Package Holidays Research Articles

How much would you like to pay? Trust, reciprocity and prosocial motivations in El trato

Prosocial motivations and reciprocity are becoming increasingly important in social-science research. While laboratory experiments have challenged the assumption of universal selfishness, the external validity of these results has not been sufficiently tested in natural settings. In this article we examine the role of prosocial motivations and reciprocity in a Pay What You Want (PWYW) sales strategy, in which consumers voluntarily decide how much to pay for a product or service. This article empirically analyses the only PWYW example in Spain to date: the El trato (‘The deal’) campaign launched by the travel company Atrápalo, which offered different holiday packages under PWYW conditions in July 2009. Our analysis shows that, although the majority of the customers did not behave in a purely self-interested manner, they nonetheless did so in a much higher proportion than observed in similar studies. We present different hypotheses about the mechanisms that may explain these findings. Specifically, we highlight the role of two plausible explanations: the framing of the campaign and the attribution of ‘hidden’ preferences to Atrápalo by its customers, which undermined the interpretation of El trato as a trust game.

Satisfaction With All-Inclusive Tourism Resorts: The Effects of Satisfaction With Destination and Destination Loyalty

Despite the fact that all-inclusive package holidays play a major role in the tourism developments of sun and sea destinations, relatively little research has been done within the hospitality literature to investigate the relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive, destination satisfaction and loyalty to a destination. Moreover, the measurement of satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts, satisfaction with destination, and destination loyalty, in order to understand the generation of tourist satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts. Based the previous theoretical and empirical evidence in the related literature, a questionnaire survey was conducted during summer 2008 at Antalya, a major sun and sea tourism destination of Turkey. The data were analyzed using several statistical techniques. The results suggested that there were significant relationships between satisfaction with all-inclusive resorts, satisfaction with destination and destination loyalty. It is also noteworthy that an all-inclusive package tour is the most popular traveling mode for tourists visiting Antalya.

The Evolution of British Package Holiday Prices in the Balearic Islands, 2000–2008

This paper analyses the evolution of package holiday prices in the Balearics marketed by a sample of British tour operators during 2000–2008. Three alternative price indexes are presented to measure the evolution of the package holiday prices: a fixed-base hedonic, chained hedonic and chained Laspeyres price index. The results demonstrated that the fixed-base hedonic price index underwent a very slight increase during the period, while the chained hedonic price index and chained Laspeyres price index decreased in value. A comparison of these indexes with two competitiveness indicators (the British Consumer Price Index and the British Package Holidays Price Index) shows that the price of package holidays in the Balearic Islands dropped in value in relation to both the British cost of living index and the general package holiday price index for Britons. An elementary tourism demand function was also estimated, using the constructed indexes, suggesting that British demand was not very sensitive to the price of the Balearic package holiday.

The price competitive position of Mediterranean countries in tourism: Evidence from the Thomson brochure

Tourism in the Mediterranean region is highly dependent on the few, large, mass market tour operators situated in the North European tourist originating countries. Price competition is intense both between the tour operators and between the Mediterranean countries themselves. This paper uses the hotel package prices listed in the Thomson summer and winter brochures to develop relative price indexes of each Mediterranean country with respect to the Mediterranean average. Indexes are developed in the 3 star, 4 star, 5 star, 7 nights and 14 nights, half-board holiday packages. The prices in the Thomson brochure can be regarded as a unified, internally consistent, set of price data, compiled by the largest UK tour operator and offered to UK tourists desiring a Thomson summer holiday. The change through time of the competitive relative price ranking of hotels, regions and countries listed in the Thomson brochure, may be regarded as an important competitive indicator by industry operators and national policy makers concerned about tourism development.

