Science of Consumer Behavior Tourism Industry

Question: Discuss about the Science of Consumer Behavior for Tourism Industry. Answer: Introduction Travel and tourism industry has grown to be one of the most influential industries of the world. It has driven many economies towards welfare which is one of the best things that has happened to many developing economies. Many countries in the world largely depend upon travel and tourism industry for the overall growth and development of the country. It s important to mention that with time opportunities in travel and tourism industry has grown which has been conducive for many countries to make serious amendments about the travel and tourism industry in the country (Morin, 2011). The importance of travel and tourism has grown rapidly as the interest in tourism has increased consistently in the last few decades which have been conducive for the growth and development of the travel and tourism industry globally. Countries like Malaysia, Mauritius, and Hong Kong depend highly on their tourism. On the other hand countries like Spain, Italy, and United Kingdom receive a substantial amount through travel and tourism. It is quite clear that tourism consumer has increased slowly and steadily with time and this has favored competition in the travel and tourism market. Every tourism company has emphasised on understanding the science of consumer behavior. The key to realising the different aspects that helps a consumer decide on their tourism consumption. Hence it could be said that the science of consumer behavior is extremely important to be understood by companies and the present study will try to delve deep into this matter. The increasing number of holiday destina tions all around the world has kind of got people confused about making their tourism decisions which creates a huge problem in the industry (MacInnis Folkes, 2010). The purchase decisions of the consumers depend on different attributes which are extremely important to be evaluated. There have been a lot of researches on consumer purchasing behavior and it has showed that consumer purchase behavior is a complex mechanism and involves huge psychological assessment of different aspects. The buying behavior of consumers stands to be very important in deciding about choosing a product or service that will fulfill the needs and wants of the consumers. Consumer behavioral attributes is what most of the companies try to analyse in order to understand what they could exactly think and assess before going for a certain product or service (Goel et al., 2010). The information is taken from a primary research study which was based on specific number of respondents interested in travel and their responses have been interpreted numerically in order to gain effective idea about the trend in travel and tourism industry. The study will help us to scrutinise the key reasons behind the decision taken by a consumers and what thought process is likely applied in choosing the holiday destinations. The different attributes like cost, transport, different activities involved come into picture and how do they influence the decision making process of the consumers are also reflected upon effectively (De Mooij, 2010). Analysis of consumer decisions The present study has taken up the overall assessment of choosing three different holiday destinations. In the first place it is important to mention that all the data collected have reflected on the original decisions of the respondents and it has helped to realise the key factors that goes on to make consumer decisions. Three respondents and their data have been chosen to be analysed effectively which will give us a fair bit of idea about the science of consumer behavior. The three respondents have answered certain questions relevant on 6 different locations all around the world and have given contrasting answers which would help us to develop strong rationale about consumer behavior and the influence of different aspects related to consumer buying behavior (Foxall, 2010). The main factor that has seemed to have affected the consumer behavior of buying any tourism package is Cost. Cost is one of the most important things that are taken into account by most consumers in order to develop a strong sense which drives their buying behavior. Cost or economic factor has always been the biggest motivator and vice versa for people indulging into shopping, entertainment and travel and tourism. It has been again proved that consumers see cost as the major influence in making their purchase decisions. From the given data it could be seen that two out of three respondents have rated cost as one of the most key aspect in evaluating a particular destination as suitable or not suitable. Both the respondents have given it a rating above 40 which clearly indicates that the trend of choosing the travel and tourism package is highly dependent on cost (Miller, 2009). Cost determines whether a consumer will choose a particular product or not. At the same in relation to this criteria both the respondents who are male one of 51 and the other of 19 have nodded negatively against the expensive package of Spain, France and Italy and rated it 1 which means very poor. This also clears the air about any confusion lying on the fact that cost is the most important aspect for any consumers looking to book tourism package. This has also been seen that both the respondents saying cost is a key factor are men which means that men tends to assess cost as a huge factor which means men are much more conservative about the income and expenses and want to spend or invest money prudently which is very visible from this case. On the other hand the woman has rated cost under 40 which means she does have an opinion on price but it is not a big deal for her and she is much more interested on the other factors (De Mooij Hofstede, 2011). The aspect of cost brings in another related factor into the picture that is income. It is important to mention that income attribute of a consumer is also a huge factor in determining ones taste and preference but of course there are exceptions. In this case as it is seen from the given data that respondent 1 is a young male of 19 and is still studying and is a part time worker and doesnt have huge income he has already cleared that he wants to have new experiences it is imminent that he will effectively develop interest for tourism. But since his income is not huge and is just $39000 a year it becomes tough for him to afford any kind of expensive tourism package (Wyer Srull, 2014). At the same time the 51 year old male has an income of around $151,900 pretax he is married and hence he cannot only focus on tourism so it is clear that both of them are bound financially and cannot go for expensive tourism package and so they go for cheaper packages. Whereas the female respondent has high income and apparently much stable so she could easily afford