This book explores the complex decision-making processes involved in choosing and buying tourism products and services. It combines a theoretical overview of the basics of tourist behaviour and decision-making, with the results of an in-depth qualitative study of vacationers. It considers both the generic decision to go on vacation, or not, and more specific travel decisions, such as destination and accommodation type, from an individual and social point of view. It looks at how, when, and why such decisions are made, and the factors that influence the final outcome. The book concludes by rejecting existing tourist typologies in favour of a new typology of vacationers.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism presents a collection of readings that represent an essential and authoritative reference on the state-of-the-art of the interdisciplinary field of tourism studies. Presents a comprehensive and critical overview of tourism studies across the social sciences Introduces emerging topics and reassesses key themes in tourism studies in the light of recent developments Includes 50 newly commissioned essays by leading experts in the social sciences from around the world Contains cutting-edge perspectives on topics that include tourism’s role in globalization, sustainable tourism, and the state’s role in tourism development Sets an agenda for future tourism research and includes a wealth of bibliographic references

Containing original and previously unpublished theoretical and empirical studies, Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism will give professionals, professors, and researchers in the field up-to-date insight and information on trends, happenings, and findings in the international hospitality business arena. A great resource for educators, this book is complete with learning objectives, concept definitions, and even review questions at the end of each chapter. From this book, readers will understand and learn the needs and preferences of tourists and how to investigate the process of destination and product selection to help provide customers with products and services that will best meet their needs. In today's highly competitive business environment, understanding travel behavior is imperative to success. Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism brings together several studies in one volume, representing the first attempt to explore, define, analyze, and evaluate the consumption of tourist and travel products. This guide offers essential research strategies and methods that enables readers to determine the wants and needs of tourists, including: discussing and evaluating the main factors that affect consumer behavior in travel and tourism, such as travel motivation, destination choice, and the consequent travel behavior exploring the various decision-making processes of consumers that leads to consequent destination choices through case study analysis and marketing suggestions determining customer expectations of products through a variety of research techniques in order to find ways of improving satisfaction examining selected research tools, such as product positioning and repositioning and using perceptual maps, to evaluate the market implications of using qualitative and/or quantitative research techniques detecting and analyzing the relative roles individual, environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic factors play in choosing travel destinations Full of detailed charts and graphs, Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism illustrates key points to give you a better understanding of important facts and findings in the field.

Frameworks are the foundation of good scholarship. They structure, organize and communicate research, underpin individual studies and shape the field of study as a whole. This book introduces students to the concept of frameworks in tourism research and provides a review, discussion and critique of frameworks. Theoretical, conceptual, analytical and integrative frameworks are all covered in detail, with the features, use, strengths and limitations of each from discussed and illustrated using a wide range of examples and applications across the field of tourism studies. It is suitable for acade.

Consumer research is often central to academic studies in many different fields, and more recently, tourism studies have empirically examined consumer research from various aspects. However, there is a need to provide information for tourism scholars on how to better understand aspects of tourist behaviour. Tourist Behaviour: An International Perspective provides a collection of topics from both theoretical and practical approaches to building and examining the theory of how consumers think and act within the context of tourism consumption. Divided in to six sections, the book presents research within the themes of influence, motivation, choice, and consumption and experience. With contributions from authors in over 15 countries, the book presents an interdisciplinary approach of the latest research in tourist behaviour.

The chapters in this volume provide tools and evidence useful for deep understanding of tourists’ buying, consumption, and being through examinations of consumers’ self-descriptions of personal markers of their trip configurations.