Factor Affects The Consumer Behavior Tourism Essay

Nowadays, there are many authors defined motivation as a major determinant of the tourists behavior. Mostly, the theory of motivation is related to the concept of need. Needs are seen as the force that arouses motivated behavior and it is assumed that, to understand human motivation, it is necessary to discover what needs people have and how they can be fulfilled. Maslow in 1943 was the first to attempt to do this with his needs hierarchy theory, now the best known of all motivation theories.

Physiological needs

Hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, air

Safety needs

Freedom from threat or danger

Social needs

Feeling of belonging, affection and friendship

Esteem needs

Self- respect, achievement. Self-confidence, reputation, recognition, prestige

Needs for self- actualization

Self-fulfillment, realizing one’s potential

Figure 4.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Source: Maslow, 1943)

Other attempts to explain tourist motivation have identified with Maslow’s needs hierarchy. Mill and Morrison (1985), for example, see travel as a need or want satisfier, and show how Maslow’s hierarchy ties in with travel motivations and the travel literature. Similarly, Dann’s (1977) tourism motivators can be linked to Maslow’s list of needs. He argued that there are basically two factors in a decision to travel, the push factors and the pull factors. The push factors are those that make you want to travel and the pull factors are those that affect where you travel. In his appraisal of tourism motivation, Dann proposed seven categories of travel motivation:

Travel as a response to what is lacking yet desired. We live in an anomic society and this, according to Dann, fosters a need in people for social interaction that is missing from the home environment.

Destination pull in response to motivational push

Motivation as a fantasy

Motivation as a classified purpose, such as visiting friends and relatives or study.

Motivational typologies

Motivation and tourist experiences

Motivation as auto-definition and meaning, suggesting that the way tourists define their situations will provide a greater understanding of tourist motivation than simply observing their behavior.

2.3 Destination Choice

There is few research studies of destination choice have been analyzed personal values to determine for the reason of consumers choose a particular destination. According to Muller (1991) stated, he has developed profiles for various section in an international tourism market in order to demonstrate the usefulness of profiling visitor segments in such a way that the importance of various tourism destination criteria could be attributed to specific value orientations. Besides that, he also believed that value-based data are easier to obtain than lifestyle profiles because a value survey is considerably shorter than a lifestyle questionnaire. The approach taken was to:

Isolate segments in the market, based on the importance visitors attach to several attributes of a city visit

Develop value-based profiles of these segments

Assess the marketing implications of the value profiles for tourism product development and promotional strategies.

According to Crompton, 1977, the destination choice has been conceptualized as having two phases which are generic phase and the second phase is concerned with where to go. The generic phase issue the fundamental issue of whether or not to have a holiday at all. Once the decision-making for vacation is made, the second phase is concerned with where to go such as plan for destination choice. On the other hand, Um and Crompton, 1990 also explored a concept as to probe the second phase with developing a framework of travel destination choice for consumer to provide a context for the study. In facts, the concepts used in the framework were consists of external inputs, internal inputs and cognitive constructs. For the external inputs part, the sum of social interactions and marketing communications to which a potential traveler is exposed and the internal inputs were viewed as a potential traveler which includes personal characteristics, motives, values and attitudes. For the last one of cognitive constructs which represent an combination of the internal and external inputs into the destinations and the evoked set of destinations.

2.2 Factor Affects the Consumer Behavior

2.2.1 Web

The rapid growth of the internet has changed the way people search information about hospitality and tourism services. Product knowledge, or expertise and familiarity, seem to influence travelers’ information search activities (Gursoy, 2003). The impact of multi-channel access on consumers’ decision making processes was discussed in Louviers et al. (2003) study of the global hotel industry. In a cross-cultural study of German and Japanese visitors to the US, Money and Crotts (2003) show that uncertainty avoidance as a cultural dimension influences consumers’ information search processes, including channel choices.

