Developing a tourism cultural contact scale

The authors conceptualize ‘interest in the other’ as cultural tourism's focal issue. Using an involvement level taxonomy, this study stratifies cultural tourism and applies McKercher and DuCros (2002) cultural visitor categories to predict tourist activities. This exploratory study includes 250 tourists from 20 nationalities and focuses on visitor interest to engage with Maori culture in New Zealand. The results demonstrate qualitative trustworthiness and quantitative validity. Both Guttman, 1944 and Guttman, 1950 scale qualities and the factor statistics indicate a successful development of a measurement instrument that bridges the emic/etic divide between cultures.