New paper accepted "Consumer behaviour in tourism: Key concepts, influences and opportunities"

Today I received the final acceptance decision of a review paper entitled "Consumer behaviour in tourism: Key concepts, influences and opportunities". The paper is co-authored by Scott Cohen (University of Surrey, UK) and Girish Prayag (University of Canterbury, NZ) and has been accepted for publication in Current Issues in Tourism. You can download the word version of the accepted paper here

This is the abstract:

Although consumer behaviour is one of the most researched areas in the field of tourism, few extensive reviews of the body of knowledge in this area exist. This review article examines what we argue are the key concepts, external influences and opportune research contexts in contemporary tourism consumer behaviour research. Using a narrative review, we examine the consumer behaviour literature published in three major tourism journals from 2000 to 2012. Of 519 articles identified and reviewed, 191 are included in this article. We examine the development of and scope for future research on nine key concepts, including decision making, values, motivations, self-concept and personality, expectations, attitudes, perceptions satisfaction, trust and loyalty. We then examine three important external influences on tourism behaviour, technology, Generation Y and the rise in concern over ethical consumption. Lastly, we identify and discuss five research contexts that represent major areas for future scholarship: group and joint decision making, under-researched segments, cross-cultural issues in emerging markets, emotions and consumer misbehaviour. Our examination of key research gaps is concluded by arguing that the hedonic and affective aspects of consumer behaviour research in tourism must be brought to bear on the wider consumer behaviour and marketing literature.

So, if you are doing research on any of the topics covered (in Purple), you will find this paper of interest to your research.

New paper published on Event Sponsorship

I have just had a new paper published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. This paper was based on Arjun Bahl Masters dissertation that I supervised as part of his MSc Tourism and Events @ BU (this Master no longer runs). You can access the paper here (subscription required)

Purpose – This paper aims to examine event sponsorship decision making by the Indian drinks industry, comparing the non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks sectors.

Design/methodology/approach – Data regarding event sponsorship activity, perceptions of event sponsorship, motives to sponsor, form of investment and structure of sponsorship was obtained from a sample of 61 drinks producers in India through a questionnaire. Mann-Whitney and logistic regression were employed to compare the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic sectors.

Findings – The results suggest that the alcohol and non-alcohol drinks sectors sponsored a similar level of events, but in investment volume terms, sponsorship from the non-alcoholic sector is far greater than that of the alcoholic sector. While the two sectors are similar in many ways, the emphasis placed on certain motives for sponsoring events was different, with alcoholic drinks businesses placing greater importance on reaching niche audiences and increasing media coverage than non-alcoholic ones.

Research limitations/implications – A limited number of areas of the sponsorship decision-making were covered, yet the study provides insights into the decision making of one of the key sponsoring industries: the drinks industry.

Practical implications – Securing sponsorship is becoming more difficult and complex. By understanding how sponsors make decisions, including potential variations between companies within an industry, event organisers will be in a better position to tailor sponsorship proposals, enhancing the likelihood of obtaining the desired sponsorship contracts.

Originality/value – Most sponsor decision-making research focuses on how sponsorship decisions can be improved so that they work better for the sponsor. This paper, in contrast, emphasises that by understanding how clients make decisions (i.e. sponsors), sellers (i.e. the sponsored) will be in a better position to win over competition and secure the desired sponsorship deals.

New book chapter "Golf Tourists’ Satisfaction: Hard-Core Versus Recreational Golf Tourists"

published in

“International sports events: impacts, experiences and identities”

edited by Dr. Richard Shipway and Professor Alan Fyall (Bournemouth University)

Today this awaited book has been published. It features an article that I have co-authored with Nuno Ricardo Dias, from the Estoril Higher Institute of Hotel and Tourism Studies. The chapter was written as part of receiving an ESRC (England Social Research Council) grant under the STORMING programme to attend CAUTHE 2010 in Hobart, Australia.

