How do monetary and time spend explain cultural tourist satisfaction?

Abstract

Tourist expenditure is studied from many perspectives, including that of the two primary types of budget— monetary and temporal—that a tourist must manage in a destination. Yet, despite the scholarly interest in tourist expenditure, no studies to date have sought to quantify how spend type affects tourist satisfaction. Since money and time are finite, it is important to understand how they contribute to tourist satisfaction. The aim of the present research is therefore to analyze how tourist behavior in a cultural destination, taking into account the real-time spending of both monetary and time budgets, contributes to satisfaction-formation. A sample of 957 touristic activities conducted in the City of Granada (Spain) was analyzed from a multilevel perspective, measuring tourist satisfaction with the activity in real time. The study identifies several factors of interest for stakeholders of cultural tourism from a new conceptual and methodological approach in tourism satisfaction studies.