Tourism Consumers Research Articles

The Rise of Individual Mass Tourist and Explorer: Study of Tourist Typology and Motivation for Travel

Different types of tourists require a diverse demand. Moving from a descriptive explanation, this study offers a further investigative dialog to understand a tourism destination impacts as well as tourist requirements particularly from Gen- Z as the future tourism consumer and succeeding demographic cohort of millennials. The aim is to recognize Indonesian Gen-Z tourist’s behavior and to some extent their motivation to travel for holiday. This study employs a qualitative research methodology which utilize 5W1H questioning technique and Keywords-in-Context (KWIC) method for data collection and analysis through the pioneer study of tourist typology by Cohen’s (Cohen, 1974) as tourism anthropologist. The current study rouses the tourist’s distinctions as an important aspect when planning for tourism destination management since ‘individual mass tourist’ and ‘explorer’ including ‘drifter’ are likely to look for inter-cultural contact with a host comparing to ‘organized mass tourist’ group. This research enhances anthropology of tourism literature, methodology and the route for establishing and maintaining tourism development at destination from the relationship of guest (tourist) and host (destination) perspectives.

Transport accessibility assessment of rural tourism facilities

The paper presents the results of theoretical understanding of the transport accessibility of rural tourism facilities and an empirical study of the opinions of rural tourism consumers. On the basis of a brief review of scientific publications on the development of various types of rural tourism and the impact of transport accessibility of tourist facilities on them the relevance and significance of the research is determined. The factors that influence the choice of tourist products are formulated. Estimated judgments of survey participants are analysed and latent variables and the role of quality of transport infrastructure in the choice of tourist products are established on the basis of a statistical procedure of factor analysis. The data obtained constitute an important input for transport accessibility of rural tourism facilities and infrastructure decision-making in regions with a large share of rural areas.

관광상품 선택과부하 상황의 관광소비자 휴리스틱에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to find out whether tourism consumers who experience difficulty in choosing among overflowing options employ heuristics for more efficient decision-making when choosing tourism products and whether the heuristics in use have any impact on behavioral intention. A online survey was administered in order to meet the study

How to Change Customer Mind – The Difference Between Brand and Trademark in Tourism Industry

The contemporary tourism industry is developing in an extremely dynamic environment, influenced by a global pandemic, hyper-competition, globalization and implementation of digital technologies. This heterogeneous in nature, but extremely structuring factor, motivates marketers to find new concepts, methods and models, through which to attract the attention of tourism consumers. Tourism companies face two significant challenges – how to understand customers’ needs and how to differentiate themselves from other tourism market competitors. The answer to these questions is in the understanding of the fundamental difference between the functioning and perception of a tourism company as a brand or as a trademark.

The importance of preserving destination space and local identity in the context of sustainable development in tourism

Abstract A sustainable tourist destination and its content are becoming targets of growing tourism of specific interests. Visits to art or sports events are increasingly part of shorter vacations during weekends or holidays. At the same time, on the global tourist market, the interest of tourism consumers in tangible and intangible cultural heritage is growing, as well as the interest in rural tourism in a peaceful rural environment with traditional values. Interest in ancient culture is the focus of interest of modern consumers, as well as cycling, hunting, green - eco tourism, cruise travel, travel for health - Medical Spa, food and drink tourism, and especially wine tourism. Tourism is a changing, dynamic activity that adapts to increasingly demanding and sophisticated tourism consumers who have changed in the last ten years with a different way of life, pace, style and standard, working hours and the fact that they no longer go on vacation once a year. The aim of this work is to point out the importance of protecting the destination area and preserving local identity.

