Understanding Consumer Behavior in Tourism
Consumers act as the pivot for every organizational business irrespective of the industry it operates in. hence, every organizational business revolves around its associated customers and try keeping them engaged and involved for a longer period of time (Han, Yu, and Kim 2019). Therefore, unde3rstanding as well as recognizing the elements that impact the decision making of the customers is imperative even in tourism. In the travel and tourism industry, consumer behavio0r plays a critical role by impacting how customers choose the Hotels, Restaurants, and ways of entertainment. This information from the consumers can help the travel organizations in attracting similar customers thereby increasing the revenues and sales of the business to a better extent (Rather and Hollebeek 2020).
As a consequence, understanding the behavior of the consumers is imperative to comprehend and identify what drives them to make their respective decisions while choosing a service. In the same way, acquiring proper insights into the customers allows tourism organizations as well as businesses in gathering and consolidating information reflecting the satisfaction rate of the customers, their wants, and desires (Yachin 2018). In addition to this, it also provides statistics on the number of visits, the profitability, and the characteristics of the customers making it effective and easy for the tourism business to plan its business activities accordingly. This report discusses the factors that are responsible for influencing consumer behavior and attitude and analyses the emerging trends in tourism consumer behavior. The report also demonstrates the path to purchase of consumers in the context of tourism and in relation to the decision making process. This report successfully compares and contrasts the key differences in purchase decision making between B2C and B2B thereby evaluating how tourism markets are capable of influencing the different stages of the decision making process.
Audley Travel is a travel organization based in the United Kingdom that specializes in tailor made holidays as well as private tours for discerning travelers seeking authentic and high quality experiences all over the globe. The organization understands the dilemmas encountered by a tourism consumer while making travel decisions, hence, the experts of this ravel organization are capable of finding new manners and ways for the tourism consumers to experience their respective destinations (Xu, Lo and Wu 2018). Thus, Audley Travel is also capable of arranging immersive tours and activities that would assist and allows the consumers in getting an authentic experience throughout their journey with the travel organization.
According to Park and Jeong 2019, tourism has been significantly impacted by several factors that have disrupted the industry with the huge destruction of properties. However, certain factors that significantly impact the overall consumer attitude and behavior incorporate the cultural factors (including the culture, sub culture, and the social class), social factors (incusing the groups, family, social roles, and social status), and personal factors (such as lifestyle stage, occupation and other) (Xu, Lo and Wu 2018). Hence, it is imperative for every tourism and travel organization (such as Audley) to identify these factors and accordingly be prepared with effective strategies to stay relevant during the changing business environment.
Importance of Consumer Insights for Tourism Organizations
Psychological factors: Consumers are dependent on many basic elements while making any kind of purchase decisions majority of which are subconscious in nature. The cultural attributes are on the basis of learned behavior, generally associated with close partnerships such as family, friends, teachers, and others. Hence, considering the tourism industry, decisions are based on how an individual is raised and the general attribute of the family as a whole (Belanche, Casaló, and Flavián 2021). Psychological factors usually operate in a vacuum and the decision made by the individual has an external influence thus, only with successful identification of these factors, service providers in the tourism industry could successfully streamline or align their activities and accordingly satisfy the desires of the consumers.
Sociological factors: the behavior of the consumers is highly dependent on the social factors primarily on the social group to which the individual belongs to (Ahn and Thomas 2020). These groups are fundamental to the individual are they shield, and solve the issues and concerns assisting mutual operation with a similar group that shares similar beliefs, values, and behaviors.
Cultural factor: culture could be considered as the broad impersonal group comprising of attitude, practices, knowledge as well as technical norms that are accepted by people throughout. Normative behavior of any group or individual is also included in the same (Meitiana et al. 2019). Thus, cultural factors have a strong influence on the attitude and behavior of the consumers by changing or altering the actual decisions made by the individual. Thus, it is imperative for tourism organizations (Audley Travels) to keep a check on the associated cultural groups in order to effectively cater to the needs of the consumers.
