Investigating travelers’ multi-impulse buying behavior in airport duty-free shopping for Chinese traveler: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Airport duty-free shopping is becoming the most important source of revenue and profit. As airports provide a unique retailing environment that differs from the day-to-day distribution channels, observation of travelers' shopping behavior in airports shows that it is different from that in traditional retail store environments. Duty-free retailers at airports must recognize this specific shopping behavior to maximize their sales performance. We examine the relationship between two different types of impulse buying behaviors: cognitive and affective. We also study travelers' satisfaction/loyalty in the context of airport duty-free shopping using two moderators of this relationship: intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Data were collected from outbound Chinese travelers, who represent the largest proportion of travelers worldwide, to identify implications for airport duty-free retailers. This study found a positive relationship between affective impulse buying behavior and travelers' satisfaction, an aspect that also generates loyalty in the context of airport duty-free shopping. Furthermore, travelers' extrinsic motivations moderate the negative relationship between affective impulse buying behavior and travelers' satisfaction. This study provides insights that airport duty-free retailers can utilize to motivate travelers’ consumption and enhance their satisfaction in duty-free shopping, thereby increasing consumer loyalty.     

Nested logit model formation to analyze airport parking behavior based on stated preference survey studies

The rapid growth of private car ownership and utilization has resulted in significant parking-related congestion problems at large-scale international airports. Parking facilities located in the peripheral areas of airports could be more efficiently used to mitigate congestion and reduce delays due to dramatically increasing traffic demands and inferiorly designed parking lot configurations. In order to analyze the travelers' parking choice preferences for the off-site airport parking activities, a stated preference survey study was conducted around Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport. Two nested logit models were formulated to analyze the correlation between travelers' parking behavior and their travel characteristics. The research results indicate that travelers prefer to choose off-site parking facilities for long-term parking. A free and fast operation of connections should be provided in consideration of the long-distance layouts of parking facilities. A classification analysis of travelers with different preferences was conducted and the potential changes in travelers' parking choices to off-site parking lots were quantified. The research findings are helpful for traffic management agencies to develop practical guidelines for the establishment of new parking facilities with multiple access points at airports.     

Analysis of Iranian passengers' behavior in choosing type of carrier in international air travel to East Asia

Increased demand for East Asia flights from Tehran has intensified competition between Iranian and foreign carriers. In addition, the entrance of low-cost carriers (LCC) will make this competitive market even more intense. In this condition, carriers are striving to gain more market share by improving services and discounting their fares. Therefore, analyzing air travel demand is valuable for carriers' long term and short term planning. This study empirically investigates passengers' behavior in choosing five types of carriers in many groups of passengers using multinomial logit (MNL) and nested logit (NL) models. The data were collected through the stated preference (SP) questionnaire designed based on orthogonal main-effect. The main survey was conducted in the Imam Khomeini International (IKI) airport in July 2013 where 480 questionnaires were collected through face-to-face interviews. The results show that the ticket fare, the possibility of travel on desired date and time, international air travel experience, Frequent-flyer program (FFP) membership status, marital status, and gender are statistically significant contributors in explaining carrier choice. Interaction effects between trip purpose and ticket fare are statistically significant in choosing carriers. The results further indicate that business travelers are more willing to pay than non-business travelers for flights on desired date and time, although varying by type of carrier.     

Investigating the Impact of SERVQUAL Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction: The Lessons Learnt from Serbian Travel Agencies

Despite the rise of online travel booking services, it seems that traditional travel agencies remain an intractable part in the process of making travel arrangements for most travelers. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what triggers travelers' satisfaction with travel agencies. In order to explore this, we focused on Serbian travel agencies and researched the impact of the five individual SERVQUAL dimensions on travelers' satisfaction. Results revealed that four SERVQUAL dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) had a significant influence on customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Latent class nested logit model for analyzing high-speed rail access mode choice

This paper explores access mode choice behavior, using a survey data collected in Taiwan. The latent class nested logit model is used to capture flexible substitution patterns among alternatives and preference heterogeneity across individuals while simultaneously identifying the number, sizes, and characteristics of market segments. The results indicate that a four-segment latent class nested logit model with individual characteristics in segment membership functions is the most preferred specification. Most high-speed rail travelers were cost-sensitive to access modes, and thus strategies that reduce the access costs can be more effective than reducing the access times.     