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About the chapter:
Some types of tourism are centered on practicing favourite leisure activities in a different setting. One such example is golf tourism, which has established itself as a significant tourism activity in many countries, including Portugal. In order to improve the performance of the sector, golfing destinations should aim at not only increasing re-visitation rates through greater levels of loyalty, but also to generate new demand, for which word-of-mouth plays a critical role. For these two outcomes to happen, current tourists need to be highly satisfied with their experience. This chapter aims to examine the determinants of golf tourist satisfaction, with a focus on tourists visiting Lisbon. The chapter compares two types of golf tourists: the hard-core golf tourists (those who travel to Lisbon to play golf) and the recreational golf tourists (those who play golf but for whom practicing this sport is not the main reason to travel to Lisbon).

Data from the Lisbon Tourism Board’s 2010 survey profiling golf tourists in Lisbon (Portugal) was obtained and used for the purposes of the empirical study. A total of 520 questionnaires were used in the analysis, 199 from “hard-core” and 321 from “recreational” golf tourists. Pearson correlation was undertaken to identify whether there was a relationship between overall satisfaction and each of the 10 attributes of Lisbon as a golfing destination. The chi-square test was applied when the dependent variable was nominal (gender and reservation of golf course in advance), while the Mann-Whitney was used for ordinal dependent variables (age, number of nights spent in Lisbon and number of golf courses to be played at).

The main results were:

• Golf tourists in Lisbon were middle aged, predominantly male, travelled on a long holiday (over three nights), played in a reduced number of golf courses and booked golf course(s) before arriving at the destination, suggesting that playing golf in Lisbon was a planned rather than a spontaneous activity.
• When compared to hard-core golf tourists, recreational golf tourists are older and a greater proportion are females. In addition, recreationists stay longer but play in fewer golf courses, and are less likely to book the golf course in advance of the trip.
• Tourists evaluated their golfing experience in Lisbon positively. They appeared particularly pleased with the accommodation and the easy access to golf courses.
• According to the correlation coefficients, the value elements appear to play the most important role in influencing overall satisfaction (satisfaction with the price of accommodation, green fees and the cost of playing golf).
• For the hard-core golf tourists, quality aspects in the form of service quality of golf courses, ease of booking and quality of accommodation appear to be a more important influence on satisfaction, while recreational golf tourists appear to consider value as a most important influence (notably price of accommodation and cost of playing golf)
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The full contents are summarised below:

1. International sports events: toward a future research agenda
Richard Shipway and Alan Fyall

SECTION 1 - Impacts and legacies of international sports events
2. Evaluating economic impacts of international sports events
ShiNa Li and Leo Jago
3. Exploring the political and international relations dimensions of hosting sports mega events through the lens of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa
Suzanne Dowse
4. Mega sports events and the potential to create a legacy of increased sport participation in the host country: a London 2012 Olympic promise or Olympic dream?
Kate Hughes
5. ‘No manual available’: the creation of a youth Olympic legacy - a case of Singapore 2010
Youth Olympic Donna Wong
6. The cultural legacy of the 2012 Games
Nancy Stevenson
7. Sports events: do we need to set limits?
Deborah Sadd

SECTION 2 - Consumer behaviour and the participant experience at sports events
8. Understanding the ‘event experience’ of active sports tourists: long distance endurance triathletes
Amanda Miller
9. Sailing events and the participant experience
Holly Henderson
10. Golf tourists’ satisfaction : hard-core versus recreational golf tourists
Miguel Moital and Nuno Ricardo Diaz
11. The Olympic experience from a distance: The case of the equestrian events at the 2008 Games
Katherine Dashper
12. Adventure tourism as a series of memorable events: women travellers walking experiences in New Zealand
Linda Myers and Kevin Hannam

SECTION 3 - Sports events and identities
13. Olympic tourists: seeking a sense of belonging and the construction of social identities
Naomi Kirkup
14. Encouraging active identities and lifestyles: the spatialities of youth mountain biking
Katherine King
15. Stadia, identity and belonging: stirring the sleeping giants of sports tourism
Richard Wright
16. Distance running events and the ‘third place’ Richard Shipway

Endnote - Professor Leo Jago

New Journal Article in ANATOLIA

Today I received the hardcopy of the paper published in ANATOLIA: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research. The paper, entitled "The determinants of intention to purchase leisure travel over the Internet", was publised in Vol. 20, Number 2, pp. 345-358. This paper is still based on my PhD thesis.