Personal factors: personal factors affecting consumer attitude and behavior during a decision making process in tourism incorporate elements such as age, economic condition, lifestyle, personality as well as and occupation (Pinto and Castro 2019). The nature of the job possesses a direct impact on the types of services and brands that an individual picks for himself while traveling. Audley Travels must keep in mind that the buying tendency, as well as the ability of a person, is directly proportional to the individual’s earnings or income per month. Therefore, individuals with high earnings will choose expensive products, and individuals with medium earnings will choose items for their survival (Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Diaz-Fernandez, and Font 2019). Thus, it is essential for the service providers to identify their target audience and accordingly attract them with offers and strategies to generate better revenues and develop a loyal customer base.
The world is changing rapidly due to the impact of digital technologies on the business environment. Tourism consumers are also changing their preferences at the same pace in order to stay effective and relevant (Zsarnoczky 2018). Therefore it is essential that Audley Travels identifies the major trends shaping the entire tourism industry and accordingly act towards the same. Recently, it is observed that consumers have become more aware of their desires and needs (Bozhuk et al. 2020). This is primarily due to the possibilities offered by the technology to the tourism consumers. Travelers are becoming more informed, and empowered and are now able to associate and organize their respective trips independently. In a world more aware of issues with sustainability, the traveler is increasingly being associated and engaged in seeking alternatives that lower the adverse impact on the environment (Maslova et al. 2020). This also means that the consumers now feel more responsible for their individual impact on the society and the environment.
Audley Travel: Tailor-Made Holidays for Discerning Travelers
The tourism industry has adopted contactless payments and the emergence of payments options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay has assisted this industry to have a better position to the next level. In addition to this, allowing contactless payments has also enabled the tourism organizations like Audley Travels in reducing the overall friction thereby enhancing the check ins and check outs (Konstantinova 2019). This also means that services could be paid for encouraging spontaneous purchases. Virtual reality is another major tourism trend that has disrupted the tourism industry thereby capitalizing on the technology could allow Audley Travels in giving a proper competitive edge over its competitors (Konstantinova 2019). Through technology like virtual reality, customers can experience restaurant interiors, hotel interiors, outdoor tourism attractions, and others all at their convenience.
The fundamental decision made by any tourism consumer incorporates, where to travel, when to travel, how long to stay and how much money is to be spent on the stay, and others. These most critical concerns of any tourism consumer require to be addressed effectively in order to make an exceptional decision while traveling (Gupta 2019). Therefore the process of travel decision making could be decided into four primary stages that incorporate, producing motives of the tourists, collecting information, analyzing the collected information, making the final evaluation and decision (Panwaret al. 2019). Therefore, identifying the needs and the element of the tourism decision making process is imperative for understanding the overall process of decision making by a tourism consumer. This could be understood with the following example:
- Arousal of needs: the tourism consumer realizes that he needs to go out on a trip. This might be due to the monotonous life or his changed attitude and proactivity towards a normal routine life (Guerreiro, Viegas, and Guerreiro 2019). The needs of this tourism consumer might also being influenced by several factors like finance. Hence, it is observed that in the case of tourism, need arousal is highly triggered by the internal as well as the external stimuli of individuals.
- Identification of the needs: need recognition in tourism is one of the most critical factors in the entire decision making process. This occurs when a tourism consumer thinks of a service that might address his requirement and solve the associate concerns.
- Level of engagement: while making any decision in tourism, the tourism consumers makes sure about the attribute of the trip and how it might be designed to enjoy optimally. This helps tourism consumers in completely involving themselves during the trip and satisfy their self actualization needs to a certain point.
- Recognition of choices of alternatives: once, the level of the travel is decided by the tourism consumer, collecting data regarding the places that could be visited during the available resources is another step that the tourism consumer looks for (Pop et al. 2022). In this stage, the tourism consumer could identify and evaluate several alternatives and list down the potential alternatives. There are few consumers who take the help of travel agencies during this stage which makes the decision making process easier for them.
