Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For such a trip, beach access at the destination might be desired but might not be perceived as
being as important as in the case of a typical summer, sun and beach vacation. Also, personal
characteristics can be assumed to infl uence one's need, ability and/or willingness to take certain
criteria into consideration. A low annual household income, for instance, will probably encourage
the adoption of a decision frame that incorporates price as a main criterion. In addition, personal
cognitive styles can greatly infl uence the amount of information sought to support the decision-
making process and especially the number of alternatives considered by the individual
decision-maker (Hunt Krzystofi ak, Meindl and Yousry 1989; Driver Brousseau and Hunsaker
1990). Similarly, decision-making styles will infl uence the timing of the decision, the extent of
planning and specifi c criteria taken into account. For instance, an impulsive style will lead to very
little planning and a small number of decision criteria while brand consciousness results in a
focus on well-established travel product and services brands (Sproles and Kendall 1986). Further,
destination decisions can be taken at different levels in the travel planning hierarchy, that is, one
can select a main destination, a secondary destination, or places within a destination such as
attractions and restaurants (Jeng and Fesenmaier 2002). Given the impact of choosing a main
destination on decisions with respect to lower-level facets of a trip, being in the process of
selecting the main destination of a trip implies that many characteristics of this trip are still
undetermined. In contrast, if the main destination has been chosen and the decision-making
process refers to fi nding one or more secondary destinations, one can assume that many important
characteristics of the trip have already been outlined and that the range of destination alternatives
in the consideration set will be rather limited. At the most specifi c level, destination decisions
involve choosing places to visit at a destination. This latter form of destination decision can be
characterized by a high level of constraint and, consequently, a relatively small number of
alternatives to be considered. Depending on the specifi city of the destination decision, the
amount and type of information taken into account in the decision-making process will vary
(Bloch
et al
. 1986). More specifi c destination decisions require more specifi c information.
If no destination decision has been made, the information sought will be in the general form of
destination alternatives and will often be more image-based than functional. If a main destination
has been selected, the destination decision will focus on secondary destinations in proximity to
the main destination. Such a decision requires image-related information but also more specifi c
details about distances and activity/attraction portfolios to evaluate destination complementarities.
Finally, those decisions that involve selecting places/attractions at a specifi c destination will to a
large extent include detailed and more functional information in the form of opening hours,
prices, admission restrictions, etc.
The changing nature of travel information search
The Internet is now comprised of a huge amount of information reportedly in the range of
hundreds of billions of gigabytes and essentially comprises the 'external memory' for many
people (Sparrow, Liu and Wegner 2011). Tools such as Google and other search engines provide
instant access to this 'ocean' of information at one's fi ngertips and, as a result, individuals
have now become increasingly reliant upon it for everyday life. In travel and tourism, this
unimaginable amount of information has been made available through destination portals
and distribution channels such as global distribution systems (GDSs), online travel agencies
(OTAs) and travel specifi c search engines (e.g. Kayak) for promotional and transaction-related
purposes. Importantly, the exponential growth of social media including websites such as
TripAdvisor and Yelp has changed the dynamics of online communications and, in turn, the
composition of the so-called tourism domain (Xiang and Gretzel 2010). Travel-related