Off-season tourists and the cultural offer of a mass-tourism destination: The case of Rimini

This paper assesses the potential implications on off-season tourism of enhancing the cultural offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination hosting about 12 million overnight stays per year. Since more than 9 million of these stays are concentrated in the summer season, in the last 20 years. Rimini has been undergoing a policy of seasonality smoothing, which mainly pivots around business and cultural tourism. This assessment has been carried out through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of about 800 tourists who visited Rimini outside the summer months. Since tourism can be viewed as a composite good, which overall utility depends on how the component characteristics are arranged, the choice experiments allow to disentangle the importance and the willingness to pay of tourists for different attributes of the holiday. The choice model incorporates a number of possible changes to actual tourism features (which are also the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative “holiday packages”. The conditional logit analysis of the choice experiments can highlight any synergy or trade-off between cultural and business tourism. Results suggest that business and leisure tourists share many features related to the use of the territory, while there are important trade-offs between these two groups and cultural tourists. Since business tourists have a higher willingness to extend their stay, a softer budget, and their demand is also complementary to the demand of summer tourists (Brau, Scorcu, & Vici, 2009), from the destination point of view investing in this market segment would be the best option. Although a “second best”, however, cultural tourists share with the local population of Rimini many aspects of the demand of territory (Figini, Castellani, & Vici, 2009). Hence, cultural tourism can play a fundamental role in the intermediate season as a tool for smoothing seasonality, to diversify investments and to give value to the city’s cultural heritage.

Skin disorders among travellers returning from tropical and non‐tropical countries consulting a travel medicine clinic

To evaluate the causes and risks for imported skin disorders among travellers. Data of 34,162 travellers returning from tropical and non-tropical countries and presenting at the outpatient travel medicine clinic of the University of Munich, Germany, between 1999 and 2009 were analyzed for this study. Of these, 12.2% were diagnosed with skin disorders. Main destinations visited were Asia (40%), Africa (27%) and Latin America (21%). Tourism in the form of adventure travel/backpacking (47%) and package holidays (23%) was the most common purpose of travel. The leading causes of skin disorders were arthropodal (23%), bacterial (22%), helminthic (11%), protozoan (6%), viral (6%), allergic (5%) and fungal (4%). The 10 most frequently diagnosed specific skin diseases associated with specific destinations were insect bites (17%, Southern Europe), cutaneous larva migrans (8%, Asia and Latin America), cutaneous leishmaniasis (2.4%, Mediterranean Region/Middle East), dengue fever (1.5%, Asia), rickettsioses (1.3%, Southern Africa), myiasis (0.8%, Central America), filarioses (0.7%, Africa), tick bites (0.6%, Central/Eastern Europe), schistosomiasis (0.6%, Africa) and tungiasis (0.6%, Africa). Travellers in sub-Saharan Africa had the highest relative risk of acquiring skin disorders. As more than 20% of all skin disorders among returned travellers were caused by arthropods and about 50% by infectious pathogens, pre-travel consultations should include specific prophylaxis and consider the most important risk factor for the travel destination.

Choice as an End versus a Means

This article investigates the consequence of the choice process for mental resources and the desire to obtain the selected products. The authors draw a distinction between instrumental choice, which serves preexisting consumption goals, and experiential choice, which serves as its own end. Across four studies, they find that instrumental choice undermines mental resources and experiential choice increases these resources. As a result, although experiential choice is made with no consumption goal in mind, compared with instrumental choice, it increases the desire to obtain the selected product. The authors demonstrate these effects on choice among a variety of consumer products (e.g., vacation packages, novels, flower bouquets).

Introducing Flow Theory to Explain the Interactive Online Shopping Experience in a Travel Context

Online travel commerce has evolved significantly from the initial sales of less-complex products such as airline tickets, accommodations, and car rentals, to include more complex products like vacation packages and cruises. Many online travel portals, however, have fallen behind in terms of creating a compelling online environment for customers. Online shopping behavior is becoming increasingly complex with the evolution of experiential and utilitarian shopping practices. These two types of practices have a significant effect on the formation of a customer's attitude towards a Web site and eventual purchase intention. The proposed model delineates the customer's preference towards a Web site within experiential and utilitarian purchase contexts when flow variables control, cognitive enjoyment, and focus are involved. This article may help online travel businesses identify unique Web features that satisfy the needs of both the experiential and utilitarian customer. Moreover, this model shows that a successful travel site could entice a utilitarian customer to engage in experiential site features that might result in positive attitude formation and consequent future revisits.