Difference between on-line shoppers and non-shoppers were examined in the context of travel purchases (Card et al., 2003). Although response speed was identified as one of the key ingredients to a successful recovery following an e-mail complaint to a hotel (Mattila and Mount, 2003a), hotels seem to be failing in this area. In a study of Singaporean travel agents, Murphy and Tan (2003) report that customers have a slim chance of receiving a reply to their e-mail inquiry. Similar disappointing results were reported in a Swiss context (Frey et al., 2003). Poria and Oppewal (2003) suggest that on-line news discussions might provide a new avenue for investigating consumer behavior. Dube et al. (2003), on the other hand, argue that “experience engineering” is a necessary component of value creation in today’s hospitality industry and that the internet could be effectively used to set stage for pleasurable experiences.

2.2.2 Safety and mature consumers

In the post-9/11 environment safety and security have resurfaced as topics of interest. While some cross-cultural differences exist in customer perceptions of airline service (Kim and Prideaux, 2003), Gilbert and Wong (2003) show that assurance, including safety concerns, is the most crucial service quality dimension among international travelers. Since safety is one of people’s intrinsic motivations, understanding tourists’ perceptions of crime is critical for destination marketing (Barker et al., 2003). George (2003), for example, examined tourist perceptions of safety while visiting Cape Town, a representative of destinations with an unsafe image. Looking at food safety issues, Reynolds and Balinbin (2003) show that educating consumers about Mad Cow disease positively influences their perceptions of beef as a safe choice.

The aging population is a major demographic shift in today’s Western world. To better understand that needs and wants of these mature consumers, many hospitality researchers have turned their attention to this growing market segment. On a positive note, an examination of economic and socio-demographic factors suggests that the demand for full-service restaurants is going to increase in the near future partly due to aging population (Kim and Geistfeld, 2003). Research by Moschis et al. (2003) suggests that mature consumers respond differently to various marketing promotions, but that monetary appeals might not be the most effective way of reaching this target population. These more mature consumers seem to strive for socialization when dinning out (Yamanaka et al., 2003). In terms of advertising, hospitality and tourism marketers need to understand how behavioral scripting in TV ads influences older consumers’ perceptions of hospitality products and services (Peterson and Sautter, 2003). A study in a casino context shows that elderly females might be a particularly attractive but somewhat vulnerable (due to low levels of education and income) market segment (Moseley et al., 2003).

2.2.3 Pricing and other studies

Asymmetric effects of positive and negative price deviations on price, quality and value were examined by Oh (2003b). Monty and Skidmore (2003) discussed the usefulness of hedonic pricing in estimating consumers’ willingness to pay more for bed and breakfast type accommodations. Contrary to common beliefs, Kincard and Corsun (2003) demonstrate that the layout if menu items is not linked to item sales. Noriega and Lin (2003) identified difference in attitudes and behaviors of gamblers based on their preferred gambling activity whereas people with disabilities served as a sample for the effectiveness of travel agents in Hong Kong (McKercher et al., 2003).

2.2.4 Tourism studies

Regarding tourism behavior, the topics covered in hospitality and tourism journals in 2003 seem to fall in the general categories of consumer research in tourism: destination choice/image, segmentation and decision-making or choice. Understanding the basic motivations in destination choice among various target markets was the key concept in many of the published studies. Andriotis and Vaughan (2003) studied the attitudes of urban residents toward tourism development on Crete. Trekkers perceptions of Nepal were identified by Holden (2003) while Mohsin and Ryan (2003) examined motives of backpackers in Northern Australia. Naoi (2003) used Lew’s cognitive perspective in analyzing Japanese tourists’ motivations. Uriely et al. (2003) examined how residents’ religious attitudes influence their attitudes toward heritage tourism in Israel. Teye and Leclerc (2003) studied the motivations of cruise line passengers from an ethnic perspective.