- Decision choice: this is the ultimate stage of the tourism consumer decision making process and it is one of the most crucial stages as well. In this case, the tourism consumers weigh each alternative identified and then chose the best alternative (Xu, Lo and Wu 2018). Hence, it is imperative that the tourism consumer is vigilant and is not influenced by any impulsive agents that might direct the overall decision making.
Therefore, mapping the journey of the customers makes sure that the organization are not missing out on the chance to interact with the associated customers at any stage. This process also enables organizational owners and leaders to gain valuable insights about the customer pain points and offer a more optimized and personalized customer experience (Ghorbanzadeh et al. 2019). Thus considering a customer journey map helps tourism marketers and Audley Travels in identifying the experiences of the consumers with the specific brand across every and all touch points. Whether the tourism consumers interact with the Audley Travels through social media, emails, lie charts, or other media channels, mapping the journey of the customers visually enables the tourism marketers in ensuing, not consumers slip through the cracks and accordingly enable the tourism organization (Audley Travels) in developing an effective and loyal consumer base. Considering the rational decision making model and applying it to the tourism consumer decision making, it is evident that tourism, as well as hospitality markets, are capable of reaching more consumers in a shorter span of time along with a reduced cost through the active use of social media channels. This is also helpful in identifying the changing behaviors and attitudes of the tourism consumers and accordingly influencing their decisions (in a positive way) by using social media channels (Tan and Ooi 2018). Understanding the decision making process of the tourism consumers is also helpful in developing a potential relationship between the participant demographics and other variables such as data collected from different mediums thereby influencing the intention of sharing travel experiences of the consumers. Using the structural evaluation modeling is also imperative for the Audley Travels and marketers to obtain the required data on developing meaningful relationships enabling effective torus services.
Factors that Impact Consumer Attitude and Behavior
Earlier the approach of the majority of the travel organizations towards distribution was to keep their respective offers and services uniform across every channel used by the organization. As a consequence, the service will also be the same across different agents, aggregators as well as direct channels. However, recently tourism organizations like Audley Travels have recognized that different target segments might have different needs and thus, if a customer base is not heterogeneous, then Audley Travels can no longer offer identical services during the customer journey. Hence, shifting to an approach that is channel centric would be more appreciable due to its agility and adaptable business strategy.
The definition of B2C in the tourism industry is when a service is provided by an organization. Thus, B2C refers to the sale of services to tourism consumers in order to be profitable. However, the B2B market in the tourism industry is more product driven and needs a better sales structure to remain profitable. For example, a hotel reservation system could be considered a B2B service where the hotels use this platform to deal with the travel agents and corporate clients. As a result, the hotel reservation system being a B2B service provider is capable of managing and distributing rate tiers, modifications, and cancellations within 24horu, allotments, and a reservation all at the same time. On the other hand, in the tourism industry, a B2C is an electronic business relationship between Audley Travels and its consumers along with an online business selling to the consumers. Zalora and Lazada are a few examples to name. For example, the majority of the travel agencies can be placed under the B2B segment in tourism as the travel operators are capable of interacting with the customers through different media channels and providing the travel consumers with the information about the services that could be offered to them.
Tourism organizations understand that a marketing strategy is imperative for overreaching the plan to attain the marketing objectives and goals successfully. However, the Audley Travels uses different approaches for marketing its services and attracting more customers day by day (Nath, Saha, and Salehi-Sangari 2019). Keeping the unique selling point and reaching to the customers on a more personal level is one approach undertaken by several travel organizations like Audley Travels to keep the consumers attracted (R?klaitis and Pilelien? 2019). Considering different social media platforms for marketing is another approach undertaken by Audley Travels. This has enabled the tourism organization (Audley Travels) in setting up better and innovative strategies that also act as a guide to market the tourism brands in an effective manner. Thus, it can be said that making decision in B2B is a long standing process and takes longer to convince the executives form a specific organization. On the contrary, in case of B2C, business consumers takes decision that are usually fast about purchasing the product or not (Lee et al. 2020).
