Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Two key questions arise from this research. Tourists form their destination images from a wide
range of media sources including fi lms, TV and other visual media (online such as YouTube)
and written media such as books, magazines (eReaders) and so on. We know that these types of
information are important. But we do not know if these types of sources service more hedonic
information requirements. Perhaps, the traditional role of the glossy holiday brochure was to
help tourists fantasize about the outcomes and benefi ts of travel, thus serving more hedonic
information needs. Perhaps video media have replaced these functions, but it is not clear how
different media are used by consumers and how different information provided through different
online or offl ine channels meet consumers' range of needs for information about travel.
Furthermore, information search processing is just one aspect in terms of the various stages
depicted in hierarchical models. Little is known for example in relation to the impact of
marketing communications on post-purchase dissonance and importantly the role played by
social media in the reduction of cognitive dissonance. Additionally, it has been noted that
there has been a growth in the use of outdoor media and communication tools such as
sponsorship. So what role does the use of these tools and media play in the process? Given
the range of media sources used by consumers, perhaps one pertinent area of research which
remains to be explored is that of the integration of marketing communications. This issue
becomes increasingly important with the increasingly widespread use of destination-based
TV programmes and fi lms. However, given the ongoing popularity of holiday programmes and
the rise in 'reality TV' programmes such as 'Holiday Airport', 'Holidays Uncovered' amongst
others, the issue of integrated communications is an important area of research for both
destinations and companies alike.
Gender and socio-demographics
Many previous studies have focused on the sexualised gaze in tourism and the power and
gender-mediated nature of marketing communications in tourism (Cohen 1982; Cohen 1995;
Dann 1996). Morgan and Pritchard have noted that landscapes have been framed from a
feminized and sexualized perceptive (1998, see also Crick 1989) and it has been established
that much tourism marketing privileges the male gaze, often depicting women as submissive,
welcoming and available (Albers and James 1988; Sirakaya and Somnez 2000).Yet Pan and Ryan
(2007) assert that the gendered and sexualized representation of people and landscapes in tourism
promotional materials is also largely determined by the male-dominated advertising industry.
However, there is limited research on the ways in which consumers process information
stimuli. Whilst there have been some studies that have assessed differences in attitude between
the genders towards travel websites and preferences for information search (Kim, Lehto and
Morrison 2007) there has been less attention on the differences in attitudes towards or behav-
ioural or emotional responses to travel information context or visual stimuli. In a rare exception,
Koc (2002) in a study of gender differences in decision making in the context of Turkish travel
agencies found that males tended to make travel decisions based on decision heuristics such as
credibility of the source and attractiveness of the material, whereas females relied more on the
cognitive and affective content of the materials. Pan and Ryan (2007) focused on the differences
in the ways in which men and women journalists frame their news reports. They found that men
and women were different in their selection and emphasis of the less salient or established themes
in soft news items such as travelogues, although the type of news report, the culture of the orga-
nization and market demand are stronger determinants of the content of news features.
Of course salience of the material is also important to information processing, and gender may
be only one source of variance determining how tourism communications are interpreted.