to pay for expensive packages (Kardes et al., 2014). If its minutely seen it could be said that these individuals differ in their style and interest since they belong to different group, ethnicity and culture. It is important to mention that the choice of tourism locations also largely depend upon ethnicity. In this case we have got diversified ethnicity. The young student is from Australia and he is extroverted as he has strongly agreed to this point in the survey, it could be said that being a young boy from university he would look to learn about the life of worlds biggest sin city Las Vegas. As a young man he would like to experience the night life of the place and learn about different things and play poker in the casinos and his interest is quite justified given his age. On the other hand since he is an Australian he would like to go a place where he can speak English is original tongue and could lead a similar English lifestyle in a place and hence there couldnt have been a better idea than Las Vegas (Rucker Galinsky, 2014). On the other hand the 51 year males ethnicity is Chinese and hence it is clear that why he has opted for Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong is almost neighboring to China it has similar culture, food and lifestyle which would help him and his family to stay within their culture even after coming to a holiday which stands to be the key reason why he has opted for China. On the other hand Chinese Culture is orthodox culture and being introvert helps to be in this culture. Finally the Woman is from Canada and in terms of nature she is a neutral lady but loves power and uniqueness which helps her to opt for Barossa Valley. Since she loves uniqueness she has opted for this wine testing tour which will give her self-satisfaction (Osbaldiston Schott, 2011). Hence it could be said that some of the important aspects which influence the decisions making of consumers are cost, income, ethnicity and uniqueness of the place and obviously the nature of the consumers. Behavior of the chosen respondents The behavior of the chosen respondents is very clear from their choices of purchasing tourism packages. Their behavior could be understood and personalities could be assessed. The first respondent is a 19 year young male who is per time worker and an undergraduate student. His income is not huge and is just $39000 P.A hence it is clear that he would be fun loving jovial guy looking for fun all the time which reflects on his choice of destination as Las Vegas and this establishes his personality as well. On the other hand the 51 year old man who is not an extrovert and is looking for a holiday which would allow his family to stay under their culture but also have fun within a stipulated budget and hence Hong Kong is a good idea. This choice made by him clearly shows that he is orthodox by nature and a serious personality. Lastly the lady of 43 years is well established highly educated has a PhD (Higgins Scholer, 2009). Degree and earns huge amount of money herself. She is also not an extrovert and hence wants to go for a holiday which will help her to spend time in peace and give her self-satisfaction which is provided by Barossa Valley. The wine testing and accommodation in 4 star hotels perfectly foils the tour and even though she doesnt have money problem her class and gravity has made this choice along with her husband who is ruling force in this case. This clearly indicates that she has a conservative personality and is looking for something with class and peace (Osbaldiston Schott, 2011). Marketing to young customers Companies catering to young clients similar to the one in this involved case who opted for Las Vegas should be very prudent as these kinds of clients have significant characteristics. Since these people are young and fun loving they normally dont have huge money but as they are extrovert and love to experience new and unique things they opt for places like Las Vegas hence it is important for the tour operators to keep these features in mind for young people and learn different aspects from one ro more purchases happening. This will help to learn from one transaction and implement it in the next which will help to advertise these kinds of packages only to young segments and gradually it will increase the profitability of the company (Higgins Scholer, 2009). Conclusion At the present moment the tourism industry is a very competitive industry globally and naturally consumers become highly confused about which place to go to or which place to or which tourism package to buy as there are numerous companies providing the same kind of packages, some at better price and some at better configuration and this clearly arises problems for consumers and in this scenario if companies are able to assess the key aspects that influence consumer behavior it will help companies to develop ideas and plans to utilise these information effectively in order to draw consumers towards the business and gain competitive advantage in the market (Miller, 2009). The present study has highlighted on the analysis done on the key aspects which influence consumer buying behavior which has helped to cover the different objectives of the study making it a success. References Morin, C. (2011). Neuromarketing: the new science of consumer behavior.Society,48(2), 131-135. MacInnis, D. J., Folkes, V. S. (2010). The disciplinary status of consumer behavior: A sociology of science perspective on key controversies.Journal of Consumer Research,36(6), 899-914. Goel, S., Hofman, J. M., Lahaie, S., Pennock, D. M., Watts, D. J. (2010). Predicting consumer behavior with Web search.Proceedings of the National academy of sciences,107(41), 17486-17490. De Mooij, M. (2010).Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising. Sage. Foxall, G. R. (2010). Invitation to consumer behavior analysis.Journal of Organizational Behavior Management,30(2), 92-109. Miller, G. (2009).Spent: Sex, evolution, and consumer behavior. Penguin. De Mooij, M., Hofstede, G. (2011). Cross-cultural consumer behavior: A review of research findings.Journal of International Consumer Marketing,23(3-4), 181-192. Wyer Jr, R. S., Srull, T. K. (2014).Handbook of Social Cognition: Volume 2: Applications. Psychology Press. Kardes, F., Cronley, M., Cline, T. (2014).Consumer behavior. Cengage Learning. Rucker, D. D., Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Conspicuous consumption versus utilitarian ideals: How different levels of power shape consumer behavior.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,45(3), 549-555. Osbaldiston, R., Schott, J. P. (2011). Environmental sustainability and behavioral science: Meta-analysis of proenvironmental behavior experiments.Environment and Behavior, 0013916511402673. Higgins, E. T., Scholer, A. A. (2009). Engaging the consumer: The science and art of the value creation process.Journal of Consumer Psychology,19(2), 100-114.