Marketers and marketing in tourism consumer decision making could be highly impactful in influencing the overall attitude and behaviors of the organization. The emotional response of the target audience to the marketing campaigns is one of the biggest reasons that marketing campaigns are effective. Audley Travels has understood this well, and the organization uses the six principles of persuasion namely reciprocity, pack mentality, commitment, liking, scarcity, and authority for influencing the decision making process of the Tourism consumers. Memories of the tourism consumer are considered as another element that impacts the behavior of the consumers. For example, if a service from Audley Travels is capable of influencing the feelings of brand loyalists, the tourism consumers are more likely to be influenced to buy the same service again from Audley Travels (Hsu and Chen 2018). This, it is imperative that tourism organizations like Audley Travels aim at creating sharp and authentic memories in the minds of the tourism consumers to keep them attracted and devotes towards the organization for a longer period of time.
Psychological Factors in Consumer Decision Making
Audley Travels understands that it is easier and more effective for the organization to influence the behavior and the attitude of the consumers when they are aware of the consumer trends. Therefore, Audley Travels aims at identifying the changing habits and preferences of its tourism consumers thereby trying to create and enhance the marketing strategy in accordance with the changing behavioral trends. Armed with the primary six principles of persuasion, Audley Travels is capable of adapting and navigating its potential tourism consumers and converting them easily to generate more sales on behalf of the organization (Alghizzawi 2019). However, Audley Travels makes sure that the organization does not cross the line of influence and manipulation in order to stay relevant to the changing business environment (McCartney and McCartney 2020). Thus, Audley Travel aims at influencing the behavior and attitude of its tourism consumers by using imagery and word links associated with their emotional responses (Lou and Yuan 2019). This also enables the organization in responding to the attempts of influencing the consumer behavior and make its work as an advantage for the organizational revenues and profits at the same time. Thus, marketing campaigns if held frequently would help in influencing the overall purchasing behavior of the tourism consumers thereby making the tourism consumers aware of the benefits if the services offered by different tourism organizations like Audley Travel.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that studying and evaluating the behavior of the consumers is imperative as it helps tourism marketers in understanding the factors influencing the decision of the tourism consumers. Thus, by identifying how consumers decide on the service could help tourism marketers in bridging the gaps and identify the services that are required by the consumers. This would also help in developing a positive and effective relationship with the tourism consumers thereby effectively relating to the need, wants, and desires of the tourism consumers and stakeholders. In addition to this, it also provides statistics on the number of visits, the profitability, and the characteristics of the customers making it effective and easy for the tourism business to plan its business activities accordingly. Since the tourism industry primarily deals with intangible products, thus keeping the consumers satisfied and engaged is imperative. This is only possible by offering high quality services and identifying the changing patterns in behavior and attitude of the consumers. Thus, it is imperative for the Audley Travels and marketers to understand how the consumers make firm decisions about the type of services required and accordingly plan their services.
References
Ahn, J. and Thomas, T.K., 2020. The role of customers’ perceived values of integrated resort brands in destination. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 15, p.100403.
Alghizzawi, M., 2019. The role of digital marketing in consumer behavior: A survey. Int. J. Inf. Technol. Lang. Stud, 3(1), pp.24-31.
Belanche, D., Casaló, L.V. and Flavián, C., 2021. Frontline robots in tourism and hospitality: service enhancement or cost reduction?. Electronic Markets, 31(3), pp.477-492.
Bozhuk, S., Pletneva, N., Maslova, T. and Evdokimov, K., 2020. Problems of transformation in the tourism industry in the digital economy. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 73, p. 01003). EDP Sciences.
Sociological Factors Shaping Consumer Behavior
Ghorbanzadeh, O., Pourmoradian, S., Blaschke, T. and Feizizadeh, B., 2019. Mapping potential nature-based tourism areas by applying GIS-decision making systems in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Journal of Ecotourism, 18(3), pp.261-283.