Travel Packaging on the Internet

Packaging travel products on the Internet is increasing in prevalence, yet limited research exists on how consumers evaluate and purchase vacation packages online. Research on product bundling is plentiful but has been conducted primarily in non-Internet purchase settings. The current research seeks to fill the void in both areas by investigating consumer choices of Internet vacation packages. In this study, an online panel of research subjects chose between 12 pairs of Las Vegas vacation packages that varied as a function of rate transparency, savings, and price. The findings suggest that transparent pricing, that is, itemization of individual package components and discounts, is preferred if it reduces uncertainty or simplifies the decision process. Nontransparent pricing is more effective if savings are not shown or the price is higher than the alternative, in which case the itemized components complicate the decision process without providing useful information.

Building ‘Flexible’ vacation packages using collaborative assembly toolkits and dynamic packaging: The Case Study of the eKoNES

The paper motivates and presents an approach for assembling innovative information-based products and services by virtual cross-organization communities of practice. Using a case study on assembling vacation packages, we describe the cross-organizational virtual partnership, the mechanics allowing it to operate as a virtual community of practice and how collective intelligence of the members is appropriated to ensemble innovative information-based products for tourists. The results provide useful insights into innovating through virtual networking as well as the ICT tools that may be used to foster value-creating networks of practice in boundary spanning domains.

Estratégias de Marketing e Posicionamento de Marca no Setor Hoteleiro: Um Estudo Exploratório

Devido ao grande incentivo ao turismo no Brasil, quer seja de lazer ou negcios, o ambiente competitivo no setor hoteleiro altamente acirrado. Oferta superior de valor ao cliente e disputas por tarifas reduzidas fazem parte do cotidiano de profissionais que esto diretamente relacionados hotelaria. Desta forma, as estratgias de marketing, pautadas em segmentao de mercado, definio de mercado-alvo e posicionamento, assim como estratgias de marca so de extrema importncia para a diferenciao do servio oferecido pelos hotis. O objetivo central deste estudo investigar a operacionalizao das estratgias de marketing e posicionamento no caso do Hotel Araucria Plaza (categoria cinco estrelas), estabelecido em Ribeiro Preto S.P. Utilizou-se o mtodo de estudo de caso para a elaborao da presente pesquisa (entrevista semi-estruturada em profundidade e anlise documental). Os resultados apontam: (a) O hotel se posiciona estrategicamente como um hotel de luxo na mente dos clientes, procurando oferecer aos mesmos servios e valor superior; (b) A marca est estrategicamente vinculada luxo e sofisticao; (c) O hotel possui um sistema de informao de marketing eficiente; (d) Meios de divulgao (Propaganda): Mdia, Outdoor, Mala direta, E-mail marketing, Convnios com txis, revistas/ manuais das agncias de viagem que vendem os pacotes. DOI: 10.5585/remark.v9i3.2187

Price Transparency of Bundled Vacation Packages

This research evaluated how rate transparency, component bundling, price, and savings of vacation packages influence online purchase decisions. Subjects chose between 12 pairs of Cancun vacation packages, one transparent (individual component pricing displayed) and one opaque (total package price only). The price and savings of the packages were systematically varied in a within-subjects design using a simulated online booking questionnaire. Price was the strongest determinant of choice, but transparent pricing increased favorable impressions of fairness and value. Transparent pricing was most effective when the pricing was different from an opaque alternative, enhancing the impact of a lower price and mitigating the impact of a higher price. There appears to be minimal benefit to transparent pricing if it is the same as an opaque alternative, and it can be detrimental if the savings is not revealed. Online travel providers can use the results to enhance their pricing strategies through the display of information.