Factors affecting short-term rental first price: A revenue management model

The aim of this paper is to conduct a revenue management study, generating a theoretical model that establishes the relationship between the factors of a Short-Term Rental apartment offered on the Airbnb marketplace or similar and its optimal rental price set when the property is first put on the market, considering not only the characteristics defined in the platform listing but also the sociodemographic characteristics of the area in which the apartment is located. The research process was structured in six phases as case study for the technology transfer model. First, research planning was conducted to estimate the time, cost, and suitability of the research topic. Second, the study design was determined to establish a technology transfer model focusing on the theory of mixed revenue management. Third, data collection about the city of Madrid was extracted from two technological databases, namely SeeTransparent based mainly on Airbnb (28 internal characteristics of the apartment) and Deskmind Research (9 sociodemographic variables of the area in which the apartment is located). Fourth, the data were prepared to create a new descriptive variable of the apartments based on geolocation. Fifth, the analysis of this study was applied to explore the correlation between the price charged per night, the 28 internal characteristics of the apartments, and the 9 sociodemographic variables of their surrounding areas. Sixth, with this integrated database, the information was transformed into multivariate inferential statistics through Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression, creating a technology transfer model (big data algorithm) that allows revenue managers to set the price of an apartment based on known information, prior to having a history of market reactions. This research process and model consider some of the factors affecting the psychological behavior of tourism consumers. Practical implications of the findings indicate that the size/capacity of the apartments used for Short-Term rentals largely determines the initial rental price set (72%). The equipment offered by the apartments has a moderate impact (18%), and the sociodemographic characteristics of the surrounding area have a minor influence (11%).

Exploring the effect of the knowledge redundancy of online reviews on tourism consumer purchase behaviour: based on the knowledge network perspective

ABSTRACT Online reviews often contain considerable information redundancy. Understanding how to mine and identify valuable information is an important research topic. Based on knowledge-based theory and social network theory, this study discusses the impact of knowledge redundancy in online travel reviews on consumer purchase behaviour from the perspective of knowledge networks. By crawling 943,516 online reviews of 609 tourism products from Trip and Tuniu, we conduct an empirical analysis of the relationships among knowledge redundancy, knowledge diversity and consumer purchase behaviour. The results show that there is a U-shaped relationship between knowledge redundancy in online tourism reviews and consumer purchase behaviour, and knowledge diversity plays an intermediary role in the relationship between knowledge redundancy and consumer purchase behaviour. The results provide valuable and timely insights for the development of the online tourism industry.

COVID-19-based threat vs coping appraisal: effect of psychological risk on customer engagement and behavioral intentions

PurposeDrawing upon protection motivation theory and service-dominant-logic, the authors develop a model, which examines the influence of perceived psychological risk and social media involvement (SMI) on customer-brand-engagement (CBE), brand co-creation and behavioral intention during COVID-19 outbreak in the tourism context. The current research also explores the mediating effect of CBE, and moderating role of tourism-based threat/coping appraisal in the proposed associations.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate such issues, the authors deploy a sample of 320 tourism consumers by adopting partial least squares-structural equation modeling or (PLS-SEM).FindingsPLS-SEM findings revealed that SMI positively impacts tourism-CBE. Secondly, results revealed the customer brand engagement's significant-positive effect on brand co-creation and behavioral intent. Third, results showed the social media's and psychological risk's indirect impact on co-creation and behavioral intent, as mediated through customer brand engagement. Fourth, results exposed a significant/negative moderating effect of threat appraisal and significant/positive moderating role of coping appraisal in projected relationships.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the study's focus on pandemic-based SMI, CBE and co-creation, the authors contribute to the existing tourism marketing literature, which also generates plentiful avenues for further research, as delineated.Practical implicationsThis research facilitates tourism brand managers to better understand the drivers of CBE and paves the way for managers to develop CBE and threat/coping strategies during pandemic.Originality/valueDespite the increasing understanding of social media, CBE and co-creation in tourism, limited remains identified regarding the association of these, and associated, factors during pandemic, as thereby explored in the current research.

현대 문화소비와 생활 관광 고찰

The purpose of this study is to discuss the generalization of the concept of life tourism due to the change in the pattern of modern cultural consumption and the expansion of the tourism base. Modern society can be said to be an era in which citizens can experience tourism in their daily life through diverse cultural life. Citizens are carrying out various factors that they could experience tourism through various performances, arts, and cultural activities in their daily life. Modern citizens are no longer limited to tourism consumers through life tourism, but are also tourism providers. In other words, citizens can be said to be prosumers, a combination of producer and consumer of tourism. In the flow of life tourism, citizens enjoy tourism in their daily life and participate voluntarily. This change in the concept of tourism is providing an opportunity to transform the tourism consumption pattern of tourism consumers into the form of life tourism. In conclusion, life tourism refers to the expansion of various consumption areas in daily life to fulfill the cultural needs of citizens. The implication of this study is that it embodies life tourism, which is expressed through various performing arts and cultural activities conducted in daily life.

