Table 1.
Measurement of perceived crowding.
| Authors | Study setting | Measurement scales | Dependent variable(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heberlein and Vaske (1977); Vaske and Shelby (2008) | Outdoor recreation (river) | A nine-point scale; 1=not at all crowded; 9=extremely crowded | Overall satisfaction |
|
Harrell, Hutt, and Anderson (1980). Machleit et al. (1994); |
Retail industry | A videotape and written scenario were used to simulate a shopping episode, as well as field data collection. 7-point semantic differential scale: Too many visitors-Few visitors; Restricts movement-Allows free movement; Can move at my own pace-Must move at the pace set by others; Crowded-Uncrowded; Gives an open feeling-Gives a close feeling; Confined-Spacious |
Level of satisfaction |
| Doorne (2000) | Waitomo Caves, New Zealand | Nine-point crowding scale: 1–2=Not at all crowded, 3–5=Slightly crowded, 6–7=Moderately crowded, 8–9=Extremely crowded | Overall satisfaction |
| Morgan and Lok (2000) | Hanging Rock, Victoria, Australia | Nine-point crowding scale: 1–2=Not at all crowded, 3–5=Slightly crowded, 6–7=Moderately crowded, 8–9=Extremely crowded Use-levels (low, medium, high) determined by the number of vehicles arriving at the attraction |
N/A |
| Manning et al. (2002) | Alcatraz Island | Acceptability of photographs by using a 9-point scale across the range very acceptable (+4) to very unacceptable (−4) Computer simulation of visitor use |
|
| Arnberger and Haider (2007) | Municipal forest | Seven-point scale; 1=Severely under crowded, 2=Under crowded, 3=Slightly under crowded, 4=Appropriate use levels, 5=Slightly crowded, 6=Crowded, 7=Overcrowded Counts by video monitoring |
N/A |
| Ryan et al. (2010) | Janfusan Fancyworld Theme Park, Taiwan | Seven-point scale on motives and attributes of the theme park | Levels of importance and satisfaction |
| Jin and Pearce (2011) | Xi'an, China | Acceptability of visitor photographs on a five-point scale: 1=Half as many as the number of people, 2=Same as shown, 3=Twice as shown, 4=Four times as shown, 5= Eight times as shown |
N/A |
| Neuts and Nijkamp (2012) | City of Bruge, Belgium | Nine-point crowding scale: 1–2=Not at all crowded, 3–5=Slightly crowded, 6–7=Moderately crowded, 8–9=Extremely crowded Seven other variables like interaction with other, evaluation of crowding perception, preference for use levels |
Crowding perception |
| Burduk et al. (2002) | The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum | Actual, expected and preferred density Expected, preferred, and perceived crowding |
Level of satisfaction |
| Mohd Mahudin, Cox, and Griffiths (2012) | Rail commuters in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia | Scales made with up to four pictorial passenger destiny: Evaluation of psychological aspects of crowded situations, Affective reaction to crowded situations, and evaluation of ambient environment of crowded situations |
Stress, Feeling of exhaustion |
| Gigliotti and Chase (2014) | Outdoor recreation (deer hunting) | A five-point scale; 1=Not enough (hunters); 2= Just Right - Not Crowded, 3= Slightly Crowded, 4=Moderately Crowded, 5= Very Crowded | Overall satisfaction |
| Zehrer and Raich (2016) | Zell Arena Ski resort, Tyrol, Austria | Five-point scale; 1=Too many; 2=Many; 3= Neutral; 4=Not many; 5=few visitors |
Level of satisfaction, coping behavior |
| Shi et al. (2017) | Urban Shanghai, China | An original geotagged data associated with various kinds of contextual information A sentiment analysis technique on social media text containing sentiments, and determining the polarity and strength of that sentiment |
Popularity measured by Photographic attractiveness and the number of visitors |
| Luque-Gil et al. (2018) | Sierra de las Nieves Natural park, Spanish Mediterranean mountains |
Number of persons that visitors met during the visit Degree of perceived crowding 1=scarce; 2=acceptable; 3 =excessive |
Level of satisfaction, motivation to visit the attraction |
| Jacobsen et al. (2019) | Destinations | Five-point Likert scale with the endpoints ‘very crowded’ (1) and ‘not at all crowded’ (5) | Destination appraisal |
| Line and Hanks (2020) | Restaurant industry | Seven-point Likert Scale: “the restaurant was too crowded; the restaurant was busier than I would have liked; there were too many people in the restaurant” | A moderator between customer servicescape and satisfaction |