perceived quality (“get”) and monetary sacrifice (“give”). While mathematically parsimonious, such unidimensional approaches proved grossly inadequate when applied to experiential, intangible, and highly symbolic consumption categories such as leisure travel, heritage tourism, and comprehensive vacation packages.

In tourism, consumption is rarely driven solely by functional utility or price minimization. Travelers actively pursue novel sensory experiences, emotional escape, psychological rejuvenation, personal enrichment, and social identity signaling. Consequently, an instrument was required that could simultaneously evaluate the tangible operational aspects of service delivery while giving equal psychometric weight to the affective and symbolic rewards derived from the consumption journey. The GLOVAL scale was systematically constructed to fulfill this need by capturing the tourist’s overall valuation process across both the point of purchase (e.g., travel agency interactions, physical environment, sales consultations) and the point of consumption (e.g., transport quality, hotel accommodations, excursions, social reactions).

In applied academic research, GLOVAL facilitates structural modeling of consumer relationship pathways, allowing researchers to isolate how specific value dimensions differentially influence key outcome variables such as post-trip satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intention, destination attachment, and repeat visitation. In managerial and commercial domains, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), tour operators, and hospitality executives utilize GLOVAL to diagnose experiential deficiencies across service delivery chains, establish competitive benchmarking, calibrate value-based pricing strategies, and design segmented marketing campaigns that emphasize emotional and social value propositions rather than relying strictly on price competition.

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct operationalized by the GLOVAL scale is Perceived Customer Value, defined within modern cognitive-affective consumer psychology as a customer’s comprehensive, multidimensional evaluation of the utility of a product or service based on perceptions of what is received and what is given across all phases of the consumption experience. Rather than treating value as a static, monolithic entity, GLOVAL operationalizes it as a second-order construct underpinned by six correlated first-order sub-dimensions categorized into three broad psychological domains:

1. Functional Value Dimensions

Functional value reflects the rational, utilitarian, and task-oriented evaluations made by the consumer regarding practical performance, competence, and economic equity. Within GLOVAL, this domain is segmented into four distinct operational facets:

• Functional Value of the Travel Agency (Installations): Measures the cognitive evaluation of the tangible physical service environment (servicescape). It assesses whether the physical equipment, modern decorations, cleanliness, welcoming atmosphere, and informational literature (brochures, clear quotes) facilitate a frictionless, professional transaction experience.
• Functional Value of Contact Personnel: Evaluates human capital, service competence, and interpersonal responsiveness during the advisory and purchase interaction. It captures the degree to which frontline personnel demonstrate availability, interpersonal politeness, perceived trustworthiness, and empathetic understanding of the consumer’s unique travel needs.
• Functional Value of the Tourism Package: Examines the actual fulfillment and baseline performance of the delivered core tourism product. This encompasses the consistency of delivered standards relative to prior promises, overall package quality, and specific functional attributes of core logistical components, such as hotel accommodations, flights, and transfers.
• Functional Value Price: Evaluates the economic dimension of value, specifically cognitive price-fairness assessments. It captures whether the monetary outlay was perceived as reasonable, economical, fair in relation to services received, and representative of superior value-for-money.

2. Emotional Value

Emotional value represents the affective state, internal mood changes, and hedonic pleasure generated by the purchase and consumption of the tourism experience. Grounded in psychological theories of affect and emotion, this dimension measures the psychological benefits that transcend rational utility. It captures the experiential sensations of joy, psychological well-being, excitement, and relaxation that occur when a consumer engages in leisure travel. High emotional value reflects an experience that deeply resonates with the individual’s emotional equilibrium, generating positive psychological capital and intrinsic affective satisfaction.

3. Social Value

Social value reflects the symbolic utility derived from the purchase, specifically its ability to enhance social status, construct social identity, and elicit approval from meaningful reference groups. Rooted in sociological self-presentation theory and social identity theory, this dimension measures how the consumption choice projects a favorable image of the individual to external peers, colleagues, and family members. It captures the extent to which the vacation or travel package is perceived as socially prestigious, culturally sanctioned, and effective in elevating the consumer’s social standing within their reference community.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the GLOVAL scale draws upon foundational models in consumer behavior, service marketing, and social psychology, synthesizing distinct paradigms into a cohesive psychometric framework:

The Theory of Consumption Values

The primary conceptual foundation of GLOVAL is derived from the pioneering work of Sheth, Newman, and Gross (1991), who formulated the Theory of Consumption Values. Sheth and colleagues posited that consumer choice is determined by five distinct, interacting consumption values: functional, social, emotional, epistemic, and conditional values. They asserted that these values operate independently, make differential contributions across choice situations, and possess distinct cognitive and affective structures. Sánchez et al. (2006) operationalized this theory within tourism by retaining the core pillars of functional, emotional, and social value, while contextualizing functional value across service delivery touchpoints (personnel, installations, core product, and economic sacrifice).