Rittichainuwat et al. (2003) examined the joint influence of destination image, travel satisfaction, motivation and inhibitors on repeat purchase intent in the context of Thailand. Rezende-Parker et al. (2003) explored US visitors’ image of Brazil as a vacation destination. Pike (2003) employed repertory grid method to destination image research. From a more conceptual perspective, Kim and Yoon (2003) concluded that affect is a more salient determinant of destination image than cognition. To obtain a more dynamic view of destination perceptions, Vogt and Andereck (2003) examined how destination knowledge and desirability perceptions change during the course of the vacation. As an interesting example of interdisciplinary co-operation between academic publications, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing had a special issue co-published with Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing. Many of the articles in that issue dealt with wine regions as tourist destinations (e.g., Hashimoto and Telfer (2003) examining the Niagara Region, Frochot (2003) investigating the impact of food images on French Regional Tourism and Du Rabd et al. (2003) focusing on food destination marketing in South Africa).

Culture or geographic location was the main focus in most of the segmentation studies. Sirakaya et al. (2003) examined the segments of Japanese visitors to Turkey. Chen and Uyasal (2003) developed a typology of leisure travelers visiting 10 eastern states and found support for two distinct groups: novelty seekers and acquaintance visitors. In another destination based study, Wisconsin rural tourists can be classified to five distinct segments. Individuality of German tourists visiting Norway was examined by Prebensen et al. (2003). Vacation styles were used as a segmentation variable for examining winter tourists in Aurstralia (Dolnicar and Leisch, 2003). McKercher and du Cros (2003) identified typologies for cultural tourism. Razzouk and Seitz (2003) found that individuals interested in nude recreation tend to be Middle-class, well-educated Caucasians who are family-oriented and fun-loving. In an attempt to reach out to emotions, Chen (2003a) explored tourists’ sentiments toward marketing as a segmentation variable. Form a methodological perspective, Chen (2003b) introduced a new segmentation framework (travel segmentation with chi-square automatic interaction detection) to the tourism literature.

With regard to decision-making, another important line of research in tourism behavior, Van Middelkoop and Timmermans (2003) showed that other heuristics such as the context might be more beneficial than utility maximization in explaining tourist choices regarding travel mode. Kang et al. (2003) examined family decision making and its impact on segmentation strategies. To enrich our understanding of tourism choice processes, Eugenio-Martin (2003) developed a five-stage, conceptual model using a discrete choice approach.

2.3 Effects of environment on consumer behavior

Traditionally, explanations of consumer behavior are cast in terms that are rooted in cognitive psychology (Bargh, 2002). Before people buy, or choose, or decide, they engage in more or less elaborate, conscious information processing (Chaiken, 1980; Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Information processing may lead to certain attitudes, and these attitudes, in turn, may or may not affect decisions. The amount of information that is processed is dependent on various moderators, such as involvement (e.g., Fazio, 1990; Krugman, 1965). In addition, the sort of information that finally influences your attitudes can differ too. Attitudes can be based more on cognitive beliefs, such as when one finds a product very useful, or more on affect, such as when a product has important symbolic meanings (Venkatraman & MacInnes, 1985). However, various known moderators notwithstanding, the key always seems to be that people consciously process information before they decide what to buy (or eat, or drink, etc.). Although this emphasis on information processing is highly useful, it also has an inherent danger. The flavor of the approach is conscious and highly intrapersonal. That is, the general picture that emerges is that of a conscious decision maker who negotiates decisions based on processing the pros and cons of a certain product. There is no doubt that people sometimes do this, especially when such products are important and expensive, but very often they do not.

2.3.1 Malleable automatic attitudes

Given that consumer choices are at least partly based on automatically activated attitudes, the consequences of these findings are far-reaching. These automatically activated attitudes are not stable, and hence, they do not always lead to the same choices. Instead, such attitudes are partly determined by the current social environment and by current goals. Moreover, people are generally unaware of the moderating effects of these subtle influences.

2.4 The Identification of Factor Influencing Destination Choice

Choice has been defined as a transformation of motivation in purchasing action (Buhalis, 2000). The destination choice is made by alternative evaluation based on individual preferences and goals, while evaluation of tourist product is based on individual evaluative criteria (Moutinho, 1987).

