Tourism Consumer Behavior

• Chapter 5 focuses on consumer markets and consumer buying behavior within the hospitality and tourism industry.
• Understanding consumer buying behavior is crucial for marketers to tailor their efforts effectively.

Chapter Objectives

• To name the components of the stimulus-response model of consumer behavior.
• To outline the key characteristics influencing consumer behavior.
• To describe the buyer decision process.
• To discuss tourist consumer types, behavior influencers, decision processes, and problem-solving in tourism and hospitality marketing.

Typologies of Tourists as Consumers

• Based on a tourist motivational model, tourists are categorized into three types.

Allocentric (The Wanderers)

• These tourists seek new experiences and adventure in a wide range of activities.
• They are outgoing, self-confident, and prefer flying to explore new, exotic areas before others.
• They enjoy meeting people from different foreign cultures.
• They favor basic transportation and hotels, without structured itineraries.
• They desire the freedom to explore an area, make their own arrangements, and choose from activities and tourist attractions.

Psychocentric (The Repeater)

• These tourists are typically non-adventurous.
• They prefer returning to familiar travel destinations, possibly in packaged tours.
• They like to relax and know what types of food and activity to expect.
• They prefer driving, typical accommodations, and family-type restaurants.

Midcentric (Combination)

• Encompasses individuals who exhibit characteristics that lie between allocentric and psychocentric tendencies.

Henley Centre's Four Phases of Tourism

• The Henley Centre, a consultancy of Futurology, has divided tourists into four phases.
• Phase I: Bubble travelers have limited funds and knowledge, preferring packaged tours to observe cultures without participation.
• Phase II: Idealized experience seekers are confident tourists with foreign tour experience preferring individualized tour offers.
• Phase III: Seasoned travelers are more affluent and confident to experiment in different places and environments, preferring individualistic tours.
• Phase IV: Complete immersers aim to fully immerse themselves in foreign culture, heritage, culinary experience, and language with well-planned but not well-structured holidays.

Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior

• Intrinsic motivation in tourism involves satisfying psychological needs like traveling, leisure activities, exploring novelty, self-expression, creativity, and need for relaxation.
• It drives tourists to opt for tourism for intangible rewards like fun and assurance.
• Attitude influences how a person consistently evaluates, feels, and behaves towards an object, reflecting their positive or negative feelings.
• Perception helps consumers form an understanding of a place, person, or object through observation, listening, or knowledge.
• Different individuals might perceive the same place differently.
  • This stems from selective attention which screens stimuli.
  • Selective distortion twists information based on personal meanings.
  • Selective retention retains information supporting existing attitudes and beliefs.
• Beliefs are descriptive thoughts that consumers hold about something.

Personality of the Consumer

• The nature and physique of a tourist plays an important motivational role in tourism.
  • Age and lifecycle stage influences preferences for leisure activities, travel places, food, which are often age-related.
  • Occupation affects the goods and services consumers buy.
  • Economic situation influences product and service choices.
  • Lifestyle is a person's pattern of living as activities, interests, opinions .
  • Self-concept, or self-image, is one's mental self-portrait, influencing purchases like a cruise vacation for someone outgoing.
• Extrinsic motivation includes external motives in tourism that influence tourists and pull them to a certain motivation and subsequent decision.
• A tourist gets motivated by external factors such as money and the need to knowledgeable on the scale of expenditure and performance

Social Factors

• Social Class is the position someone occupies in society, determined by wealth, education, family prestige, and neighborhood.
• Family structure and income impact buyer behavior.
• The Internet and social media provide instant access to reviews and opinions influencing travel spots and accommodations.
• Geographical factors involves:
  • Place of Origin where the grooming of a tourist depends upon their origin.
  • Tourist Destination which affects the tourist behavior, such as provisions of basic amenities attracts tourists significantly.
• Personal budget influences travel choices, especially with budget-friendly options.

The Buyer Decision Process

• Information search
  • Consumers gather information from personal sources like family and friends.
  • They gather information from commercial sources.
  • Public sources such as restaurant reviews and travel magazines are important
  • The Internet is used comprising company websites, travel blogs, reviews.
• Pre-purchase Evaluation
  • Customers evaluate options based on objective, such as price and location.
  • Subjective criteria, such as perceived status of product or service is considered.
  • They assess different options using relevant criteria, weighing the importance of each attribute.
• Purchase
  • The customer buys the product or service that best meets their criteria.
• Post-purchase Evaluation
  • Customer evaluates the purchase based on expectations after use.
  • Satisfaction occurs if expectations are exceeded and dissatisfaction occurs if expectations are not met .
  • Hospitality providers should "under promise" and "over deliver" to ensure customer satisfaction.

Consumer Buying Behavior

• Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying habits of individuals and households who purchase goods and services for personal consumption.
• Marketers focus on understanding how consumers respond to various marketing efforts.

