Dynamic pricing decisions by potential tourists under uncertainty: The effects of tourism advertising

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the advertising information learning processes of potential tourists and observe how potential tourists sequentially adjust their perceived reference prices and purchase intentions with different risk preferences and choices with respect to gains (the current price is lower than the consumer’s reference price) or losses (the current price is higher than the reference price). In this study, a Bayesian experiment was conducted to elicit reference prices in the presence of tourism advertising with uncertain information. The findings show that with respect to gains, risk avoiders do not reduce their reference prices as significantly as do risk seekers when exposed to price-informative advertising. Exposure to image advertising changes potential tourists’ risk preferences, and the reference price drops more significantly for risk avoiders than for risk seekers. With respect to losses, informative and image advertising impact the reference price for participants with different risk preferences but not at a statistically significant level.