Consumer Behavior in Tourism

1 Introduction

Along with the improvement of living standard and changing consumption structure, the tourism industry in China is now a blooming industry. There has been a variety of definition regarding tourist product since the early 1970s. One of those definitions that became most influential was proposed by Middleton and Victor (1988), in which a basic distinction was made before defining tourist products. The total tourist product can be defined as the combination of all the elements consumed by a tourist during his or her trip. The specific tourist products are regarded as the components of the total tourist product which can be individually offered to tourists, such as accommodation, transport, attractions as well as other offerings for tourists.

In this report, tourist product refers only to the tourist attractions and travel agencies, which are the components of the total tourist product. 7 interviews concerning the recent purchase of a tourist product were conducted. The interviewees were carefully selected by a diversity of age, income and occupation. Analysis on these interviews is presented with specific emphasis on how purchases were influenced by the interaction with family, friends, co-workers, sales people, and spokespeople.

2 The Purchase Process

In terms of the purchaser of tourist products interviewed, most of the purchaser followed procedures similar to the traditional models of purchase process. As Peter and Olson (2010) stated, the purchase process or adoption process was traditionally recognized as a series of cognitive events followed by an overt behaviour, which is the start of the trip to a particular tourist spot or a chain of chosen tourist attractions. The figure below represents a typical model of the purchase of a high-involvement product, in this case, the tourist product in China.

Figure 1

Basically, the first part of the sequence is being aware of the product, which leads to the retaining of interest and creation of desire to the product. The following section is the evaluation of the chosen product, maybe as well as other alternatives under certain circumstances. The final step is to carry out the action of purchase, which in this case means the purchase of a tourist product. Friends, co-workers, family and other people can influence consumers’ behaviour in each stage.

3 Analysis

3.1 Family

A consumer’s family is one of the most vital social factors influencing consumer behavior, because a family helps shape an individual’s attitudes and behaviors. One way to understand the family’s effect on consumer behavior is to identify the decision maker in the purchase of products. The decision can be made by a husband, wife, or even a child and sometimes in collaboration (Peter and Olson,