ABTRACT: More than 10 years on since the launch of the Internet, there are clear differential levels of adoption of the Internet for purchasing leisure travel across countries. In some countries, such as Portugal, only a minority of travel purchasing is conducted over the Internet. This paper aims to contribute to a greater understanding of adoption of purchasing over the Internet by evaluating the determinants of intention to adopt the Internet for purchasing leisure travel. A number of variables are used to assess which factors influence intention, including the attributes of purchasing over the Internet (relative advantage and complexity), involvement, and the stage in the e-commerce adoption path. Kruskal-Wallis and logistic regression were employed and the results indicated that relative advantage, involvement and stage in the e-commerce adoption path were important predictors of the intention to purchase leisure travel over the Internet, while complexity was not.

The "Bournemouth Matrix"

The new academic year is under way, in fact we are already half way through the first term! This has been a pretty hectic term and I cannot complaint of lack of work... I am unit tutor for three undergraduate units:

• Leisure Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing)
• Event Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Events Management)
• Consumer Experience & Behaviour (Year two; BA (Hons) Events Management)

I am also the leader for the Events Principles and Practice unit for the MSc in Events Management.

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These four units account for 340 undergraduate students and 40 Masters students! Fair enough, I am noyt teaching them alone - that would be impossible. The Event/Leisure Innovation units are co-taught with Pearl Morrison and the EPP unit with Caroline Jackson and Debbie Sadd.

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The content of the units is pretty much the same as in previous years, however I had to create something new for the LI/EI units. As I have reported in previous entries, in these units students have to develop a new leisure product/event for a real organisation. As part of the process, students need to examine the organisation’s product portfolio. One of the most methods employed to analyse an organisation’s product portfolio is the Boston Matrix. The focus of the Boston Matrix is on the relationship between the product and its market. Yet, sometimes it is not possible to clearly define the market for certain products. Recognising some weaknesses in the Boston Matrix, notably the fact that other variables than market share and market growth may be important means of analysing product portfolios, the General Electric (GE) matrix was developed. This matrix analyses each product based on market attractiveness (a measure of industry attractiveness) and business position (a measure of competitive position).

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The currently existing product planning matrices were formulated for business with clearly identifiable business units (SBUs). However, some businesses/organisations might not contain a range of clearly identifiable SBUs. In many cases, one businesses contains only one SBU – the business itself. Yet, the product offered by that business could be made up of different sub-products, that together contribute to the organisation’s competitiveness.

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One category where one SBU might consist of a number of products is service-based experiences. Experiential products are different from other types of products in that for a single price the person consumes a range of products (or sub-experiences). For example, visitor attractions are made up of a number of product propositions. These could include one core product (entertainment) and two supporting products (food and retail opportunities). The entertainment product, in turn, is usually made up of several components. If Farmer Palmers, a farm themed attraction for children under 8, is used as an example, its entertainment consists of pedal tractors, milking the cow, forest walk and straw mountain (just to name a few). In a similar vein, a fitness centre is made up of, for example, three products: Gym (core product), Spa/Beauty Centre and Café (Supporting products). The Gym, in turn is made up of several components, including group classes, weights and cardio fitness. Some of these components could even be further divided. For example, the cardio fitness component consist of different sub-components, such as treadmills, exercise bikes and rowing machines.

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This indicates that often:

• leisure products consist of several components which are consumed at a single price. These individual components do not generate income independently of others (at least objectively) given the pricing structure. Together, they contribute to generate income through the single price charged for the consumption of the core product. Yet, existing matrices focus on a clearly identify business unit, capable of generating income independently of other products. They have not been designed to perform product analyses when it is not possible to establish revenues or units sold.
• no information is available as to the size of the market (entire demand or supply) for each of these products/components. It is virtually impossible to establish the market for pedal tractors, straw mountains, treadmills and rowing machines. It is also difficult (if not impossible) to establish the market size of supporting products (such as retail and food)

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Thus, product portfolio analyses within the service-based leisure industries should be based on a different anchor that the notion of ‘market’. What I suggest as an alternative is to adopt an experiential ‘anchor’ as the basis for undertaking product portfolio analyses in the service-based leisure industries. The resulting matrix is tentatively called the “Bournemouth Matrix”. The proposed matrix analyses products (or their components) in relation to two areas: consumer appeal and development potential.

