Tourist worries – Here and now vs. there and then: The effect of item wording in the Tourist Worry Scale

The current investigation is part of a larger study exploring tourist worries and risk judgements. This part of the investigation looks at the effects of item wording in the Tourist Worry Scale, TWS (Larsen, Brun, & Øgaard, 2008). Responses from a tourist sample (n = 215) were used to test different versions of the TWS assessing worries on vacations in general vs. worries on the specific vacation the participant was on. These alternative versions were then compared to the original TWS. Findings show that the original TWS closely resembles the specific-vacation version of the TWS. This is taken to support the notion that the original TWS assesses worries on the specific vacation the participant is on, not worries on vacations in general, and not generalized trait worry.

► We investigated the effects of item wording in the Tourist Worry Scale, TWS, in a tourist sample.
► Different versions of the TWS were used to assess worries on vacations in general vs. on a specific vacation.
► Comparing alternative and original versions found the original TWS to resemble the specific-vacation-TWS.
► Hence the original TWS assesses worries on a specific vacation, not worries on vacations in general, nor trait worry.