Relationship between Stages of Consumer Behaviour Model: A Study on Turkish Tourists

Goal and objectives of the dissertationGoalThe main goal of the research is to analyze the relationship between the five specific stages of the consumer behaviour model. In this model, motivational factors (push factors and pull factors) represent the external variables and information search, evaluation of the alternatives, purchasing (holiday experience), and post-purchasing behaviour (intentions) represent internal variables.ObjectivesThe main objective of this dissertation is to understand the theoretical framework analysing the relationship between internal and external variables and also between internal variables.MethodologyBecause the literature on consumer behaviour is complex, the scale of each stage is proposed by different models. With five main parts, the questionnaire has 62 items to measure the respondents' attitudes. These parts have been developed through the overview of various sources in the literature, namely motivation factors (Baloðlu & Uysal 1996; Kim & Lee 2002; Yoon & Uysal 2005, information search (Gursoy & Chen 2000; Gursoy & McCleary 2004; Gursoy & Umbreit 2004), evaluation of alternatives (Kozak & Coþar (2009), purchasing and post purchasing (Chen & Tsai 2007; Tian-Cole, Crompton & Willson 2002; Foodness & Murray 1999; Kozak & Rimmington 2000). Through conducting a face-to-face interview, a total of 406 questionnaires were collected. All items were answered on a five-point scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly (5). Data analysis includes various statistical tools such as factor analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modelling.ResultsThere is a relationship between internal and external factors as well as a considerably important relationship between internal factors. Among motivational factors, having a rest by being away from the work life is the main push factor which motivates tourists while purchasing a holiday. Items such as beverages at the hotel, animation and entertainment and availability of information about holiday packages emerge as the main pull factors. Information search with the effect of motivational factor is effective over the purchasing process. Friends and relatives, radio and television, advertisements, newspapers, magazines and internet are the main information resources applied by all participants. Evaluation of information is also as effective as motivational factors on information search. Choosing a right holiday package is directly proportional to the information on hand. Holiday experience is the stage where the expectation emerged in first three stages of the purchasing process is compared with the perceived holiday experience. In this process, tourists agree that the holiday they purchased is worth the money, time and energy they have spent.Theoretical conclusionsA consumer is one of the most important and complex units of a marketing system. As several internal and external factors affect consumer behaviour within this system, measurement and evaluation of the purchasing process is rather difficult. Consumer behaviour is not as simple as purchasing a product or service by paying its price, but is also a process that has dimensions of post-purchasing. Understanding consumer behaviour in every stage of the consumer behaviour model consisting of problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchasing and post-purchasing behaviour contributes to tourism marketers in developing products which will meet needs of consumers and in attracting more visitors and creating consumer loyalty.Practical application of the dissertationMany factors can affect consumers' purchasing process of a tourism product. Results show that motivation factors have an important role in the stages of purchasing process and also have positive impact on internal factors (information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchasing and post purchasing). …

Game-Theoretic Approach to Tourism Supply Chain Coordination Under Demand Uncertainty For Package Holidays

Demand uncertainty is one of the most significant characteristics of the tourism industry. In a typical tourism supply chain (TSC) for package holidays, multiple tour operators reserve rooms from a hotel chain in advance according to their demand predictions. Discrepancies between demand predictions and actual demand lead to shortages or unused room reservations, which inevitably leads to reduced profits for the tour operators concerned. This article examines different TSC coordination strategies to determine how they can be used to help alleviate such negative effects. A game-theoretic approach is used to analyze the different coordination relationships between TSC players. Two coordination programs are discussed. The first is a horizontal coordination program in which tour operators exchange shortages or unused reservations with each other. The second is a vertical coordination program in which tour operators trade shortages or unused reservations with hotel chains. Game models are established and analyzed for the two coordination strategies and uncoordinated conditions, respectively. The analytical results suggest that both coordination strategies can be used to reduce the negative impacts of the demand uncertainty. The results also show that the horizontal coordination is preferred to the vertical coordination when the competition among tour operators is fierce.

