Objectives of the MTSI
To provide a service that regularly monitors and informs the general public in Macao about the state of visitors’ satisfaction with the different sectors comprising the tourism and hospitality industry in Macao.
To provide satisfaction level information that will be useful for management of various operating organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry in Macao as well as for tourism policy planners and decision makers.
To provide a means for determining factors relevant to influencing the level of visitors’ satisfaction among the different sectors of the tourism industry, with the long term goal of making the industry more competitive, and to establish a regular assessment mechanism or “barometer” to gauge the influence of these factors.
Methodology
The Macao Tourist Satisfaction Index (MTSI) is designed to represent Macao visitors’ satisfaction based on their experience with 10 tourism-related sectors or services that includes (a) casinos, (b) events, (c) heritage attractions, (d) hotels, (e) immigration services, (f) non-heritage attractions, (g) F&B services, (h) retail shops, (i) tour guides/operators, and (j) transportation services. Data are collected at each quarter of the year beginning from the third quarter of 2009. In 2018, approximately 50 interviews are conducted per quarter for each sector which is equivalent to about 200 interviews per year per sector. Respondents are selected and interviewed based on a systematic sampling technique. Interviews are conducted at major sites and terminals including the Border Gate, ferry terminals, the A-Ma Temple, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Senado Square and Rua do Cunha at Taipa.
The instrument used in the MTSI study is adopted from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) model based on Fornell et al. (1996). Tourist satisfaction (TS) for each sector is assessed as a latent variable with three indicators, namely: (1) confirmation of expectations, (2) comparison with the ideal and (3) overall satisfaction. Each indicator is measured by an 11-point scale ranging from 0 to 10. The weight of each of the sector TS indicator is estimated based on structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimator. The estimated weights are used to construct the sector TSI value which is transformed to a 0- to 100-point scale: The higher the index, the more satisfied the tourists for the corresponding sector. The Overall MTSI is an average of the ten sector TSIs.
Figure 1: General Model for Macao overall TSI
