Tourism Product Involvement and Information Search

One of the major factors influencing consumer decisions to purchase a product or service is information sources about the product or service. Awareness of a particular product or service and resulting purchase decisions largely depend on the information consumers are able to gather and the credibility of such information. Often, purchase decisions that are considered risky or about which consumers have more uncertainty result in information search. Travel purchase decisions generally have attributes that encourage consumers to engage in information search. Numerous factors may influence a consumer\u27s information seeking behavior. Several researchers suggest one factor influencing information search is a consumer’s level of product involvement. This purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between product involvement and information search with respect to a tourism destination. A survey was conducted with prospective travelers to a destination in the U.S. Results suggest there is a relationship between involvement and information search, with more involved travelers having an interest in more information about a destination

The Effect of Travel Magazine Features and Photos on Tourist Decision Making

It has been claimed that travel experience is generally pleasure-based and consumed through images such as photographs and stories. It is often assumed that travel oriented publications such as travel magazines have substantial effects on people’s travel decisions, however the influence of these informal information sources has not been investigated to any great extent. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of feature stories and photos in an ongoing source of information, a travel magazine, on travel decisions. For the current study, a path analysis was conducted to validate the hypothesized relationships (Figure 1), which assumes that the feature stories and photos have an influence on enhancing the interest in traveling in Arizona and on the perceived helpfulness of the magazine during ongoing information search, which can lead to influence on travel decisions and evaluation of the magazine as a source of travel information

Tourism visioning: implementing a primary stakeholder approach

Following a discussion on the relationship between participatory planning, collaboration, and tourism visioning, this paper describes the development of a tourism specific visioning process. A case study of a facilitated tourism visioning process in the City of Surprise, Arizona, U.S.A. is presented. This case study provides an example of the potential power of the visioning process for a destination community developing a tourism vision to guide collaborative tourism planning. Insights from three stakeholder workshops are discussed in two contexts: (1) a long-term recommendations of what is needed for implementing a successful tourism visioning process and development of a community tourism plan, and (2) a manageable set of short-term “successes” that could be accomplished by stakeholders collaborating to establish a tourism vision

Perceived effects of Volunteer Tourism in Rio de Janeiro’s favela Community of Rocinha: Working towards Best Practice in Sustainable Tourism

The purpose of this study in progress is to begin to investigate: (a) the differences between mass tourism, favela tours, and volunteer tourism within Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; (b) to identify if members of the community perceive the differences between these types of tourists within their community; (c) to identify if community residents perceive volunteer tourism as beneficial or detrimental to their community; (d) and to identify why NGOs use volunteer tourism as a community development strategy in the community of Rocinha. The method of the future study will be constructed using a semi-structured, open-ended interview questionnaire with qualified informants, and participant observations on volunteer projects with several nongovernmental organizations. It is expected that this proposed research will have significant management implications for volunteer tourism management and community development strategies

Photo elicitation in tourism research: investigating the travel experiences of study abroad participants

Photo elicitation is a natural research technique for the field of tourism as most tourists take photographs to document their travel. Viewing photographs can often enhance memories and the impact of photos on memory is especially useful in the interview process. Among other benefits of the photo elicitation method, a participant may answer questions in greater detail when presented with a photograph as the photo can help the mind recall experiences more clearly and deeply (Cederholm, 2004; Clark-Ibanez, 2004). This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of the photo elicitation method, how the method was used in a study on the travel experiences of study abroad participants, and a discussion on the impact of the method on the study

Local residents’ perceptions about tourism development

Local residents are important stakeholders in tourism development. Their positive quality of life should be considered and ensured while destinations try to satisfy tourists and earn benefits from tourism. This paper examine residents’ perspectives at tourism destinations, specifically, the relationship between residents’ satisfaction with their quality of life related to tourism impacts and their support for tourism. The research site is a popular destination in the Southwest of the USA. Data were collected using a mail-back resident survey. The results of a structural equation modeling approach confirms the hypothesis that residents’ satisfaction with quality of life affects their level of support for further tourism development. However, the indicators and sub-constructs attributing to the residents’ satisfaction with quality of life could be varied, depending on features of each destination and demographics of the residents