Constructing a mixed-logit model with market positioning to analyze the effects of new mode introduction

This study aims to investigate how the introduction of high-speed rail (HSR) influences traveler choice behavior and the market structure in the western corridor of Taiwan. A new mixed-logit model with factor decomposition is constructed to analyze the market positioning of the existing modes and HSR; the data is collected using the stated preference method. The empirical results show that travel cost is the major factor in market positioning. After the introduction of HSR, travelers’ mode preference did not change, whereas locations across modes on the market-positioning map as well as some coefficients of the explanatory variables changed.     

Estimation of willingness-to-pay for premium economy class by type of service

This study aims to estimate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) to upgrade from economy to premium economy class by six types of services and to identify the socioeconomic and travel characteristics of international travelers affecting the WTP using the Tobit model assumed to be censored at zero. The results confirm that the travelers' WTP for the premium economy class in the long-haul travel is higher than those in the medium and the short-haul travels. However, the ratio of additional WTP to the economy class fare in the long-haul route is slightly lower than that in the medium-haul route. The results also present that international travelers have the highest WTP for increased seat width in the premium economy class service attribute, followed by increased seat pitch and upgraded in-flight meal service. Finally, the results indicate that the WTP to upgrade to premium economy class are proportional to the age or the income level of travelers. Furthermore, international travel frequency and the experience of premium economy class have a positive impact as well. This research can be a useful resource for analyzing international travelers’ WTP concerning the type of service and this information will be useful to policy makers in their efforts to determine their fare policies and the target audience for marketing premium economy class.     

Determinants of the Adoption for Travel Information on Smartphone

Many travelers are interested in the usage of smartphones for their trips. This study aims in investigating the determinants of their intentions to adopt information on smartphones for travel decision making. This paper suggests a combined model to examine travelers’ intentions to use travel information on their smartphones from two standpoints: hardware using the united theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and software using the e‐satisfaction (E‐SAT) model. The results show that four main determinants influence travelers' intentions to use travel information on smartphones for their trips: usefulness, ease of use, social influence, and satisfaction with travel websites. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Passenger airline choice behavior for domestic short-haul travel in South Korea

When the Seoul-Busan line of South Korea's high-speed rail system, dubbed the Korea Train Express (KTX), entered service in November 2010, it was expected that this line would compete with air transport services for short-haul domestic journeys. Therefore this is a study about passengers' choice behavior when traveling short-haul domestic routes in South Korea. It utilizes MNL and NL logit models with selected variables, and the data required for the analyses were gathered through Stated Preference (SP) Techniques. The main SP survey was conducted for three weeks at departure lounges in Incheon International Airport in May 2012. The results reveal that fare, access time and journey time are significantly important with respect to passenger choice. The results further indicate that business travelers are more willing to pay than non-business travelers to reduce access and journey time. It is also noteworthy that reducing access time is more important than reducing journey time for short-haul domestic travelers. The conclusion is that it is significantly important for airline planners or local authorities that want to increase their local market share to invest in relatively fast access modes.     

Exploring passenger preferences in airline service attributes: A note

This paper examines passengers' valuations on airline service attributes using stated preference analysis in the direct flight air market between Taiwan and China. An experiment design reflecting the characteristics of low cost airlines is used to collect stated preference data from Taiwanese air passengers. Empirical results reveal not only the implicit values of service attributes but also the preference differences in attributes between business and non-business travelers.     

