Creative Atmosphere in Creative Tourism Destinations: Conceptualizing and Scale Development

Abstract

Creating a creative atmosphere (CA) is the core value of creative tourism. The purpose of this study is conceptualize a construct of CA in “creative tourism destinations,” as well as to establish a set of reliable and valid measurement tools. In Study 1, we generated initial items through in-depth interviews and content analysis. In Study 2, we collected the first sample and investigated scale factor structure through exploratory factor analysis to obtain five factors: novel atmosphere, joyful atmosphere, artistic atmosphere, hedonic atmosphere, and distinctive atmosphere. A second sample was collected in Study 3 to verify the reliability of the CA scale with confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. This process netted 23 items. A major contribution of this study is to develop a multidimensional scale for CA consisting of the five factors—novel atmosphere, pleasurable atmosphere, artistic atmosphere, hedonic atmosphere, and distinctive atmosphere. The results of this study can be applied as a reference measurement tool for designing creative tourism at tourist destinations.