 Factors that influence consumer behaviour can be internal and external to the individual. Among the internal determinants are social and personal, while the external ones include confidence in the travel agency, the overall image of alternatives, previous travel experience, travel constraints (time, cost, etc), degree of perceived risk, etc. Among the major influences of individual travel behaviour are family, reference groups, social classes, culture and subculture that determine individual’s personality, learning, motivation, perception (of alternatives) and attitudes (Moutinho, 1987). Eilat and Einav (2004) add destination risk to be one of the factors that influence destination choice, which, according to him, is important for both developed and less-developed countries, while fashion, common boarder, common language, and distance are also important determinants especially in less-developed countries (Eilat and Einav, 2004).

 To understand consumer behaviour, it is necessary to examine the complex interaction of many influencing internal and external factors (Moutinho, 1987). Moutinho’s study (1987) deals with determinants of behaviour, culture and reference group influences, the relationships between individuals and their environments, perceived risks, and family decision processes.

 Numerous literature studies identify social, cultural, personal, and psychological factors that influence destination choice. Cultural factors consist of culture, sub-culture, and social class. Many researchers have noticed significance of culture.

 Culture is a set of beliefs, values, ideas, attitudes and customs that characterise a particular society (Cateora and Keavency, 1987, cited in Pyne and Dimanche, 1996; Moutinho, 1987). Consumer behaviour is gradually determined by his/her culture. Culture with its norms and standards guide a consumer’s behaviour (Moutinho, 1987). Cultural norms have an impact on both tourists’ expectations and their perceptions of received service quality. People from different cultural background have different image perceptions of a destination (Bonn et al, 2005). According to Weiermair (2000), culture affects not only the way in which people experience and interpret goods and services, but it has also an impact on decision-making process and destination choice. Understanding of cultural particularities of a target group can explain and forecast tourists’ behaviour. The influence of culture and cultural differences on customer behaviour have been analysed in a variable marketing literature (Usinier, 1993; Keegan, 1984, cited in Weiermair, 2000).

Among the social factors are reference groups, family, roles and status. Reference groups – family, religion, ethic groups, trade union, neighbourhood etc – can be classified by primary (personal contact with a group) and secondary (occasionally), formal (trade union) and informal (neighbourhood) (Moutinho, 1987). Personal factors include age, life cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, and personality.

 Psychological factors are perhaps the most complex and difficult to understand and consist of motivation (theories of human motivation: Marshall, Freud, Veblen, Herzberg, Maslow), perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

 Another important determinant of tourist’s behaviour towards destinations and services is the tourist’s self-image – what a person thinks he or she is and what a person wants to be. There is a relationship between self-image and product image that determines tourist’s behaviour towards destinations and services. Perception and cognition influence the evaluation and judgemental process. Attitude and intention, created by learning and experience are other important concepts in tourists’ behaviour discussions (Moutinho, 1987).

 The importance of previous travel experience in the destination choice has got wide discussions between the researchers. Many of them consider previous experience on the destination to be a significant factor in the destination selection process. Thus, Woodside and Lysonski (1989, cited in Oppermann, 1997) consider that previous travel experience is a significant factor at the motivation and information stage of the destination selection process rather than the actual destination choice. Crompton (1992, cited in Oppermann, 1997) also do not consider previous experience important however he mentions ‘unpleasant personal experience set’ as significant factor in the decision-making process of the tourists.

Chapter 5: Discussion, Implications and Suggestions

5.1 Introduction

The topic of the research is about consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry in Kuala Lumpur. After the researcher had analyzed the result of questionnaire through the SPSS system, the researcher needs to find out whether the results match with the hypothesis. After finishing the discussion, the researcher will then need to provide suggestion for the research topic.

5.2 Discussion

In order to know consumer behavior is help to identify the target consumer in Kuala Lumpur. This research is to found out the target market and the behavior of consumer. Base on the research finding, it shows that more of the consumer had travel experience before. The result shows that 95.5 percent of people had travel before at least 1 to 5 times. Therefore, there are a small percentage of people that do not travel before. So, the researcher can target the consumer who had travel experience to get their behavior on travel.

