Consumer Goals in Vacation Decision Making

The primary purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to explore which decision goals are used the most when making tourism choices, and (b) to investigate how such goals vary across both product (generic, modal, specific) and social (group, household, individual) levels in consumers’ decision-making processes. Results help validate Bettman, Luce, and Payne’s (1998) decision goals’ typology. They further show that respondents are more likely to pursue self-confidence as a goal when making generic decisions while they will be more incline to minimize their cognitive efforts and to maximize the accuracy of their choices for specific decisions. In a social perspective, singles are more likely to minimize their cognitive efforts, whereas households and groups are keener on maximizing the ease of justifying the decision to their members.     

Mount Stirling: The Politics of Process Failure

This paper analyses the political decision-making process associated with the attempts to develop the tourism potential of Mt Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia). Its concern is with the failure of policy making since 1980 to bring about a strategic economic development programme that meets the needs of the regional community for a sustainable tourism industry. Using Public Choice theory to approach the analysis of collective failure, it is possible to identify the competing interests involved in the development debate and the causes of the impasse in government decision making. The paper examines the capacity of the disparate community interests to work together to generate alternatives to the government's own proposals which had consistently failed to incorporate regional economic interests in their planning procedures. The issues exposed in this example of process failure are not confined to Mt Stirling alone. They serve, perhaps, to illustrate a broader pattern of growing alienation and conflict between regional tourism interests seeking a greater voice in determining the sustainability of their own futures, and the demands of centralised urban decision-making systems.     

旅游者安全行为：研究源起与国内近十年研究述评

旅游者安全行为研究已成为旅游安全研究的重要领域。文章阐述了旅游者安全行为研究的理论源起,并以2001～2011年的文献为基础,对国内旅游者安全行为的研究进行了系统的梳理,从概念界定、表现特征、影响因素、安全行为管理、不同视角下的安全行为研究等方面阐述了国内旅游者安全行为的研究进展。研究归纳了国内旅游者安全行为研究表现出的理论结构,并对未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

Sustainable tourism planning and climate change adaptation in the Alps: a case study of winter tourism in mountain communities in the Dolomites

A vast body of literature suggests that the European Alpine Region is extremely sensitive to climate change. Winter tourism is closely related to climate variations, especially in mountain regions where resorts are heavily dependent on snow. This paper explores how to effectively integrate a climate change adaptation perspective with local discourses about sustainability and tourism, an increasing priority for policy-makers in the region and elsewhere. It reports on the development and application of a participatory decision support process for the analysis of adaptation strategies for local development of an Alpine tourism destination, Auronzo di Cadore (Dolomites, Italy). This experience significantly contributed to the idea that an efficient combination of modelling capabilities, decision support tools, and participatory processes can substantially improve decision-making for sustainability. The authors show that, in this case study, such a combination of methods and tools allowed for managing the involvement of local actors, stimulating local debates on climate change adaptation and possible consequences on winter tourism, encouraging creativity and smoothing potential conflicts, and easing the integration of the qualitative knowledge and the preferences of the involved actors with quantitative information. This contributed to an integrated sustainability assessment of alternative strategies for sustainable tourism planning.     

Tourism stakeholder exclusion and conflict in a small island

Research in the Isle of Man, British Isles, reveals limited and dysfunctional collaboration between stakeholders, and in particular between public and private sector actors. Power and influence over tourism decision-making is generally felt to be restricted to a small and opaque network. Moreover, different levels of interest in and support for tourism further divide stakeholders. Various negative consequences are shown to arise from this absence of collaboration, including a lack of shared vision or future strategy for local tourism, and high levels of mutual mistrust between stakeholders. Resulting conflict, wasted resources, lost enthusiasm and lack of strategic direction appear to undermine the current and future management of island tourism. Emphasised by research is the importance of stakeholder collaboration to sustainable tourism management and underlying factors which may enhance or undermine. Focus on describing dysfunctional collaboration within an untypical small island setting makes a unique contribution to the existing literature.     

Tourism strategy development and facilitation of integrative processes among brand equity,marketing and motivation

With the absence of heavy industry and pollution from intense commercial development, Kinmen is a significant source of additional value for tourism in Taiwan. This calls for in-depth studies on tourism marketing, brand equity and travel motivation in Kinmen. This study attempts to identify the important attributes of Kinmen tourism and extend the related literature on marketing strategy, brand equity and travel motivation by employing a combination of the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM), decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and analytic network process (ANP) approaches to demonstrate the interactions and relations among critical criteria. The FDM identified the critical attributes, which were used in DEMATEL analysis to demonstrate that brand equity has direct and indirect influences on marketing strategy and travel motivation. The use of the ANP with global weighting further reveals that travel intention is the most critical element of Kinmen tourism.     

