Handbook of Tourist Behavior

Theory & Practice

Metin Kozak, Alain Decrop

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135849115
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Comportamento dei consumatori
• Index: Business

In today's highly competitive and global economy, understanding tourist behavior is imperative to success. Tourist behavior has become a cornerstone of any marketing strategy and action. Choosing, buying and consuming tourism/travel products and services includes a range of psycho-social processes and a number of personal and environmental influences that researchers and managers should take into account. This book provides an overview of such processes and influences and explains the basic concepts and theories that underlie tourist decision-making and behavior. It also incorporates a number of cases studies in order to aid readers to better appraise the application of those concepts and theories. The Handbook of Tourist Behavior will be of significant interest to researchers and students in tourism, leisure, marketing and psychology, and also to practitioners in the tourism industry.

Part I
Motivation and Need Recognition

1 Interpretive Consumer Research

Uncovering the “Whys” Underlying Tourist Behavior

Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt and Inès Kessler

INTRODUCTION

Most consumer research in tourism is quantitative in nature as well as destination-based (e.g., Mehmetoglu and Altinay, 2006; Riley and Love, 1999). A number of good reasons have led to the dominance of destinationbased, quantitative studies. Especially, the reliance on destination-based studies ensures that the researcher generates knowledge of relevance to practitioners. Hence, the outcome of a destination-based study is likely to directly contribute to practitioners as this type of study clarifies what tourists like and dislike about the destination and how destination marketers can improve their “product” in order to better fulfill the needs of their customers. Thus, this kind of study is excellent insofar as the purpose of research is to generate normative theory (Hunt, 1976) that offers suggestions as to how destination marketers may improve their situation (e.g., how to attract more visitors; how to make visitors revisit the destination; or how to improve customer satisfaction).

APart from their ability to form the basis for generating normative theory, quantitative studies are excellent at producing knowledge on the what, when, how, who, and where questions, the answering of which is crucial to destination marketers. After all, destination-based quantitative studies are the basis for generating the statistics desperately needed in order to assess the extent, nature, and development in destinations’ bonds with tourists. Thus, quantitative studies (if conducted properly) generate knowledge that transcends the respondents and hence, knowledge that relates to the entire population of visitors in question. As such, quantitative studies are the means of choice when uncovering the what, where, when, who, how much, and how relating to all of the topics that are discussed in the various chapters of this book.

Most hotels, for example, conduct quantitative studies in order to reveal whether guests are (dis)satisfied with their stay as well as with various elements of this stay (the room, the restaurant, Internet facilities, front desk personnel, etc.). As another example, a variety of quantitative studies address tourist motivations by means of a series of questions relying on extant typologies of motivations. Furthermore, quantitative studies are excellent at uncovering the types of activities visitors engage in during their stay as well as their satisfaction with the different kinds of activities and experiences the destination has to offer. Thus, destination-based quantitative studies hold a series of valuable advantages. However, destinationbased quantitative studies are also characterized by a number of drawbacks. The key advantages and drawbacks of quantitative consumer research in tourism can thus be summarized as (Powell and Watson, 2006: 299): “A survey is a practical and efficient way of gaining data from a large number of people but is not so effective at discovering the meanings and the motives that form the basis of social action.”

Hence, especially quantitative studies are not only practical and efficient, but often superior, when the purpose is to get an overview of who our guests are; what they do while visiting us; and how satisfied they are with our tourism offer. However, quantitative studies have one major drawback as they are not especially good at generating knowledge on the ‘whys’ underlying tourist behavior. Accordingly, although quantitative studies, if conducted properly, give excellent overviews of our visitors, they are not very good at uncovering what goes on in the minds of these visitors. As such, quantitative studies are not especially valuable insofar as we wish to gain insight into the tourists’ lines of reasoning that make them behave in certain ways.

Several philosophers of science (e.g., Denzin, 2001; Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Guba, 1990; Miles and Hubermann, 1994) argue that if we wish for a research area to prosper, we should rely on both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Accordingly, if we wish for consumer research in tourism to be a research area characterized by continuous evolvement and refinement, then it is crucial that such research makes the best possible use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Hence, the key reason why quantitative research is necessary is that it can uncover the answers to the focal who, what, when, where, how much, and how questions. However, the argument substantiated in this chapter is that qualitative research is a necessary supplement as this kind of research is especially fruitful when we wish to uncover the ‘whys’ underlying consumer behavior. However, at the moment, the vast majority of consumer research in tourism is quantitative in nature, thus often neglecting the “whys” of tourist behavior.