Passengers' airport choice and airports' catchment area analysis in cross-border Upper Adriatic multi-airport region

Although much research has been performed on passengers' origin airport choice, there is little research on airports' catchment area size and even less on airports' catchment areas in cross-border regions. This paper addresses passengers' airport choice and analyzes airports' catchment area size and its homogeneity in the Upper Adriatic region. Using the results of passengers' survey at three regional airports (Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU), Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) and Trieste Pietro Savorgnan di Brazza Airport (TRS)) we have estimated the airports' catchment areas and airports market shares therein using multinomial logit (MNL) model structure. To additionally explore the passengers' airport choice behavior considering the different sensitivity across travellers to regional, demographic and airports attributes and account for preference heterogeneity in airport choice a mixed logit model was used. The results indicated that the three airports have relatively small core catchment areas and that the market share rapidly decreases with the increasing access time to airport. Partially, the results reinforced earlier findings showing that access time to airport is the most important determinant in airport choice for all segments (business/leisure and cross-border/domestic), however the sensitivity to access time is more pronounced in business and domestic group. Additionally, the results indicated pronounced loyalty to domestic airports and generally low importance of ticket prices, and show that in market conditions where all airports in the region have a low-cost carrier (LCC) the effect of LCC on airport choice is limited. Finally, the results indicated that the borders might have an influence on airport choice and that overall, in the cross-border regions the passengers’ airport choice process is even more complex than in non cross-border regions.     

Latent class models of international air carrier choice

This paper uses a market segmentation approach to identify airline passengers’ potential segments and preferences toward international air carriers. The modeling approaches consist of the stated preference method and the latent class model. The stated choice experiments were designed based on service attributes in the international airline choice context. Empirical data was collected from airline passengers who have flown from Taipei to Tokyo or from Taipei to Hong Kong. The latent class model accommodating preference heterogeneity outperforms the multinomial logit model as indication of a better approach to analyze airline choice behavior. The latent class model with individual socioeconomic and trip characteristics in segment membership functions also improved model fit relative to the corresponding latent class model without individual characteristics. The values of willingness to pay for service attribute improvements vary across international air routes and segments. Passengers are willing to pay more for better service quality. In order to develop effective marketing and operational strategies for the international air travel market, this study highlights the importance of exploring airline choice behaviors by routes and segments.     

Empirical evidence from the Greater Toronto Area on the acceptability and impacts of HOT lanes

This paper describes a study on willingness to pay (WTP) and public acceptability for High-Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes using empirical evidence from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From a stated preference survey of more than 250 drivers, we estimate mean willingness to pay values under various trip conditions and for various traveler characteristics. The study provides statistically significant evidence on the relationships between willingness to pay and the improvement in travel speeds in HOT lanes, the length of the trip, and the urgency of on-time arrival. Furthermore, our study confirms several literature findings from previous studies on the relationship between travelers' willingness to pay and income as well as prior experience with HOT lanes. Some of the findings are qualitatively validated on the basis of the observed travel behavior in choosing tolled facilities over untolled facilities during periods of heightened congestion and urgency.     

Competing on value: Perspectives on business class aviation

This paper presents an airline consumer choice model to analyze value propositions – the benefits delivered to passengers in relation to the fares paid. The model is developed using a study of clientele flying business class, studying three premium start-up airlines Eos, MaxJet and Silverjet that provided business-class-only flights on London–New York routes. Premium airlines were compared to selected rival full-service carriers for sustainability of their business class value propositions, using preference profiles of five target customer groups that comprise the business class passenger population. We find that the three premium start-up airlines were superior in offering some appealing features at reasonable fares that were highly valued by some passengers, although they were unable to replicate some other attractive aspects in the value propositions of the incumbents. This suggests a coexistence of premium entrants and incumbent carriers would have been possible, had the environment they operated in not changed drastically for the worse, before the premium entrants had achieved the financial robustness necessary for survival.     

Modeling the joint choice of access modes and flight routes with parallel structure and random heterogeneity

This study focuses on the influence of ground access transportation on air travel. The error components logit model with parallel structure is first adopted to formulate the joint choice behavior of access, airports, and flights. The proposed model proves to be effective in exploring interdependence between choice dimensions and travelers heterogeneity. The empirical results indicate that fare discounting should be introduced at the city airport and the frequency of existing flight routes should be increased. To benefit the hub airport, authorities of the new airport mass rapid transit system should reconsider the tradeoff between time and cost for express trains.     

