Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Furthermore, contemporary tourists can change the type of products consumed regularly. For
instance, a family might book a two-week cultural trip in Malaysia but later on in the year will
purchase a cheaper summer sun holiday based in a resort. This paradoxical behaviour can add to
the complexity of tourism marketing and management, making tourism segments more
amorphous perhaps, and highlighting the importance of building longer relationships between
travel fi rms and customers, based on customer value cycles.
A
new tourist
who is emotionally and hedonically engaged
Today's tourists are in search of experiences that dazzle their senses, engage them personally,
touch their hearts and stimulate their minds (Schmitt 1999), whilst indulging in fantasies, feelings
and fun (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982). Consumer experiences are subjective, personal,
constructed over time, and involve multiple sensations and meanings. Therefore, for the
new
tourist
, hedonism and emotion are at the heart of his/her consumption and tourism experiences.
Hedonism is considered as a source of happiness and refl ects different dimensions such as:
playfulness, enjoyment and fun. In the recent works in the human science disciplines, academic
consideration of the measuring and understanding human happiness has been the focus of
various consumer and tourism studies (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982; Nicolao, Irwin and
Goodman 2009; Nawijn
et al
. 2010; McCabe and Johnson 2013). Whereas some authors argue
that absolute wealth and consumption level are important determinants of happiness, others hold
the view that happiness depends primarily on wealth and consumption level relative to others
(Hsee, Yangjie and Chen 2009). However, there is no doubt that people often use consumption
experiences and purchase products to make themselves feel better or to reassure themselves of
their identity. This shows that emotion and symbolic consumption are an integral part of today's
consumer and tourist experiences. Gilbert and Abddullah (2004) demonstrated that tourists
experience a higher sense of well-being before and after a holiday. In their study conducted in
2009 among 1,530 Dutch vacationers, Nawijn and colleagues (2010) examined the difference
between vacationers and non-vacationers and the association between vacation and happiness
before and after a holiday trip. The conclusions of their work show that vacationers demonstrated
a higher degree of pre-trip happiness, compared to non-vacationers. Memories of holidays have
also been shown to contribute to individuals' happiness through reminiscent memories (Morgan
and Xu 2009) and affect different life domains such as family and social lives (Sirgy, Phillips and
Rahtz 2011).
A
new tourist
who is competent and empowered
The
new tourist
is also a competent consumer because (s)he engages knowledge and skills actively
to shape and determine the outcomes of their tourism experiences. This presupposes that (s)he
knows how to select, organize, combine and use this set of knowledge within an environment
that presents constraints and resources. The competent tourist is the one who, having constructed
knowledge and competencies through his own experiences in a specifi c area such as tourism, is
able to use them in other situations of consumption to satisfy his needs. The competent tourist
thus combines knowledge, know-how and social skills that are essential to make choices and
value judgments. Denegri-Knott, Zwick and Schroeder (2006) utilize the concept of the
consumer/tourist empowerment to underline the ability of consumers to control choices and
understand the power they hold in their relationships with travel companies. Furthermore, the
consumers use the knowledge, skills and power to inform other consumers about issues they feel
are important through social media.