In order to make a contribution to a prosperous future for consumer research in tourism, the objective of this chapter is firstly to illustrate the necessity for more qualitative approaches in tourism research, by analyzing the very nature of tourism consumer behavior and decision making. By describing the complexities as well as constant evolution of tourism consumer behavior, we hope to achieve an understanding for the necessity of applying a method matching the research object, that is, a complex and ever-developing approach. Further, we would like to introduce the reader to qualitative methods in tourism and especially to the types of insights that such additional research generates, by using some examples from existing research, representing different settings, preconditions, and therefore different variations of qualitative research.

NATURE OF TOURIST BEHAVIOR AND THE NEED TO ASK “WHY”

Due to the fact that quantitative research is not especially good at uncovering the “whys” underlying consumer behavior in tourism, Mehmetoglu and Altinay (2006: 13) argue that “There is thus a need for theory-generating approaches, namely qualitative research, to hospitality and tourism research.”

In the same vein, in regard to tourism research, Cohen (1988: 30) argued that

The most significant and lasting contributions have been made by researchers who employed an often loose, qualitative methodology … The much more rigorous and quantitative “touristological” studies often yielded results of rather limited interest.

Especially, the call for more qualitative research in tourism originates from the fact that several researchers (e.g., Henderson and Bedini, 1995; Hollinshead, 1996; Walle, 1997) argue that quantitative research is not especially good at generating understanding and uncovering meaning. However, as pointed out by Denzin and Lincoln (1994: 2), interpretative approaches relying on qualitative methods are especially relevant when we wish to investigate the “whys” underlying behavior, as they define qualitative research as:

Multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

Around twenty years ago, interpretive research adhering to qualitative methods gained acceptance within consumer behavior research (e.g., Anderson, 1989; Deshpande, 1983; Hirschman, 1986, 1994; Hirschman and Hol-brook, 1992; Holbrook and O’Shaughnessy, 1988; Peter and Olson, 1989). Despite the fact that interpretive research has become an integral Part of consumer behavior research, nonetheless, in their review of tourism research methods, Riley and Love (1999) argue that quantitative research methods still dominate consumer research in tourism. This may be a problem as it seems that interpretive research has much to offer to the study of tourists, as researching, for example, tourist/consumer behavior and decision making mostly means researching more than mere preferences, dislikes, past experiences, and expectations. Researching tourist/consumer behavior and decision making mostly means looking at complex and multifaceted processes evolving over time, very often a rather long period of time.

Even more than most other “conventional” consumer goods, the tourism product and related purchasing decisions are subject to influences that are difficult to quantify and that are constantly changing. As a consequence, this means that “ … the behavior patterns during purchase are not routine and every purchase occasion will show different approaches” (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007: 72). Another predominant characteristic of the tourism product is that the purchasing decision is highly emotional as well as influenced by other people, which adds an extra difficulty to researching the subject matter, as ”the people who influence decision[s] will also change their views over time” (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007: 73).

Middleton and Clarke (2002) even compare consumers’ minds with computers, where the outcome is preconditioned by two factors: the program run on the computer and the input fed into it. Information can only be processed, both by computers and consumers, if the input occurs and occurs at the right time, that is to say, when required. Therefore, when the objective is to understand the “output” (i.e., the purchase decision), marketers and researchers alike have to understand the “program” processing that information. To make sense of the factual information given “it is necessary for marketers to have some understanding of how information is likely to be received and processed” (Middleton and Clarke, 2002: 76). In other terms, in order to understand and eventually analyze, classify, describe, and possibly predict the decisions made by tourists, one has to try to understand the underlying rationale, the “program,” in short, the whys underlying tourist behavior.

Case Study 1. “Freed from Experience” as a Reason to Go on Holiday

Although we tend to emphasize people’s needs for memorable, out-of-the-ordinary experiences, some people (exemplified by Danes who spend their summer vacations at a Danish caravan site) choose vacations that, from the outside, appear not to incorporate “extraordinary” experiences. A study at a Danish caravan site (comprised of observations and thirty-one in-depth interviews with sixty-one informants) revealed that a key reason why people choose to spend their vacations at a caravan site is that it offers them many opportunities to “do” things whilst they feel no obligation to do so. Hence, these people immerse in life at the caravan site freed from tasks and pressures of everyday life as well as from pressures to experience (e.g., visiting attractions). The study thus indicates that individuals choose to stay at a nearby caravan site because it offers opportunities for making “good” use of valuable spare time (i.e., engaging in experiences) while it will be perfectly all right, once immersed in life at the caravan site, to spend the vacation experiencing nothing out of the ordinary—and that this is an experience in itself. Hence, these people suggest that being “freed from experience” is a key reason why they choose this kind of vacation.

