Consumer value in tourism: a perspective article

Abstract

Purpose

Consumer value (CV) is endemic to marketing, and therefore, it is a crucial notion to understand the evolution of tourism research. This paper aims to review the main achievements made on CV in tourism and hospitality literature and also the shortcomings and propose avenues for future research on tourism through the lens of CV.

Design/methodology/approach

Through relevant citations from 1975 to 2020, a figure describes diachronically the role of CV in different paradigm flaws, both pre and post digitization: experiential consumption in the 1980s, service quality-satisfaction discussion in early 1990s, customer relationship in late 1990s and Service Dominant Logic in 2000s and beyond.

Findings

Tourism services have been preferred fields for inquiry on CV, helping to describe the idiosyncrasy of nearly all tourism consumption settings. Although there is not a clear picture on the number and nature of value dimensions (intra-variable perspective), nor in the direct and indirect effects on the quality-value-satisfaction-loyalty chain (inter-variable), new CV frameworks favor ecosystems of value (different stakeholders, different times and places and mixed motivations) in more comprehensive models.

Originality/value

This paper depicts how CV has contributed to tourism development as a behavioral science through the past 75 years. Moreover, it preconizes that CV is still a valid construct to address all new challenges of human beings as tourists, either online or offline, by enlightening phenomena such as e-value co-creation, over-tourism, peer-to-peer consumption and the power of tourism transformative value.

Citation

Gallarza, M.G. and Gil Saura, I. (2020), "Consumer value in tourism: a perspective article", Tourism Review, Vol. 75 No. 1, pp. 41-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-06-2019-0227