Development of a Tourist Complaint Constraint (TCC) Scale

Most early tourism scholars were from other, well-established disciplines and so used their backgrounds to explain the emerging tourism phenomenon. This may explain why so many of them directly applied marketing and management theories in general - and complaint behavior theories in particular - without considering the unique features of tourism. Given the increasing importance of complaints as a form of getting valuable customer feedback, it is imperative for managers in the tourism industry to understand the factors that affect how tourists complain. Therefore, this paper develops a new measurement scale, tailor-made to reflect the unique features of the industry. To develop this scale, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted, which generated an initial pool of 61 items that were then converted into questionnaire form. After analyzing 1822 questionnaires, a 15-item tourist complaining constraint scale with 5 factors (limited time, limited involvement, limited communication, unfamiliarity, and holiday mood) emerged as statistically reliable and valid. This paper sets out the procedures for scale development, discussion, implications, and limitations. This scale can help managers in the tourism and hospitality industry by illuminating the constraints affecting tourist complaint behavior.