Doorbusters beyond the mall: Black Friday effects on tourism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shopping holidays are worldwide phenomena that have gained momentum in marketing and management studies; however, there is a lack of research in the tourism academia. The current study aims to contribute by proposing a generalisable theoretical framework that synthesises consumer behaviour during time-limited discounts. The analysis specifically focuses on Black Friday and its effect on hotels’ booking patterns. We use a dataset of more than four million bookings to offer the first empirical evidence of: (i) the overall effect of the BF on the volume of received bookings; (ii) the existence of temporal consumption displacement in the weeks around the event. Based on our findings we elaborate on the potential profitability and companies’ motivation to participate in time-limited discounts.