A comparative analysis of quantity and price competitions in tourism supply chain networks for package holidays

Package holidays are the main modes of outbound travel in many Asian countries and regions, especially in mainland China. This paper considers competition strategies in a tourism supply chain (TSC) network consisting of three sectors – theme parks, accommodation providers, and tour operators (TOs). They are involved in producing and providing package holidays which are substitutable to each other. TOs are responsible for assembling and retailing package holidays. Two competition strategies commonly used in the tourism market are compared. They are quantity competition and price competition. From the perspective of game theory, these two types of competition strategies are modelled as the Cournot game and the Bertrand game, respectively. In this paper, enterprises within the same sector of the TSC play simultaneous games while sequential games are played between sectors. A series of sensitivity analyses are conducted to explore: (1) the differences between the impacts of quantity and price competitions on the individual sectors and the TSC network as a whole, and (2) the rational reactions of a sector to the changes made by other sectors under different competition strategies. Results from this theoretical study could help TSC decision and policy makers in identifying appropriate pricing and capacity strategies.

Game-Theoretic Study of the Dynamics of Tourism Supply Chains for Package Holidays under Quantity Competition

This paper considers a tourism supply chain (TSC) for package holidays. Three sectors are included: a theme park, hotel and accommodation providers and tour operators. The different sectors are coordinated with each other, while enterprises within each compete in order to optimize their own objectives. This research studies the impacts of competitive and cooperative relationships between the enterprises on the dynamics of the TSC under quantity competition. Simultaneous non-cooperative games are used to model the competitive quantity decisions between enterprises in the same sector. A sequential game is established between the three sectors to coordinate tourist numbers. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to examine the dynamics of the supply chain in terms of several operating parameters, such as operating costs, sector size and product differentiation. Among the key findings are that member enterprises in one sector can benefit from intensified competition in a complementary sector in the same layer and that the upstream enterprises in the tourism supply chain prefer package holiday product differentiation strategies.

Integrating user modeling approaches into a framework for recommender agents

PurposeRecommender agents are used to make recommendations of interesting items in a wide variety of application domains, such as web page recommendation, music, e‐commerce, movie recommendation, tourism, restaurant recommendation, among others. Despite the various and different domains in which recommender agents are used and the variety of approaches they use to represent user interests and make recommendations, there is some functionality that is common to all of them, such as user model management and recommendation of interesting items. This paper aims at generalizing these common behaviors into a framework that enables developers to reuse recommender agents' main characteristics in their own developments.Design/methodology/approachThis work presents a framework for recommendation that provides the control structures, the data structures and a set of algorithms and metrics for different recommendation methods. The proposed framework acts as the base design for recommender agents or applications that want to add the already modeled and implemented capabilities to their own functionality. In contrast with other proposals, this framework is designed to enable the integration of diverse user models, such as demographic, content‐based and item‐based. In addition to the different implementations provided for these components, new algorithms and user model representations can be easily added to the proposed approach. Thus, personal agents originally designed to assist a single user can reuse the behavior implemented in the framework to expand their recommendation strategies.FindingsThe paper describes three different recommender agents built by materializing the proposed framework: a movie recommender agent, a tourism recommender agent, and a web page recommender agent. Each agent uses a different recommendation approach. PersonalSearcher, an agent originally designed to suggest interesting web pages to a user, was extended to collaboratively assist a group of users using content‐based algorithms. MovieRecommender recommends interesting movies using an item‐based approach and Traveller suggests holiday packages using demographic user models. Findings encountered during the development of these agents and their empirical evaluation are described here.Originality/valueThe advantages of the proposed framework are twofold. On the one hand, the functionality provided by the framework enables the development of recommender agents without the need for implementing its whole set of capabilities from scratch. The main processes and data structures of recommender agents are already implemented. On the other hand, already existing agents can be enhanced by incorporating the functionality provided by the recommendation framework in order to act collaboratively.