VFR tourism: The Host Experience

The current study explores the experience of hosting friends and relatives (HFR). Based on 51 in-depth interviews with local residents at the Israeli tourism destination of Eilat, the study sheds light on the negative and the positive aspects associated with the constant demand to host friends and relatives. In addition, the study presents a fourfold typology of HFR behavioral styles that span from engagement in predominantly indoor-related activities to visitations in outdoor commercial attractions. Another dimension of the typology concerns the distinction between guest-oriented and self-oriented styles of hosting. The findings are discussed with regard to the literature on visiting friends and relatives (VFR), sustainable tourism development and the well-being of local residents.     

PROCESS STUDIES OF TOURISTS’ DECISION-MAKING

We review tourism decision-making paradigms. We conclude that the literature is dominated by ‘variance’ studies of tourists’ decisions by causal analysis of independent variables explaining choices by tourists. This ‘choice set’ approach is in consonance with the need to understand important issues such as destination attractiveness and marketing. We argue that this approach does not incorporate an ontology of decision-making as a process, a deeper understanding of which may only be generated through studies that involve narrating emergent actions and activities through which individual or collective endeavours unfold. From this base we review the tourism decision-making literature and argue for the development of process studies as an important adjunct to the current body of knowledge.     

高速铁路与旅游业:成果评述与经验启示

我国高速铁路的迅速发展对区域旅游产业发展的影响逐步显现.旅游业如何应对高速铁路带来的交通变革亟须理论与经验的指引.文章对国内外高速铁路与旅游业关系的研究进行梳理,从高速铁路与旅游产业要素、旅游者动机与行为、旅游企业选址以及旅游空间格局等方面进行了归纳与综述.研究表明,国外研究具有内容系统化、理论多元化、方法多样化和研究规范化的特征.结合国内研究所取得的成果,文章从加强高速铁路与旅游者决策、旅游产品结构、旅游产业布局、业态创新、区域旅游空间结构演变及旅游发展模式创新等多个层面构建高速铁路与旅游业研究领域的内容体系,同时在规范学术研究和应用研究方法等方面对我国未来相关领域的研究提出了建议.     

Exploring Family Roles in Purchasing Decisions During Vacation Planning

Abstract

Family decision making not only has been an interesting subject to consumer behavior researchers but also has served as a valuable source in shaping marketing strategies adopted by the tourism and hospitality industry. However, little research has been devoted to understanding the roles of family members in the decision-making process during vacation planning. This paper attempts to provide further understanding on the nature and the importance of family roles played in making travel purchase decisions. The authors conceptually reviewed past studies to explore different roles played by the core family members in the decision-making process and developed research propositions along with a conceptual model regarding family vacation planning. Relevant marketing implications were discussed and unique research methods were also recommended for further study.     

有钱而游,还是因梦而旅?——预期收入对旅游消费决策的作用机制研究

主流经济学的消费理论认为收入决定消费,因此收入是影响旅游消费决策的重要研究变量,但先行研究一直存在广泛争论,且较少进行跨期研究,特别是预期收入对旅游消费决策的影响研究更为稀少。文章主要目的是研究预期收入对个体旅游消费决策的影响作用机制,引入行为经济学的体验效用理论,构建旅游者跨期效用函数模型,检验和比较分析了当期收入和预期收入对个体旅游消费决策的影响力度。研究结果如下:第一,当期收入对旅游消费决策的作用会受到个体预期收入和不耐心程度(个体更偏好于当前消费而非未来消费)的调节效应影响;第二,给定其他因素的作用,预期收入对未来旅游消费决策具有正向促进作用,且预期收入对旅游消费决策的正向影响要高于当期收入的影响。另外还发现,女性群体的不耐心程度调节效应相对更大,低龄群体的不耐心程度调节效应较大,显著性也较高。最后,文章提出了以上研究结果对旅游体验和旅游消费决策的行为经济学理论拓展意义,以及对旅游企业和目的地进行预期营销的实践意义。     

An exploratory analysis of hotel selection factors: A comprehensive survey of Tehran hotels