The Means-End Chain Model and Equity Theory

GLOVAL integrates Gutman’s (1982) Means-End Chain Theory and Zeithaml’s (1988) conceptualization of perceived value. According to the Means-End model, consumers evaluate tangible product attributes (means) to achieve functional and psychosocial consequences, which ultimately satisfy core personal values (ends). In GLOVAL, functional package attributes and personnel competence serve as the initial concrete attributes that yield higher-level emotional well-being and social status signaling. Furthermore, Equity Theory (Adams, 1965) informs the functional price subscale, postulating that consumers continuously assess the fairness of an exchange by balancing their inputs (monetary outlay, search effort, time) against their received outputs (service quality, hedonic enjoyment).

Experiential Consumption and Affective Primacy

The scale also directly incorporates the experiential consumption paradigm advanced by Holbrook and Hirschman (1982), who challenged purely information-processing views of consumer decision-making. Holbrook and Hirschman argued that consumption experiences—especially in arts, leisure, and entertainment—are fundamentally driven by fantasies, feelings, and fun. By embedding dedicated emotional and social value dimensions alongside functional attributes, GLOVAL reflects the reality that experiential purchases are evaluated via an intertwined matrix of rational cognition, affective resonance, and sociocultural symbolic communication.

Validity

The psychometric properties and construct validity of the GLOVAL scale were rigorously established by Sánchez et al. (2006) using a substantial empirical sample of post-purchase package tourists in Spain (N = 504) and subsequently confirmed across numerous cross-cultural replications.

Content and Face Validity

Content validity was ensured through a multi-stage qualitative process involving extensive literature reviews across consumer psychology, hospitality, and psychometrics, followed by qualitative in-depth interviews with tourism industry professionals, travel agency managers, and frequent travelers. A panel of academic psychometricians reviewed the initial pool of candidate items, eliminating ambiguous phrasing, refining language to avoid double-barreled constructs, and confirming that each item represented its designated latent value facet.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity

Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) within a covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, Sánchez et al. verified that all standardized factor loadings (λ) of the 24 items on their respective first-order factors were statistically significant (p < .001) and exceeded the recommended psychometric threshold of .60, with the vast majority surpassing .75. The average variance extracted (AVE) for all six dimensions exceeded the conventional .50 benchmark, confirming solid convergent validity.

Discriminant validity was established using the Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion: the square root of the AVE for each latent construct consistently exceeded the inter-construct correlations between that dimension and any other dimension in the model. Additionally, confidence intervals for the inter-factor correlation estimates (±2 standard errors) did not encompass 1.0, confirming that the six dimensions are empirically distinct facets of perceived value rather than redundant representations of a single generic factor.

Predictive and Nomological Validity

Nomological and predictive validity were confirmed by testing the structural relationships between the GLOVAL sub-dimensions, overall perceived value, customer satisfaction, and post-consumption behavioral loyalty (repurchase intentions and willingness to recommend). Structural regression paths showed that perceived value accounted for an extraordinary proportion of variance in overall customer satisfaction (R² > .60) and loyalty intentions. Crucially, emotional value and social value demonstrated substantial, statistically significant direct positive paths to tourist loyalty, proving that non-functional dimensions possess independent predictive power beyond traditional quality-price evaluations.

Reliability

The internal consistency and scale reliability of the GLOVAL instrument have been corroborated across exploratory and confirmatory psychometric evaluations. Reliability indicators consistently surpass accepted academic standards for psychological and consumer measurement scales:

• Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha): Sánchez et al. (2006) reported Cronbach’s α coefficients well above the standard .70 threshold across all subscales:
  • Functional Value of Travel Agency Installations: α = .84
  • Functional Value of Contact Personnel: α = .88
  • Functional Value of the Tourism Package: α = .89
  • Functional Value Price: α = .86
  • Emotional Value: α = .82
  • Social Value: α = .87

  The overall composite scale reliability across all 24 items regularly achieves an alpha coefficient in excess of .92 in empirical applications.