Decoding the hummus trail of India: regaining the lost prudence

ABSTRACT The paper explores the menace of drug tourism on the hummus trail of India. The study unfolds Israeli tourists’ socio-psychological background, motivations for escape and transformation, and drug use behaviour in India. A qualitative research design was applied to understand travel experiences. The finding highlights three significant themes supported by textual descriptions of narratives produced as evidence. Schmoll’s tourism consumer choice model was used to understand the travel decision-making process. The study proposes curating spiritual experiences through tourism for people’s mental health and well-being by replacing drug abuse on the hummus trail of India.

Recreation Matters: Estimating Millennials’ Preferences for Native American Cultural Tourism

Millennials (persons born between 1981 and 1996) comprise a substantial and growing proportion of tourism consumers in the US. Rural economies, especially Native American communities, focused on casino revenue are faced with the challenge of sustainable economic growth in a millennial-dominant, post-COVID-19 pandemic economy. We estimate millennials’ willingness to pay for proposed cultural tourism scenarios using a discrete choice experiment on federally recognized tribal land in Arizona, US. We find strong preferences among millennials for guided recreational experiences, including horseback riding, hot spring visits, hiking, and cooking classes. With a changing demographic of potential visitors and a marked need to incorporate indigenous voices for the future of sustainable tourism, our results provide insight for future economic growth opportunities in cultural and natural resource tourism for Native American and rural communities.

A Behavioral Approach to the Tourism Consumer Decisions of Generation Z

The main objective of our research is to identify the impact of recycling and waste reduction behavior on the sustainable tourism decisions of Romanian youngsters (18–25 years old). We used the PLS-SEM method and introduced four variables in the model: sustainable tourism decisions, the interest in recycling, the interest in waste reduction, and the interest in natural and less polluted touristic destinations. The main results emphasize the direct influence of recycling and waste reduction behaviors on the decisions made by Generation Z regarding sustainable tourism and on their preference for destinations that are better preserved and less touched by human intervention. The novelty of our research consists of the fact that we introduced variables such as waste reduction from the perspective of tourists because most studies address it as a management approach of the companies in the tourism sector. The findings are useful for managers in the tourism sector to create better strategies for attracting the younger generation who are preoccupied by environmental issues and sustainability in general.

Consumers' Use of Smartphone Technology for Travel and Tourism in a COVID Era

Mobile phone technology has become a necessary component for today's travellers. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have substantially affected tourism and hospitality consumers over the past two decades. Mobile technologies such as smartphones, tablets, and mobile applications have become travellers' primary access to information. This study focuses on mobile technologies such as smartphones and mobile applications (apps) and consumers' use of mobile technology when travelling. A scoping review following PRISMA guidelines was used to answer the research question; "How do tourism consumers use mobile technologies for travel and tourism during the COVID era?" This study will identify and analyse any relationships, patterns, trends, and gaps in the literature. Peer-reviewed journal articles from the COVID era (2020 to 2022) were included in this study. Articles were sourced using the keywords listed below. The full articles were imported into NVivo, and the main themes and subthemes were extracted from the data and reported using an inductive qualitative thematic analysis. The results from this study identified "food" as the main theme and "food delivery" as the most frequent subtheme. Food, tourism, transportation, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), Hotel Operations, and Shopping were the top 6 themes. The 4IR is changing how smartphone consumers use their devices for travel and tourism. In the COVID Era, Smartphone technology has been recognised as a solution to maintaining safe distancing and contactless transactions. This research will benefit tourism operators and policymakers to remain competitive in an ever-changing environment during the COVID era

