Developing a Pet Owners' Tourism Constraints Scale – The Constraints to Take Dogs to Tourism Activities

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to develop a scale for constraints on bringing dogs along on tourism activities and to examine the influence of these constraints on owners' intentions to take dogs along on tourism activities. The responses of 518 Taiwanese dog owners were examined through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings revealed three dimensions of pet-related tourism constraint (i.e. pets' specific constraints, pets' interpersonal constraints and pets' structural constraints). This measurement scale was found to be both valid and reliable. In addition, the constraints were found to negatively influence owners' intentions to take pets along on tourism activities.

Pet tourism: motivations and assessment in the destinations

“…These data reinforce the idea that dogs play an increasingly important role in human life (Carr, 2009; Carr and Cohen, 2009; Chen et al , 2014; Zhang, 2012). One outcome is that dogs, like children, are likely to influence the planning of holidays (Chen et al , 2011), especially domestic holidays, but excluding trips to a second home.…”

“…Tourists' decision to travel may be driven by different types of motivation (Otoo et al, 2020), and each specific destination needs to be analysed separately, given the diversity of locations and the variables that affect their appeal. Nguyen and Cheung (2014) identified the following tourist motivations: entertainment (basic when travelling with pets) and the search for knowledge, which is a He studies the roll of the pets in human life, and its growing relevance Carr and Cohen (2009) They study the roll of the pets and how they have a positive influence in owners' health and socialisation skills Cavanaugh et al (2008) Dogs are an important part of the family Chen et al (2014), Dashper (2020), Ivanov (2018) The pets have become potential travellers Dilek et al (2020), Greenebaum (2004) Pets have a growing influence in how families spend and enjoy their holidays, and they belong to family core Kirillova et al (2015), Wu and Chang (2021) The study the influence of pets in families' health, and feelings about their pets Tourist experience The comfort and well-being of a pet is becoming a fundamental element to analyse the quality of the tourist expedience among dog owners Dilek et al (2020) He recognises the need of study pets' influence on tourist experience Lancendorfer et al (2008) He studies the economic impact on the travel cost for a family Dog-related motivations Carr and Cohen (2009) They remark several motivations for families to travel with their dog:…”

A multilevel analysis of the effects of wine destination attributes on travel constraints and revisit intention

“…The constraints' concept has been successfully replicated when applied to various travel and tourism settings including mountain-hiking activities (Fredman and Heberlein, 2005) and nature-based tourism (Huybers and Bennett, 2003). Despite being the subject of recent tourism research, its focus has been limited to the identification of travel constraints applied to different tourism contexts such as cruise tourism (Hung and Petrick, 2010), senior tourists (Fleishcer and Pizam, 2002) and taking pets on trips (Chen et al, 2013). Tourism research has also used destination attributes for identifying critical determinants (i.e.…”

Holidays with my horse: Human-horse relationships and multispecies tourism experiences

“…Most of the research in the small field of nonhuman travel focuses on understanding constraints to travel, or the service adaptations that might be required to accommodate different beings (Chen, Peng & Hung, 2014;Ivanov & Webster, 2017). This provides important information, but little insight on why interspecies travelling is important to the human partner and the meanings attached to these activities.…”