Tourism LCA: state-of-the-art and perspectives

Records over the last decades indicate a high growth rate for tourism, making it one of the most important industries in the world economy. Since estimates outline a consolidation of this trend, an accurate identification and assessment of the environmental impacts related to the life cycle of tourist products is increasingly necessary. By reviewing and comparing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) case studies in the tourism sector, this paper aims to identify life cycle approaches that may be used as a basis for the subsequent development of sectorial Life Cycle Thinking guidelines. The following characterising elements were analysed for each case study reviewed, bearing in mind ISO 14044:2006 contents: goal, functional unit, system boundaries, inventory data quality and assessment methods of the environmental impacts. The few LCA implementations found in the literature vary considerably as regards the object studied and the methodological choices made. Specifically, the objects studied could be categorised as follows: accommodation services; buildings (hotel structures); tourist package holiday; the entire tourism industry. The main methodological choices made regard: system boundaries, data quality requirements and methods for assessing environmental impacts. A critical analysis of case studies revealed considerable dissimilarities as regards time reference and methodology application. Even though these differences made any comparison of results difficult, a few findings on methodological approaches might be outlined. Because the goal and scope definition profoundly affects LCA results, particular emphasis has been given to objectives and system boundaries. The low number of studies found in the literature could indicate either that there are significant obstacles to adopting this approach or the limited awareness of LCA in tourism’s drivers. The main obstacles might be: the complicated nature of the tourism system; the lack of specific LCA databases for tourism and related sectors; the tourism industry's low consideration of the environmental impact categories that are generally taken into account in impact assessment methodologies. In order to promote the applicability and dissemination of LCA within the tourism sector, a number of methodological approaches and guidelines should be developed further. Moreover, it might be necessary to look into the possibility of integrating LCA with other instruments, such as environmental support tools for assessment, management, and design, as well as communication and marketing. Further synergies should be investigated regarding environmental instruments for passenger transportation, and specific tools that focus on the economic and social aspects of sustainability.

Los programas de fidelización como plataforma de venta directa: clasificación de los titulares según la redención de billetes aéreos

There are increasingly more loyalty programmes that offer cardholders the opportunity of buying additional programme points or obtaining rewards, such as package holidays or air flights, by paying some of the cost in cash. This feature of the programmes, together with their very nature and structure and the current situation in which the tourism sector finds itself, has allowed for their development as sales platforms offering services directly to their members. This work discusses the potential of such programmes as a tool for a better knowledge and segmentation of customers by differentiating between them on the basis of those who redeem their rewards on a points-only basis and those that do so using points-plus-cash. Using information from a leading, Spanish, multi-sponsor, loyalty programme, this article analyses the importance of redeeming air tickets only, as against other rewards, and cash contributions as a means of completing the redemption transaction. By means of decision trees, as a segmentation method, it can be seen how variables related with buying behaviour, within the programme member companies, have an influence on the redemption of air tickets by the programme’s cardholders.

A coloured Petri net analysis of the Transaction Internet Protocol

The Transaction Internet Protocol (TIP) aims at facilitating e-commerce by enforcing atomicity guarantees in transactions distributed between several autonomous transaction processing systems. In this work, the authors explore a holiday booking scenario in which a customer is protected by the TIP such as to prevent ending up with a hotel reservation without the requested flight reservation i.e. enclosed in the same holiday package. In fact, TIP defines an approach that makes the commit processing independent of the communication protocol used, but there are a number of potential pitfalls that make it useful to provide a formal approach to reason about the behavioural properties of TIP. The authors propose a coloured Petri net model that allows interactive simulation and verification of correctness properties within the CPN-tools modelling environment. Representative results for the generated reachability graph, providing an insight into the model's structural properties are shown at the end of this paper. The model can be used in the CPN-tools environment for model checking tasks, where the properties of interest can be expressed in graph exploration or temporal logic-based state space queries.