Tourism Consumer Demand Forecasting under the Background of Big Data

In recent years, the tourism industry has grown rapidly around the world as an emerging force, especially in China, which has become the world’s leading tourism country in recent years, and its tourism revenue also occupies a good weight in the country’s total income. The number of tourists every year shows a very high growth rate, which not only improves the tourism economy but also brings great pressure to the management of various tourist attractions. In this context, many tourist attractions are actively developing innovative applications of new technologies, hoping to effectively improve their management efficiency. In these experiments, the speech big data analysis technology has achieved remarkable achievements, so it is necessary to combine the speech big data analysis technology with the demand analysis of the tourism industry. The purpose of this paper is to study the effective model of tourism consumer demand prediction using big data analysis. In the process of completing this paper, we consulted a large number of research results of big data analysis technology, tourism-related books, and demand prediction models in HowNet, VIP, and other network databases as well as campus libraries, summarized the related concepts of tourism, and used big data analysis technology to predict the demand of tourism consumers. Understand the needs of tourism consumers on major tourism websites, and extract the indicators that will affect the forecast results of consumer demand, establish a demand forecast model based on the indicators, and analyze its forecast effects through comparative analysis to understand its advantages and disadvantages, in order to establish a tourism demand forecast models providing actionable advice. Through the practical application case of the demand forecasting model, this paper puts forward the development strategy of tourism. The experimental results show that the mean square error of the neural network model is less than 2.5, which is more suitable for predicting the number of tourists, indicating that different models are suitable for predicting different indicators. The main contribution of this research lies in the modeling and analysis of regional tourism characteristics and tourists’ willingness, so as to achieve accurate prediction of tourists in scenic spots and formulate targeted plans.

Study on Tourism Consumer Behavior and Countermeasures Based on Big Data.

In our study, through consulting, summarizing, and analyzing a large number of related literature studies on tourism consumer behavior, tourism big data, text data analysis, and so on, a framework of research ideas on tourism consumption was constructed. The train browser, NLPIR, and other software packages are used to crawl, preprocess, and mine the travel sample data, and the word frequency analysis, co-occurrence analysis, content analysis, sentiment analysis, network analysis, and other methods are used to analyze the characteristics and decision-making behavior of tourists. Based on the results of behavioral analysis, we proposed tourism development strategies from three aspects: reforming and promoting tourism marketing strategies, improving tourism product and service quality, and improving tourism destination management methods. The results show that (1) for the tourist characteristics, taking into account the factors of climate and geographical location, the domestic market is divided into four grades of markets, and different marketing strategies are adopted according to different market characteristics; (2) for the tourism decision-making behavior, a “push-pull resistance” tourism decision-making model was established through word frequency analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and content analysis; (3) for the tourism consumption preferences, through network analysis of scenic spots, it is found that there are three tourist routes preferred by tourists; and (4) for the tourism perception evaluation behavior, based on the “cognitive-emotional” model, this study describes the tourism image from the two dimensions of the cognitive image and emotional image. Generally speaking, tourists show a positive perception state. The research on tourism consumer behavior based on UGC (user-generated content) data can help scenic spots and other tourism companies to understand the characteristics and rules of tourists' behavior, understand the consumption preferences of different tourism groups, develop diversified tourism products, improve the quality of tourism services, and further cater to market segments. This research provides a new idea for tourist attractions and tourism management departments to monitor tourist behavior through big data analysis.

Descriptive Analysis of Sports Tourists in Spain

Sports tourism is a decisive factor in geographical mobility for leisure purposes. These activities entail certain acts and consequences inherent in their execution, which are worthy of study from the perspective of sustainable and reasonable tourism. Previous studies tried to show the characteristics of this type of tourist but did not provide relevant information to offer the necessary services to provide, to understand their patterns of habits, and to be able to act correctly. This paper aims to study the profile of the sports tourism consumer. Data provided by the National Institute of Statistics for the year 2019 was analyzed, taking a sample of 1496 people for statistical analysis. From these statistical analyses, key information on consumer profiles can be gleaned. Findings showed that people with Spanish nationality predominate, being mainly men. Both sexes show that they are over 40 years of age, with higher education, mostly married, cohabitation with a partner with children at home, with permanent employment contracts and certain patterns of behavior such as the use of their private car, and staying mainly in hotels or aparthotels. Therefore, from the point of view of sustainable tourism, it is vital to draw up profiles and patterns of consumers of this tourism, to evaluate and study its ecological, environmental, and social impact, as well as taking the appropriate measures to balance the balance between sports tourism and sustainability.