Consumer Problem-Solving Process

• Habitual problem-solving involves tourists repeating a purchase of previously tried vacation.
• Limited-problem solving involves travelers not searching for alternatives, sticking to their prior purchases.
• Extended-problem solving involves travelers taking ample time to gather information for comparison of products and services.

Five Premises of Consumer Behavior

• Consumer behavior is purposeful and goal-oriented.
• The consumer has free choice.
• Consumer behavior is a process
• Consumer behavior can be influenced
• There's a need for consumer education.

Organizational Buying Process

• It presents 8 Stages in the Organizational Buying Process which are:
  • Problem recognition occurs.
  • General need description occurs.
  • Product specification is made.
  • Supplier search is conducted.
  • Proposal solicitations take place.
  • Supplier selection is carried out.
  • Order-routine specifications are detailed.
  • Performance review is conducted.

Participants in the Organizational Buying Process

• Users are those who require the product for their operations.
• Influencers affect the buying decision because they recognize the need of a product.
• Deciders select product/service requirements and supplies.
• Approvers authorize proposed actions.
• Buyers select suppliers and arrange purchase terms.
• Gatekeepers prevent sellers from directly contacting the buying team.

The Behavior of Business Travelers

• Business travelers are technologically savvy, socially driven, and familiar with the shared economy.
• Millennials are a large segment of corporate travelers who are adept with online travel agencies, self-booking tools, and smartphones.

Global Trends in Consumer Behavior

• Youniverse involves the the customer's individual tastes and preferences that have highest control.
• Purpose-Driven Travel involves making mindful decisions on travel.
• The Business-Leisure Blur involves the continuing combination of professional and personal activities transforming lives.
• Wellness a trend involving traveling for wellness fueled by health-conscious consumers.
• Space, in the future, the tourism and hospitality will cater space tourists.
• Learning and Travel explores the tourist desire to learn from travel experiences.

Personal Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior

• Cultural Factors
• Social Factors
• Personal Factors
• Psychological Factors

Cultural Factors

• Culture is the most basic determinant of a person's wants and behavior
• Subcultures are groups of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations
• Social classes are relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors

Social Factors

• Consumer behavior is influenced by:
  • Consumers' groups
  • Family
  • Social roles
  • Status

Consumer Groups

• An individual's attitudes and behavior are influenced by many small groups
• Types of groups
  • Membership groups
  • Reference groups
  • Aspirational groups
  • Opinion leaders

Personal Factors

• Age and Life-Cycle Stage
• Occupation
• Economic Situation
• Lifestyle – a person's pattern of living as pressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions

Lifestyle

• Values and Lifestyles (VALS) framework

American Lifestyles

• Believers (principle oriented consumers)
• Achievers (successful, work-oriented people who get satisfaction from their jobs)

Personal Factors

• Personality is a person's distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to his or her environment
• Self-Concept is the complex mental pictures people have of themselves, also known as self-image

Psychological Factors

• Motivation
• Maslow's Theory of Motivation: Sought to explain why people are driven by particular needs at particular times
• Herzberg's Theory: A two-two factor theory that distinguishes dissatisfiers (factors that cause dissatisfaction) and satisfiers (factors that cause satisfaction)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• In order from low to high needs:
  • Physiological Needs (hunger, thirst)
  • Safety Needs ( security, protection)
  • Social Needs (sense of belonging, love)
  • Esteem Needs (self esteem) -Self Actualization

Psychological Factors

• Perception:
• Selective Attention: Consumers are constantly bombarded with information and will screen out stimuli
• Selective Distortion: Messages to do not always come across in the same way the sender indented.
• Selective Retention: People will forget much that they learn but will tend to retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs

- Psychological Factors

• Learning describes changes in an individual's behavior arising from experience
• A belief is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something
• An attitude describes a person's relatively consistent evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or an idea

The Buyer Decision Process

• In order:
• Need recognition
• Information search
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Purchase decision
• Postpurchase behavior

Need Recognition

• For the decision process to begin, a potential buyer must first recognize a problem or need
• Can be caused by internal or external stimuli

Information Search

• Information can be obtained from:
  • Personal Sources: Family, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances
  • Commercial Sources: Advertising, salespeople, dealers, packaging, and displays
  • Public Sources: Restaurant reviews, editorials in the travel section, consumer-rating organizations

Evaluation of Alternatives

• Products are seen as bundles of product attributes
• Customers rank attributes and form purchase intentions

Post Purchase Behavior

• The smaller the gap between customer expectations and perceived performance, the greater the customer's satisfaction
• Cognitive dissonance is buyer discomfort caused by post purchase conflict

Best Practices

• Consumers often view price as an indication of quality
• Dissatisfied consumers may not complain
• Employees must seek out consumer dissatisfaction

Best Practices in Consumer Markets and Consumer Buying Behavior

• Hotels such as Pebble Beach Resorts, Yom Brands, and El Questro of Western Australia, did these things.

Quiz questions covering traveler types, motivations, perception, and the organizational buying process in tourism. It explores concepts like allocentric tourists, intangible rewards, and consumer behavior premises.