• Composite Reliability (CR): Structural equation modeling revealed that composite reliability values for all latent factors ranged from .81 to .91, surpassing the recommended psychometric benchmark of .70 and confirming that the indicator variables consistently reflect their underlying latent constructs.
• Temporal Stability and Test-Retest Properties: Subsequent longitudinal applications and split-half testing across independent tourism sub-samples (e.g., cultural tourists, sun-and-sand vacationers, cruise passengers) have established strong cross-sample stability and measurement invariance across demographic segments, confirming the enduring reliability of the metric.

Factor Analysis

The factorial validity of the GLOVAL scale was established via a sequential exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic strategy:

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Initial validation began with exploratory factor analysis utilizing principal components analysis with varimax and oblimin rotations. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy consistently exceeded .88, and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity attained high statistical significance (p < .0001), indicating robust factorability. The EFA clearly extracted six distinct factors exhibiting eigenvalues greater than 1.0, which collectively accounted for over 68% of the total cumulative variance. Items demonstrated high primary factor loadings (> .65) onto their designated theoretical constructs with minimal cross-loadings (< .30).

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

To confirm the second-order multidimensional structure, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood estimation in AMOS/LISREL. A hierarchical model where the six first-order dimensions loaded onto an overarching higher-order Perceived Customer Value construct demonstrated superior fit compared to rival single-factor or undifferentiated three-factor models. The empirical model fit indices satisfied standard psychometric cutoffs:

• Chi-Square / Degrees of Freedom ratio (χ²/df): 1.94 (well below the conservative 3.0 ceiling, indicating favorable parsimonious fit).
• Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI): .91
• Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index (AGFI): .89
• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): .95
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI / NNFI): .94
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): .043 (90% CI [.037, .049]), well below the strict .05 threshold for close model fit.
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): .038

The CFA results provide decisive structural proof that perceived value within tourism consumption operates as a multifaceted, second-order psychological construct wherein functional agency characteristics, service quality, pricing, emotional pleasure, and social signaling coalesce into a holistic value gestalt.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Scale Designation: Perceived Value of Tourism Experience Scale (GLOVAL)
• Authors: Joaquín Sánchez García, Luis J. Callarisa Fiol, Rosa M. Rodríguez Artola, and Miguel A. Moliner Tena (2006)
• Construct Assessed: Multidimensional perceived customer value (post-consumption evaluation)
• Administration Format: Self-administered paper-and-pencil or online digital survey; suitable for structured face-to-face post-travel interviews
• Total Item Count: 24 authentic items
• Dimensional Architecture: 6 distinct first-order subscales:
  • Functional Value of Travel Agency Installations (Items 1–4)
  • Functional Value of Contact Personnel (Items 5–8)
  • Functional Value of the Tourism Package (Items 9–14)
  • Functional Value Price (Items 15–18)
  • Emotional Value (Items 19–20)
  • Social Value (Items 21–24)
• Authentic Response Scale: 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree)
  • 1 = Strongly disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Somewhat disagree
  • 4 = Neutral / Neither agree nor disagree
  • 5 = Somewhat agree
  • 6 = Agree
  • 7 = Strongly agree
• Scoring and Computational Rules: All 24 items are positively keyed; no reverse scoring is required. Subscale scores are calculated by computing the arithmetic mean or composite sum of the items corresponding to each respective dimension. A global perceived value index can be derived by calculating the unweighted grand mean of all 24 items or by estimating latent construct factor scores through structural equation modeling. Higher scores reflect higher perceived value.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The GLOVAL scale was formally published in 2006 in the journal Tourism Management. Under standard academic fair use principles, the instrument is freely accessible for non-commercial academic, psychological, and institutional research purposes, provided appropriate scholarly attribution and bibliographic citation are accorded to the original authors (Sánchez et al., 2006). Commercial applications, proprietary destination audits, or redistribution within fee-based software platforms may require written permission from the copyright holder (Elsevier Ltd. / Tourism Management).

References

• Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267–299). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60108-2
• Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104
• Gutman, J. (1982). A means-end chain model based on consumer categorization processes. Journal of Marketing, 46(2), 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298204600207
• Holbrook, M. B., & Hirschman, E. C. (1982). The experiential aspects of consumption: Consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1086/208906
• Sánchez, J., Callarisa, L., Rodríguez, R. M., & Moliner, M. A. (2006). Perceived value of the purchase of a tourism product. Tourism Management, 27(3), 394–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2004.11.007
• Sheth, J. N., Newman, B. I., & Gross, B. L. (1991). Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption values. Journal of Business Research, 22(2), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(91)90040-R
• Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: A means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52(3), 2–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298805200302

Items of the Scale