Gen-Z's consumption behaviours in post-pandemic tourism sector

Tourism is a dynamic system, and it has grown to a modern form from a conventional form in time. Many alternative products have emerged in the sector and the profile of tourism consumers has also changed in line with the change in the sector. In time, marketers have started to adopt a generational marketing approach more than an age-based marketing approach. This study examined the decision-making processes Generation Z used when deciding on a travel product, comparing their behaviours with those of Generation X and Y as the former generations of Gen Z, based on the stages of Cohen's (1972) Theory of Tourist Behavior; “initiation”, “information search”, “assessment”, “final decision”, “during travel” and “post-travel”. For this purpose, two research questions were developed exploring the consumption behaviors of Generation Z and comparing the findings of Gen Z with those of Gen X and Y. The quantitative method was used to collect the research data and an online survey was adapted from Husein et.al (2017) and administered to Gen X, Y and Z in Turkey through the convenience sampling method. 2084 participants completed the delivered survey (N for Gen X= 723, N for Y= 710 and N for Gen Z=651). Frequency analysis was performed on the data and the findings were interpreted accordingly. It was found that Gen Z differed from both Gen X and Gen Y in the examined parameters revealing a transformation from traditional tourist behaviour to modern tourist behaviour and relevant conclusions such as multi-generational marketing were drawn for more effective marketing of tourism products in the post-pandemic period.

Behavior of Sports Tourism Consumers Based on Cloud Computing and Mobile Big Data

With the rise of the sports tourism industry, the group of sports tourism consumers is also growing. The study of the behavior of sports tourism consumers has therefore become a popular topic. This paper firstly organizes and analyzes the research results of scholars, finds out the deficiencies, and finds out the methods suitable for this research. On this basis, this research is practiced, and the methods found are successfully improved to add personal innovation points. Then, the definition and characteristics of cloud computing and mobile big data are elaborated. Next, this paper selects some consumers and their consumption behaviors participating in X city’s sports tourism town, golf sports tourism, skiing sports tourism, and outdoor sports tourism projects as the research objects and conducts investigation and research by means of questionnaires and interviews. At the same time, the managers and operators of some sports tourism scenic spots are selected as the research objects, and the investigation and research are carried out through the interview method, which provides a realistic basis for the study of consumer behavior. According to the survey, the proportion of sports tourism consumers who choose to travel in summer is as high as 90.10%.

A systematic review of empirical studies of pro-environmental behavior in hospitality and tourism contexts

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to gain a holistic view of pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among hospitality and tourism consumers through a systematic review of empirical studies. Based on this comprehensive review, this study demonstrates how the literature has been created and has evolved over time, thereby providing proposals for future research agendas.Design/methodology/approachThe preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses method was used as a rigorous searching method to provide an updated picture of the research on the PEBs of consumers in hospitality and tourism contexts. A total of 234 empirical studies from both hospitality and nonhospitality publications were selected for the review.FindingsThe results reveal a growing interest in PEB in the hospitality and tourism context. Focal points, theories and research designs used to explain PEB among hospitality and tourism consumers were identified. In addition, the findings from the cross-tabulation analyses have provided valuable insights for tourism and hospitality research in this area.Research limitations/implicationsBased on the research findings, this study makes significant contributions to the literature by providing theoretical and practical implications with detailed directions for future researchers and practitioners.Originality/valueThis study offers one of the first reviews to comprehensively and systematically analyze the empirical research into PEBs among hospitality and tourism consumers. PEB has received significant attention from researchers, practitioners and those policymakers concerned with the sustainability of environments. The findings of this research provide a comprehensive overview of the literature relating to hospitality and tourism through the identification of gaps that require further investigation. Future suggestions to assist practitioners and policymakers in eliciting PEBs are also discussed.

Wellness tourism from consumers’ perspective – An exploratory analysis

This paper summarizes the perspectives of health and wellness tourism consumers, to better understand the factors that influence this tourism product. A quantitative approach was adopted to collect primary data through the application of an online survey to effective and potential health and wellness tourism consumers between January and April 2021. Results show that growing number of consumers tend to value health and wellness tourism as a holistic experience, in which not only products specifically related to health and wellness treatments are of particular importance, but also activities related to leisure, recreation and culture. This paper provides a basis of research and analysis for global wellness and tourism industry stakeholders. The aim is to help the industry understand consumer behaviour and preferences in the traveller’s process of choosing a destination for a wellness vacation. This is achieved by predicting wellness tourism trends and developments, by acknowledging the gaps in the research available for understanding wellness tourism and reflecting the experience economy perspective in the sector.