PurposeThis work aims to introduce the usefulness of the concept of value for tourism research both conceptually and empirically. Destination and tourism services can be better understood if analysed through the multidimensionality of value, as the tourist can simultaneously experience several factors: affective and cognitive, social and personal, active and reactive.Design/methodology/approachFrom literature review, Holbrook's conceptual framework (definition and typology) is chosen to investigate the dimensionality of consumer value in a travel‐related context (students' tourism behaviour). An empirical investigation on one of his conceptual axes – the relativistic character of consumer value – is presented.FindingsSeveral research questions are proposed regarding the relativity of value, using the t‐test contrast of hypothesis: dimensions of value (efficiency, quality, play, aesthetics and social value) and a measure of overall perceived value are tested as being personal (they vary across people), comparative (with differences among objects) and situational (specific to the context).Research limitations/implicationsThe results presented can fully confirm the relativistic character of value dimensions; hence, the value concept is useful for analysing tourism experiences. Nevertheless, the analysis is made interpersonally. Real intrapersonal measurements on these variations with longitudinal studies are recommended for further research. The scope of this work could be broadened by testing additional axes of Holbrook's typology.Practical implicationsTourism managers should regard the helpfulness of perceived value as a segmentation tool. Because of its multidimensionality, different facets of services value can be enhanced for different consumers, reinforcing in this way the strategic usefulness of value.Originality/valueAlthough Holbrook's types of value have been the subject of several conceptual debates there are very few empirical works on it. Any multidimensional approach to value shows the richness and complexity of the value concept, but Holbrook's dimensionality is particularly interesting because it encompasses and interrelates all relevant facets of the tourism experience.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present volunteering in tourism events as a sort of spontaneous community participation that has far-reaching consequences for destination management. It chooses the concept of value to explore volunteering experience in an international religious mega-event, using Holbrook's value typology (efficiency, social value, play, spirituality).Design/methodology/approach -The authors undertake this objective by means of testing psychometric properties of the four value scales, as well as providing a causal model of relationships among value dimensions and overall perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty or commitment to volunteering in a special event tested with MBPLS, a particular algorithm for the partial least squares methodology. Findings -The results confirm the reliability and validity of the scales tested in a sample of 1,638 volunteers, collected via e-mail from the database of a religious mega-event held in Valencia in July 2006. They also confirm a relationship among overall perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty or commitment as a chain of behavioral constructs. Research limitations/implications -One can find implications for the relevant weight of volunteers as peculiar stakeholders of mega-events. For consumer behavior researchers, the chain of effects among value dimensions and behavioral constructs is once more relevant, although the findings are only related to volunteers at religious events.Practical implications -For destination marketing managers, this study can throw light on the profile of volunteers for event marketing and how they behave in their own experience as relevant stakeholders in the organization of a mega-event.Originality/value -Very few works devote their interest to value dimensionality in a marketing event context, despite the richness of that sort of tourism experience. Perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty or commitment have been investigated among volunteers in sport or cultural mega-events, but rarely in religious mega-events.

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