Tourists’ Behaviors and Evaluations: Volume 9

Following the hierarchical model of human behavior of Fulton, Manfredo, and Lipscomb (1996), this chapter develops and tests a model incorporating both general and behavior-specific components of motivation. The research aimed to investigate how general and behavior-specific attitudes work together in explaining air travelers’ carbon offsetting behavior. The study is an experimental study that applied confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation models to better understand the motivational factors that influence aviation carbon offsetting behavior. The sample includes 349 staff and students of the University of Queensland. Based on an established hierarchical model of human behavior, the new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale and the theory of planned behavior work together to explicate general and specific attitudes, respectively. The effect from NEP to offsetting intention was partially mediated by three intermediate motivations: awareness of climate impacts of air traveling, perceived effectiveness of carbon offsets in mitigating carbon emissions, and support for a carbon tax. In particular, general support for the carbon price policy showed a complementary relationship with voluntary action.

This study compares the applicability of the zone of tolerance (ZOT) and importance performance analysis (IPA) techniques in the evaluation of convention delegates’ perceptions of products and services. Overall, 217 out of 400 were used for analysis, providing a response rate of 54%. The study results indicated that although an IPA technique is still useful in assessing the service performance of a convention facility, IPA should be employed with caution, concrete criteria, and clear goals. The study results also showed that the ZOT is practically applicable into business practice to assess service performance item by item.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to investigate the extent to which the image of a slow city motivates domestic tourists to visit a destination and (2) to investigate the impact of the slow city on visitors’ behavior, in terms of information search, decision making, holiday experience, and post-holiday experience. To accomplish these objectives, the study follows the rules of qualitative research methods, conducting interviews with 24 domestic visitors to Seferihisar, Turkey’s first accredited slow city. Our findings confirm that the image of a slow city influences the first three stages of visitor behavior, namely motivations, information search, and decision making. The study also shows that visitors had both positive and negative experiences during their holidays and that the slow city had a positive influence over their future intentions.

This chapter offers a deeper understanding of the symbols and meanings attached to tourists’ special possessions as well as of the functions they fulfill in contemporary consumption. Nineteen informants have been interviewed and observed at home in a naturalistic interpretive perspective. Interview transcripts, field notes, and pictorial material were analyzed and interpreted through the grounded theory approach. This results in a new typology of symbolic souvenirs including touristic trinkets, destination stereotypes, paper mementoes, and picked-up objects. Such a typology relates to four major functions souvenirs may fulfill in terms of meanings and identity construction, that is, categorization, self-expression, connectedness, and self-creation.

This chapter presents the potential of exhibition areas operated by consumer goods companies as a method of relationship marketing for corporate branding. Exhibition areas can provide visitors with opportunities to understand corporate brands. In order to clarify the roles of exhibition areas in corporate strategies, we conducted enterprise investigations of three Japanese companies, Sony, Nikka Whisky, and Toyota. Although we would like to propose that operating exhibition areas might be effective for marketing, the results show some differences among the companies in visitors’ data and their purposes. We should first question whether this method is suitable for each company in consideration of their view of corporate branding.

This chapter aims to explore relationship between individual values and holiday preferences. Values as standards of assessing behaviors are often used in tourism research and have been connected to tourists’ behaviors and activities preferences. In this chapter, Schwartz Value Survey (Schwartz, 1992) was used to determine individual values. Holiday preferences were evaluated on a Likert scale using two separate lists: types of destination (e.g., seaside, city) and forms of holiday (e.g., local, short). Sample consisted of 120 university students in Serbia. Results show that there is a correlation between values and holiday preferences. Implications are further discussed in the chapter.

This chapter investigates how holiday decisions for couples change when they become parents. By the use of a qualitative-explorative research approach (grounded theory method), 10 in-depth interviews were done with Dutch parents-to-be expecting their first child. The results show that emotional response ranks high in terms of the occurred changes, which originate from a set of interrelated consequences. A strong link with a deep fundamental basis rooted in daily life values can be made. Such roots oblige the tourism industry to consider product differentiation to serve this segment better and to capture a competitive position in the dynamic tourism industry.

Although the significance of travel risks is well documented, the process through which people assess their vulnerability and ultimately take on preventive measures needs clarification. Motivated by concern with traveler’s underestimation of risks, this chapter provides a crucial next step by introducing new theory to explain how people calibrate travel risks. The conceptual model incorporates constructs from motivational theories, cognitive appraisal, and emotionality. Future studies adopting this model will broaden the nature and scope of research on travel risk while helping government and industry to increase the reach and relevance of travel health and safety messages.

This chapter examines the factors influencing actual in-trip information and communications technology usage by leisure tourists and the potential of adopted technologies to support sustainable tourism. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted in the city of Edinburgh. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that consistent with the literature, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and social influence affected usage while in-trip. Tourists’ level of personal innovativeness also moderated smartphone ownership and actual usage while in the destination. Location-based services and social media proved to be the applications which enjoyed the most usage and the greatest opportunities to promote sustainability.

This chapter examines how motivational and behavioral indicators influence overnight stays of international tourists in the Algarve. The method includes a first selection of the motivations associating with high heterogeneity over the years considered, followed by a correlation matrix to assess how tourists’ behavioral patterns relate with overnight stays. Behavioral patterns by year are defined based on motivations, socio-demographics, intentions, and lagged satisfaction. The correlation analysis was conducted using 15,542 observations collected at Faro international airport, from 2007 to 2010. The findings include 10 main motivations and reveal that these motivations are statistically different by country and over the years. This study contributes to the overall understanding of the dynamics of tourism demand.

“Country-collectors” (CCs) are defined here as international leisure travelers who have visited 6 +  countries within the five most recent calendar years primarily to pursue leisure activities. The study here contributes by offering an early workbench model of antecedents, paths, and outcomes of country-collectors’ evaluations and behavior toward countries as place-brands competing for such visitors. This study reports findings from a large-scale omnibus survey in three large Japanese cities (total n = 1,200). Key findings support the model and the following conclusions. Generally, country-collectors represent a small share of a nation’s adult population (less than 5%) but over 40% of the total leisure trips abroad; country-collectors are classifiable into distinct sub-segments according to the country place-brands that they visit; CC sub-segments, less frequent international leisure travelers, and stay-in-country travelers and non-travelers each offer unique assessments of competing countries as place-brands. National place-brand strategists planning a marketing campaign to influence a given nation’s residents to visit a specific destination (e.g., persuading Japanese nationals to visit the United States) may increase the campaign’s effectiveness by using this workbench model. The study offers a blueprint of how to appraise strengths and weaknesses of competing national place-brands among realized and potential visitors in specific national markets.