Care to read more? http://www.sam.sdu.dk/ime/PDF/blichfeldt7.pdf.

Gaining insight into tourists’ rationale and uncovering motivation have become even more crucial over the past decade or two than ever before. Crucial for the researcher who wants to find valid and consistent answers, but also crucial for practitioners who need to market their products or even re-create what they have “on display.” This heightened need for actually understanding tourist decision-making processes is due to a change in tourism and thus tourist behavior as well as an even more drastic change in the way tourism is marketed, sold, and bought. Already in 1993, Auliana Poon described a shift within tourism and tourist behavior. From the “old tourism,” the mass tourism of the 70s and 80s, largely dominated by economical factors, the market moved forward toward an increasing demand for individually tailored holidays. “New tourism” thus is described as “flexible, segmented, customized and diagonally integrated” (Poon, 1993).

A pivotal Part in this changing tourism behavior is of course played by modern technologies and the opportunities they create for both providers and consumers. As early as 1997, the Travel Industry Association of America claimed that the travel and tourism market will be one of the predominant markets for online sales. Time has proved this notion to be true. And along with new technologies, the notion of “new tourism” has been refined and defined more clearly. The new technologies are more than a means to an end (e.g., information search, comparisons of price, offer, etc.). These new opportunities have not only changed the kind of information sought by consumers—an increase in the amount, specifics, and detail of information provided. These changes also work “the other way round”—the consumer is influenced by amount, specifics, and detail of information as well. As Buhalis (2003: 54) puts it, “The Internet has enabled the ‘new’ type of tourist to become more knowledgeable and to seek exceptional value for money and time. New consumers are more culturally and environmentally aware and they often like a greater involvement with the local society.”

In other words, not only have circumstances and markets changed, but also consumers have changed considerably. This change in consumers is not only due to the new technological possibilities. There are other factors deriving from society’s development as a whole. Cooper and Buhalis (1998, quoted in Buhalis, 2003: 128) point out, for example, that “the new, sophisticated traveler has emerged as a result of experience” and that this new type is also more linguistically skilled. This means, amongst other things, that an even wider Part of the market is accessible to them and that they have much better opportunities for understanding other cultures, at least those cultures they share a language with. But not only linguistic skills bring other cultures and formerly remote places and people closer to each other and to the (potential) tourist. The modern world offers means and opportunities enough to get to know, visit, and stay in touch with other cultures and their members.

In one word, globalization has altered tourism, the tourist, and tourist behavior as it has altered the world as a whole. And with these alterations, many of our concepts of the world and the subjects and objects in it are forever changed. This affects not only our choices and ways in travel and tourism; it also affects the impressions these travels make on us—and we make on the places visited. Tourism is to a great extent a question of “mind over matter,” the factual who, what, when, where, how much, and how; the abovementioned “classical” questions for a quantitative research setting thus take second place only. Circumstances of setting, time frame, and so on do not stand on their own any longer but are firmly rooted in the mind’s preconceived notions and expectations, derived from past experiences as well as from ideas formed from information by the self, from others, or by means of modern technologies.

In other words, experiences as well as places are set into relation to each other, or as Urry (2007: 259) puts it: “A place is not so much a place with its own associations and meanings for those dwelling or even visiting there, but each is a combination of abstract characteristics, that mark it out as more scenic or cosmopolitan or cool or exotic or global or environmentally degraded than other places … This is a consumption of movement, of bodies, images and information, moving over, under and around the globe and subjecting it to abstract characterizations.” For researchers and marketers of tourism, this emphasizes the need to pose questions other than who, what, when, where, how much, and how. Not necessarily instead of them, but in addition to investigating the factual, a complex, sophisticated and multifaceted “why” has to be aske...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Part I: Motivation and Need Recognition
• Part II: Perception and Information Processing
• Part III: Evaluation of Alternatives and Choice
• Part IV: The Tourism Experience
• Part V: Post-Choice Processes
• Part VI: Individual Determinants of Tourist Behavior
• Part VII: Environmental Determinants of Tourist Behavior
• Contributors