Digitally Customized and Interactive Laddering: A New Way for Examining Tourists’ Value Structures

Abstract

Insight into consumer value forms the basis for successful tourism management. The means-end structures of consumer value in tourism are mainly investigated by qualitative, in-depth laddering interviews while structured, quantitative laddering is less common. This study develops quantitative laddering by digitalizing the Association Pattern Technique (APT) in order to increase its interactive customization. The feasibility of digitally customized APT is piloted by investigating 956 nature-based tourists visiting Finnish national parks. The evaluation of the method is based on epistemological laddering criteria and usability. The results demonstrate greater contextuality, increased sample relevance, delivery of complete chains, and decreased risks of misunderstandings compared to conventional APT. Hence, digitalized APT holds potential for examining the structure of consumer value and its larger sample size also reveals less apparent means-end chains and universal values. However, its wider adoption into managerial processes would benefit from the development of specific software.