The selection of residence location in different countries is of high priority and significance for tourists. The selection of the most appropriate hotel entails a rather complicated decision-making process. A comprehensive hotel selection model can empower the hotel managers, the tourists, and the tourism industry to make decisions based on more effective indicators of high quality services for a higher rate of satisfaction. The purpose of this research is to deeply explore the broad literature and to identify the most significant hotel selection indicators and factors in Tehran hotels and to present a comprehensive model through an exploratory factor analysis of the extracted indicators so as to provide the managers and tourists with a firm ground for making better decisions regarding the indicators of hotel selection. Promenade and comfort, security and protection, network services, pleasure, staff and their services, news and recreational information, cleanliness and room comfort, expenditure, room facilities and car parking were identified as the main hotel selection factors of Tehran hotels. Afterwards, another factor analysis has been done in order to extract the next hidden set of factors within the aforementioned factors which return two main factors of “Hotel Comfort Factors” and “Hotel Compensatory Factors”. Following the creation of the final model and based on the intrinsic vagueness of decision making in the process of selection, a set of fuzzy membership functions for the extracted factors has been provided. The intention has been to provide the expert system and decision support system developers and users with a set of practical indicators in order to help them design and implement realistic systems based on the deeply studied indicators and factors of hotel selection. Such supportive systems can be directly presented to the tourists requesting a mechanism for selecting the most appropriate hotel but lacking enough information about the important indicators and factors and also to the managers of hotels who are trying to make strategic decisions regarding the most optimized investments on the indicators of selecting a hotel. Considering the priorities of tourists, hotel managers, entrepreneurs and investors in the hotel industry require deep investigations and studies for which this paper provides a firm basis.     

基于扩展计划行为理论的乡村旅游经营者从众行为研究——西安市上王村实证

乡村旅游是实现巩固拓展脱贫攻坚成果同乡村振兴有效衔接的重要路径选择。乡村旅游经营者的从众行为能够促进旅游地的规范化与规模化发展,但一味地盲从也必然会给旅游地造成不可挽回的损失,理性对待乡村旅游经营者的从众行为对旅游地的可持续发展意义深远。本文基于扩展的计划行为理论基本框架,引入精英影响感知和模糊情境感知两个变量,对乡村旅游经营者从众行为意向的影响因素进行实证研究,并构建乡村旅游经营者从众行为形成机制的理论模型。研究发现,行为态度、指令性规范、知觉行为控制、精英影响感知和模糊情境感知与从众行为意向呈显著正相关关系。另外,乡村旅游经营者的受教育水平对从众行为意向存在显著影响,且呈现受教育水平越高从众行为意向越低的趋势。为了进一步发展乡村旅游,助推乡村振兴,建议提升乡村旅游经营者的经营能力;发挥乡村旅游精英的信息传递与示范带动作用;落实政府的引导与监管职能;防范政府决策层的盲从行为。     

Community tourism development scenarios and their use in tourism research

Scenarios have been utilised to a limited degree in tourism and in a number of areas such as in development, sustainability studies, and political decision making. The use of scenarios has primarily concentrated on evaluating people's attitudes and decision processes, as predictions toward perceived future situations for tourism planning, and as a tool in exploratory research. In a recent study conducted in Eastern Australian coastal regions, a set of community tourism scenarios was developed in order to gauge the types of communities with tourism development, and thus explore in more depth the ideologies and platforms which may have influence on decision making in local government. The use of a community tourism scenario, such as developed in this study may have strong implications in broadening the way tourism and community researchers distinguish community attitudes toward present and future tourism development opportunities as well as their corresponding pressures. In addition, it may provide a positive tool for understanding perceived community directions as well as providing a mechanism for gauging planning decisions in a tourism context.     

Impact evaluation for tourism development using the fuzzy set model: A case study of Kyongju,Korea

The Community tourism industry is primarily influenced by facilities, traffic systems, capacity, and development of tourism commodities. To develop tourism industry on a local basis, it is unavoidable to make investments on a large scale. Factor analysis for impact evaluation prior to undertaking of development projects, which this study intends to make, is more reasonable when related to the fuzzy numeric analysis of words or sentences than to a quantitative analysis of measured information. In this study the Euclidean distance method and Zadeh's fuzzy extension principle were used as linguistic approximation to establish the validity of decision‐ making in each factor category of impact degree. Therefore, this study introduces a general concept of Fuzzy theory through literature review of linguistic expressions. This study examined availability of the Fuzzy model in analyzing investment priorities for tourist development and applied it to Kyongju area, which unveiled the priorities for Kyongju tourism future in order of traffic system improvement, early construction of horse‐ racing track now under planning, promotion of Kyongju as tourism special zone to visitors and positive tourism events. In terms of methodology, this study disclosed that Fuzzy Model approach is greatly useful to decision‐making processes in tourist development.     

