Do tourists experience boredom in mountain destinations?

Abstract

The paper investigates the extent to which tourists perceive boredom during their winter mountain holiday. The Leisure Boredom Scale (S.E. Iso-Ahola & Weissinger, 1990) was applied to segment tourists on the base of their perceived boredom. An empirical research operated in an Alpine region revealed the existence of two segments who experience boredom: Bored tourists and Excited-Bored tourists (21% of the tourists). This evidence contradicts results found in previous literature that boredom is associated to passive behaviour, and shows that boredom co-exists with excitement. The majority of these tourists are mothers accompanying their relatives, stay in hotels, and choose either the chief town Aosta or minor locations. Bored tourists are involved in many activities, and spend even more than other tourists.