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 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.

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’.