Sustainable Tourism: An Overview of the Concept and its Position in Relation to Conceptualisations of Tourism

Reference to sustainable tourism is now made in most strategic tourism planning documents. Yet, despite its common use, definitional arguments exist over its meaning and subsequent operationalisation. In addition to this, literature on sustainable tourism rarely discusses its development prior to the publication of Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 1987) and its relevance to current conceptualisations of tourism. This paper analyses the context within which sustainable tourism was developed and has recently been conceptualised. It does this by assessing the development of sustainable tourism (with an Australian focus) and proposing a model which incorporates the development of sustainable tourism into tourism. The paper argues that sustainable tourism has traditionally given more focus to aspects related to the environment and economic development and that more focus should be given to community involvement.     

Smart governance for heritage tourism destinations: Contextual factors and destination management organization perspectives

The sustainable development of tourism is a major concern for destination management organisations (DMOs) in heritage tourism. Smart tourism advocates claim that technologically-driven innovations can help DMOs to optimise tourism development by addressing issues such as carrying capacity, stakeholder management and community involvement. This study enhances the understanding of smart tourism governance (SG), showing how contextual factors affect DMO perspectives of SG. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate heritage tourism destinations in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that well-established DMOs do not perceive SG as potentially beneficial, as they already perform well in many areas in which SG promises improvements, such as citizen engagement, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement. Despite this, this research highlights the aspects of SG that these destinations can take advantage of as social inclusion, environmental performance and the provision of citizen-centric services. All of these can help heritage tourism destinations to optimise their tourism development. This research additionally demonstrates the effect of contextual factors, such as the level of public-sector support for tourism and the growing influence of non-tourism stakeholders in destination management, on DMO perceptions of SG and makes recommendations for how developments in the use of SG by DMOs can be made, in light of these.     

The Potential Impact of Mega Sport Media on the Travel Decision‐Making Process and Destination Choice—The Case of Portugal and Euro 2004

The paper is concerned with exploring how the media coverage of mega sport events influences the travel decision‐making process and destination choice of potential travellers. The decision was made to use Euro 2004 and Portugal as a case study in order to discover the conceptual factors relevant to this phenomenon. The methodology consisted of a comprehensive literature review and in‐depth interviews with potential travellers. The data suggest that Euro 2004 did not do much to induce travel to Portugal among the informants, and this raised questions regarding the effectiveness of this type of promotion for destination marketing. It suggests that most destinations using this technique may have to employ strategic leveraging techniques if any tourism benefits are to be derived. If this is not done, the tourism marketing potential may fail miserably and result in a loss of the investment made by the government and public bodies that invest in these events for tourism purposes.     

Environmental orientations and environmental behaviour: Perceptions of protected area tourism stakeholders

There are numerous studies in the academic literature which assert that environmental attitudes can influence the process of sustainable tourism in protected areas. To test this claim, this research was undertaken in Central Karakoram National Park, Pakistan. The purpose of the research was to examine the differences in environmental orientations of four stakeholder groups associated with protected area tourism and to determine the factors that might influence their intentions to engage in environmentally responsible behaviour. The New Ecological Paradigm scale was used to assess environmental orientations. In addition, interviews were conducted to examine the factors that impacted these orientations. The results show significant differences among the stakeholders' orientations towards the environment and multiple factors that influence stakeholders' intention to engage in environmental conservation and sustainable tourism, namely economic benefits, awareness and information, top down governance and resource use rights.     

The role of travel agents’ ethical concerns when brokering information in the marketing and sale of sustainable tourism

ABSTRACT

Using conservation tourism as a test case, this study explores the role high-end travel agents play in selling sustainable tourism. It examines a niche marketing activity in that process. The study focuses on agents’ consideration of ethics as they act as information brokers between tourists and operators. Data were collected from interviews with agents and analysed using a deductive content analysis based on six overarching concepts and theories on ethical decision-making. The findings emphasize the implicit influence within conservation tourism of tourism's ethical dimensions, whilst identifying many constraints that prevent a full consideration and/or disclosure of ethical concerns in the sales process. Most importantly, agents made assumptions using a false consensus bias about clients' preferences for service over concerns for the environment, and were not prepared to discuss the more sensitive issues surrounding conservation with their clients. A number of recommendations are proposed regarding the need to unpack conservation information, overcome the false consensus bias, and agents’ reluctance to discuss ethics in the sales process. Finally, the findings have broader implications for the development of sustainable tourism, which ultimately will depend on a dialogue of ethical concerns and values within the tourism supply chain between suppliers, brokers and tourists.