The chapter includes:

• The importance of expectations.

• The relationship between expectations and satisfaction.

• Gap analysis between expectation and performance.

• The gaps that explain expectation and performance gaps.

Introduction

Hoorens defines expectation as a ‘ belief about events or behaviors that will occur ’ or that will be revealed in the future’ (Hoorens, 2012: 142). Expectation is an attitude and thus comprises three dimensions, namely the cognitive, emotive and conative. The cognitive is what we believe to be factually true and thus, according to Hoorens, would appear to lie at the core of expectation, but in tourism studies, researchers often go beyond that to consider the inference or implications of belief. The emotive represents how we react to the believed truth. Do we perceive it to be a positive or negative influence, and also in part, how important do we believe it to be to us as individuals, and to those we hold dear? Valence theory in chemistry is about the nature of bonding in coordination compounds. Similarly in social science studies expectancy-valence theories are about an aggregation of expectancy and the emotional response to expectancy that strengthens a potential behaviour or valence.

The theory is associated with Vroom’s (1964) framework of analysis and can be represented as Valence = Cognition × Emotion. This is, however, an overly simple representation of Vroom’s original work, and tourism scholars have long recognised this when applying the concept to destination images. Thus Kaye Chon (1989, 1990), using the earlier work of Clawson and Knetch (1966) and Gunn (1989), highlighted the stage of anticipation when applying the concept of expectations derived from images of a destination that were held by a potential visitor. It might be said that the Valence = Expectation × Anticipation × Emotion.