Gonzalez-Rodriguez, M.R., Diaz-Fernandez, M.C. and Font, X., 2019. Factors influencing willingness of customers of environmentally friendly hotels to pay a price premium. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Guerreiro, C., Viegas, M. and Guerreiro, M., 2019. Social networks and digital influencers: Their role in customer decision journey in tourism. Journal of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, 7(3), pp.240-260.
Gupta, V., 2019. The influencing role of social media in the consumer’s hotel decision-making process. Worldwide hospitality and tourism themes.
Han, H., Yu, J. and Kim, W., 2019. Investigating airline customers’ decision-making process for emerging environmentally-responsible electric airplanes: Influence of gender and age. Tourism management perspectives, 31, pp.85-94.
Hsu, C.L. and Chen, M.C., 2018. How gamification marketing activities motivate desirable consumer behaviors: Focusing on the role of brand love. Computers in Human Behavior, 88, pp.121-133.
Konstantinova, S., 2019. Digital transformation in tourism. KNOWLEDGE-International Journal, 35(1), pp.188-193.
Lee, C.K., Ahmad, M.S., Petrick, J.F., Park, Y.N., Park, E. and Kang, C.W., 2020. The roles of cultural worldview and authenticity in tourists’ decision-making process in a heritage tourism destination using a model of goal-directed behavior. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 18, p.100500.
Lou, C. and Yuan, S., 2019. Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), pp.58-73.
Maslova, T., Pletneva, N., Althonayan, A., Tarasova, E. and Krasnov, A., 2020, September. Transformation of consumer behavior in the tourism industry in the conditions of digital economy. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 940, No. 1, p. 012070). IOP Publishing.
McCartney, G. and McCartney, A., 2020. Rise of the machines: towards a conceptual service-robot research framework for the hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Meitiana, M., Setiawan, M., Rohman, F. and Irawanto, D.W., 2019. Factors affecting souvenir purchase behavior: valuable insight for tourism marketers and industry. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 13(3).
Nath, A., Saha, P. and Salehi-Sangari, E., 2019. Blurring the borders between B2B and B2C: a model of antecedents behind usage of social media for travel planning. Journal of business & industrial marketing.
Panwar, D., Anand, S., Ali, F. and Singal, K., 2019. Consumer decision making process models and their applications to market strategy. International Management Review, 15(1), pp.36-44.
Park, J. and Jeong, E., 2019. Service quality in tourism: A systematic literature review and keyword network analysis. Sustainability, 11(13), p.3665.
Pinto, I. and Castro, C., 2019. Online travel agencies: Factors influencing tourists’ purchase decisions. Tourism & Management Studies, 15(2), pp.7-20.
Pop, R.A., S?pl?can, Z., Dabija, D.C. and Alt, M.A., 2022. The impact of social media influencers on travel decisions: The role of trust in consumer decision journey. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(5), pp.823-843.
Rather, R.A. and Hollebeek, L.D., 2020. Experiential marketing for tourism destinations. The routledge handbook of tourism experience management and marketing. Routledge Publications.
R?klaitis, K. and Pilelien?, L., 2019. Principle differences between B2B and B2C marketing communication processes. Organizacij? vadyba: sisteminiai tyrimai= Management of organizations: systematic research. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas; Sciendo, 2019, T. 81.
Tan, G.W.H. and Ooi, K.B., 2018. Gender and age: Do they really moderate mobile tourism shopping behavior?. Telematics and Informatics, 35(6), pp.1617-1642.
Xu, J., Lo, A. and Wu, J., 2018. Are students customers? Tourism and hospitality students’ evaluation of their higher education experience. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 18(3), pp.236-258.
Yachin, J.M., 2018. The ‘customer journey’: Learning from customers in tourism experience encounters. Tourism management perspectives, 28, pp.201-210.
Zsarnoczky, M., 2018. The digital future of the tourism & hospitality industry. Boston Hospitality Review, 6, pp.1-9.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