Business travelers’ ticketing,refund, and exchange behavior

This study investigates when and why business travelers make changes to their airline itineraries. Results are based on tickets purchased over a 9-month period by employees of a university in Atlanta, US. The ability to track repeat passengers purchases across time allows analysis of how passenger cancellation behavior differs by frequency of travel as well as by carrier. Results indicate that frequent travelers and those purchasing from Delta versus AirTran are more likely to request ticketing changes. Other factors influencing cancellation behavior include the time from ticket purchase, time before flight departure, and whether the itinerary is for the outbound or inbound portion of a trip.     

Flying Australia–Europe via China: A qualitative analysis of the factors affecting travelers' choice of Chinese carriers using online comments data

Recently, Chinese carriers entered the Australia–Europe route, a market currently served by several established airlines. The paper aims to explore and identify the contextual factors affecting the choice of China-based carriers for long-haul travel. The paper's innovation is in the way it uses the online comments made by readers of an aviation news article. In doing so, the paper highlights the advantages and limitations of such a data source and the full range of positive and negative perceptions about Chinese airlines as recorded by potential and actual travelers. This study highlights that in order to understand flight choice, it is worthwhile to consider the conventional itinerary choice factors in the context of the socio-cultural and historical influences. For researchers, the paper provides some evidence that air travelers apply compensatory decision rule in making airline choices. This supports the validity of the assumption of random-utility based choice models used in the study of air travel behavior.     

Robustness of Distance Decay for International Pleasure Travelers: A Longitudinal Approach

Distance decay explains tourism demand in terms of destination distance from the origin. Although travelers tend to travel further over time, scant research studies have examined the relationship between temporal variant and distance decay. This study examines the relationship between distance and destination choice of Hong Kong international pleasure travelers’ activity over a decade. A constant pattern of distance decay with two secondary peaks was identified for a decade. This study suggests a threshold of a three‐hour flight for a five‐day trip before demand declined exponentially. The findings imply that the no traveling zone would result from weak pulling power. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Travel using managed lanes: An application of a stated choice model for Houston,Texas

Managed lane (ML) travel adds flexibility, but also complexity, to travel choices. Stated choice models (SCMs) are often used for modeling complex transportation choices such as these in an effort to predict demand for these travel options. The design methods for SCMs have evolved from simple orthogonal designs to more sophisticated designs such as D-efficient design that can increase efficiency in estimation. We used three different survey design strategies to produce the stated preference portion of surveys, which were used to elicit travel choices for a sample of Houston travelers. Apart from the D-efficient design we also used random and adaptive random designs to generate attribute levels. There were observable differences in choice behavior depending on what design strategy was used. These differences appear to influence estimates of the value of travel time savings (VTTS) obtained from the random parameter logit (RPL) models estimated using these data. This, in turn, would greatly impact the percentage of travelers predicted to use the MLs.The adaptive random strategy was superior to the other design methods in several categories, and it had similar efficiency to the D-efficient design. However, the mean of VTTS estimate obtained from a D-efficient design was closer to what is typically found in the literature. The difference was considerable and could greatly influence traffic and revenue estimates for the MLs, illustrating the importance of the survey design strategy.     

Determinants of passengers’ choice of airline check-in services: A case study of American,Australian, Korean,and Taiwanese passengers

This paper investigates factors that influence whether air travelers’ choose conventional counter or self-service check-in, including kiosk and web check-in. It uses data collected from American, Australian, Korean, and Taiwanese passengers. The data suggests that a passenger’s choice of check-in service is strongly dependent on nationality and previous experiences of checking-in; i.e. a cultural bias exists in the behavior of passengers using airline check-in services. Taiwanese passengers prefer to use the conventional counter check-in service but Korean, Australian and American air travelers use more self-service check-in facilities. The analysis also highlights that passengers’ perceptions of the attributes of the check-in service significantly determine their choice of check-in option.