· Consumer appeal refers to how much a product (or component) contributes to the overall experience provided by the leisure organisation. Another way of looking at consumer appeal is to examine to what extent the withdrawal of that product (or component) would impact on how appealing the organisation would be to actual or potential consumers. Evidence to plot products (or components) along this axe could include: actual usage and consumer feedback (including consumer surveys).

· Development potential refers to the extent to which a particular product (or component) can be changed to enhance the customer experience (in terms of appealing/satisfying consumers more or satisfying a larger number of consumers). Establishing the development potential of products and components could result from an analysis of factors internal and external to the product or component.

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A more complete version of the matrix has been developed and an 8 page support document produced. Students are now applying the matrix to their allocated organisation and if the matrix proves to be useful to a wide range of organisations within the leisure industries, then I will ‘formally’ publish it.

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PS: As this is working in progress, no reference to the Bournemouth Matrix should be made without my previous consent. If you wish to discuss its use, contact me mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Publication of a book chapter

Today I have received a copy of the book Handbook of Tourist Behaviour: Theory & Practice, edited by Metin Kozak and Alain Decrop and published by Roudledge, where I have published a chapter entitled “The antecedents and consequences of prestige motivation in tourism: an expectancy-value motivation” (co-authored with Antónia Correia).

Choosing, buying and consuming tourism/travel products and services includes a range of psycho-social processes and a number of personal and environmental influences that researchers and managers should take into account. This book provides an overview of such processes and influences and explains the basic concepts and theories that underlie tourist decision-making and behavior.

We know quite a lot about what motivates tourists, but most studies focus on motivation as a whole (i.e. what are the most important motives). The number of studies devoted to the systematic examination of specific motives, such as prestige, is rather limited and an integrative model is lacking. Therefore this chapter aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on tourist motivation (1) by reviewing existing research in the field of the prestige motivation and (2) by developing an analytical model of prestige tourism motivation. This model is supported by current knowledge on prestige consumption, both within and outside the tourism literature, resulting in a detailed understanding of the motivation and expectation formation process. A number of research opportunities in the field of prestige tourism motivation are also identified.

Publication of a refereed paper

Today I received the final version of the pdf of a paper accepted for the International Journal of Tourism Policy (Vol 2, Nº 1/2). The title of the paper is "Multidimensional segmentation of gastronomic tourists based on motivation and satisfaction" and is co-authored with Antónia Correia (Algarve University), Carlos Ferreira da Costa (Masters Student at University of Aveiro) and Nuno Oliveira (PhD Student at the London Business School).

This paper evaluates whether motivation and satisfaction can be used as segmentation variables in gastronomy tourism. Based on a stratified random sample, the respondents were asked to rank the attributes when selecting a restaurant offering Portuguese gastronomy (motivation), as well as, their evaluation of those attributes (satisfaction). Factor analysis, categorical principal component analysis and non-hierarchical cluster analysis are employed to identify distinct groups of tourists. The findings point out three market segments which suggest that motivation is a much more powerful variable for segmenting gastronomic tourists than satisfaction. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for tourism policy and management.

I am particularly pleased with my involvement in the publication of this paper as the feedback from reviewers was very positive. One of the reviewers did not ask for any changes to be made and added "I would like to congratulate author(s) for their efforts and patience to come up with such an over-standard and well-designed paper". Certainly a comment to be proud of.

This is the second paper published from the gastronomy tourism study. The first published paper was entitled "The determinants of gastronomic tourists’ satisfaction: a second-order factor analysis", Journal of Foodservice, 19, 164-176. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the presence of a single second-order factor by developing and empirically validating a second-order factor analysis model for measuring satisfaction of gastronomic tourists in Portugal. Among the three first-order factors, ‘gastronomy’ was the most important determinant of tourist satisfaction, followed by ‘price and quality’ and ‘atmosphere’.