How much similarity is good? The effect of similarity and crowding on place satisfaction

Abstract

The relationship between perceived similarity, crowdedness and tourists' evaluations of their experience has been largely neglected by research into the destination social servicescape. This study therefore examines this relationship to fill the gap in the literature. Data were collected from 282 tourists in Pamukkale, Turkey. PLS-SEM and fsQCA were combined to identify the symmetric and asymmetric effects of the destination social servicescape. The PLS-SEM results showed that demographic similarity significantly increased place satisfaction, whereas psychographic similarity and perceived crowdedness had no effect. The study also used fsQCA to investigate how crowdedness and similarity predict place satisfaction in combination with income, age, education, and gender. The analysis identified five different models of place satisfaction by combining different demographic factors.