In the chapter 1 of the research, the research had made some hypothesis of the research title. Hypothesis is use to predict the result before distribute the questionnaire to the public. I use correlation analysis to ascertain the relationship between the influencing factors and evaluation criteria. The first hypothesis is to examine the relationship between motivation and behavior of tourism and hospitality consumer. In the research, the researcher had asked about the reason and their travel behavior. Consumer may travel with some reason and the reason can motivate them. The reasons of consumers travel because of relaxing and leisure with 82.5 percent. It mean that they are more focus on reduce the stress and walk around the world. Therefore, the reason will link with consumer behavior which is they would like to travel with who. In the result show that 51 percent of consumer would like to travel with their friends which mean that they would like to travel for relaxing and leisure with their friends. Friends also can interact with the reason of shopping. Consumer may like to shop with their friend rather than family. Besides that, 41.5 percent of consumer may like to travel with their family for sigh-seeing. In the result, consumer behavior between motivation and behavior is clearly defined. One of the example is some of the consumer would like to travel with group because of adventure. They may think people in a group will help to care for each other’s while they are travel for adventure. This shows that the first hypothesis is accepted.

The second hypothesis is the factor that will influence consumer decision-making in hospitality and tourism industry. The researcher had list out five factors and rated the important of each sub-factor from one to five (completely unimportant to most.) The most factors that will influence the consumer decision-making is personal safety and security in a hotel. Consumers believe that to protect consumer personal safety and security mean to guarantee on consumer information will not spread out. The second factor that will influence consumer decision-making is the hygiene of the hotel with 75 percent. Yet, most of the consumer did not care about the reputation of the hotel. Reputation is the factor influencing consumer decision-making but on the result show that it will not be a big influence. Most of respondents think that safety and hotel hygiene are more important than the hotel reputation.

In tourism industry, the factors that will influence consumer’s decision-making were rated. According to the factor will influence consumer decision-making in hospitality, the safety and security also be a factor that will influence in tourism industry. With the higher rate of 77 percent, consumer may think safety and security is the most important factor. Road, traffic and public transport are the second important factor which also related with safety and security. Consumer believe that with high technological transport is convenient and safety. Therefore, the moderate rate is the cultural or historical of the country with 25.5 percent. This result show that it was just some of the consumers would like to travel for the destination’ cultural or historical. Cultural or historical may had the big influence on consumer decision-making although some of the consumer did not like the historical, for example, consumer may not travel in Japan because of the secondary war in second century. The second hypothesis was also accepted.

The third hypothesis is about the important to understanding consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry. It is good for marketing in order to know their needs and wants. The researcher had do some survey to analyze out the consumer behavior. The result shows that 56.5 percent of respondents choose to stay in hotel and 32.5 percent of respondents choose to stay in resort surrounded by Nature Park with 33 percent. The reason of chosen the hotel or resort which is surrounded by Nature Park is to feel the natural and green environment with silent and comfortable place. Besides that, online travel package also important to match the consumer behavior. The result shows that 57.5 percent of consumer will buy the travel package and 42.5 percent would not buy. Consumer will buy the package because of the benefit of online travel package. The most of the consumer would like to buy online travel package because of buy one free one with 61 percent. They may think buy one free one is cheap. As a result, to know the consumer behavior may help to give the right information to marketing mix to produce some service and products that match the consumer needs and wants.

5.3 Suggestion

With the advancement of technology, consumers are in much better position today to travel that deal with real world while travelling. Theories and methods applied from cultural anthropology would enrich our understanding of consumption and its meaning in consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from getting more understanding the consumer behavior, the researcher suggest that marketing of hospitality and tourism can focus on what the consumer behavior, the reason of motivation, consumer needs and wants in order to give the good products to them. Marketing mix can do the promotions that match the needs and wants of consumers in Kuala Lumpur.

5.4 Conclusion

As a conclusion, the hypothesis had matched the result of the research topic. Insights from consumer research have significant potential for positively influencing managerial marketing.