Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Generally speaking, models of tourist decision-making should consider that decisions are
dynamic and risky, constrained by the individual and social contexts of tourists, from which
emotional and cognitive factors play a role in the fi nal choice. It is under this plethora of factors
and assumptions that the tourist decision-making arises, thus producers should act within a
competitive environment with coordinated strategies to be able to manipulate tourist fl ows.
Marketing implications
In light of the results of the several authors outlined in this chapter, a number of important
fi ndings should be weighed to feed marketing strategies.
First, informative marketing strategies should comprise emotional and cognitive features in
order to stimulate an appetite to visit the announced destination. Retention and fi delization,
however, rely on the destination attribute's quality. Second, clustering the market through social
and demographic characteristics is the fi rst step to derive a tailor-made marketing strategy.
Hence, the role of peer groups and the family life cycle would contribute to understanding the
target market. Next, understanding the length of the tourist's learning process is critical to defi n-
ing marketing information campaigns. The more involved the tourists are, the more precise and
clear should be the information about the destination. A stepwise decision is expected; as such,
destination information should be interrelated with activities, transports, shops, accommodation
and areas to visit. As it is not expected that this set of decisions occurs simultaneously, providing
dynamic systems of information before, during and after the visit is advisable.
Since tourists do not always decide on all facets simultaneously, it is important to understand
how tourists' choices of different aspects of their travel decisions are distributed over time.
Different timing for choices would infl uence the decision; thus, it would be critical to implement
more effectively strategic policy and management actions and/or marketing and communications
strategies. For example, if tourists decide on their geographical destinations before they decide
on their accommodation, information or pricing strategies regarding hotel facilities could be
implemented more effectively once market communications on countries and regions were
previously implemented. In the same vein, temporal sequence and direction of the infl uence
on a tourist's choice of vacation elements should be depicted. For example, once a choice
of destination is made, this will constrain choices of places of accommodation, which in turn
may constrain choices of places at which to dine. Categorizing destinations within the
consideration sets of tourists will help the competitive positioning that the destination marketers
are trying to achieve.
References
Abelson, R.P. and Levi, A. (1985) 'Decision making and decision theory', in G. Lindzey and E. Aronson (eds)
The Handbook of Social Psychology
, 3rd edn, Vol. 1. New York: Random House, pp. 231-309.
Balcombe, K., Fraser, I. and Harris, L. (2009) 'Consumer willingness to pay for in-fl ight service and comfort
levels: a choice experiment',
Journal of Air Transport Management
, 5: 21-30.
Batsel, R.R. and Louviere, J.J. (1991) 'Experimental choice analysis',
Marketing Letters
, 2: 199-214.
Ben-Akiva, M. and Boccara, B. (1995) 'Discrete choice models with latent choice sets',
International Journal
of Research in Marketing
, 12(1): 9-24.
Bernoulli, D. (1954) 'Exposition of a new theory on the measurement of risk',
Econometrica
, 22(1):
22-36.
Bettman, J.R. and
Park, C.W. (1980) 'Effects of prior knowledge and experience and phase of the choice
process on consumer decision processes',
Journal of Consumer Research
, 7: 234-48.
Blazey, M. (1987) 'The differences between participants and non-participants in a senior travel program',
Journal of Travel Research
, 26(1): 7-12.
