Consumer Behaviour
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN TOURISM
The study of consumer behaviour focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption-related items. The field of consumer behavior covers a lot of ground. According to Solomon (1996), consumer behavior is a study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. The marketer needs to understand 3 related aspects of consumer behaviour analysis : consumer motivations, consumer typologies, and the consumer purchasing process. Most tourism and hospitality organizations have an imperfect picture of their customer, and few monitor patterns of consumer behaviour at a level of detail necessary to remain competitive. Many organizations consider that they are sufficiently close to their visitors and therefore do not commit resources to more formal consumer studies. Others are constrained by limited marketing budgets and by the fact that researching consumer motivation and the buying process can be a time-consuming and difficult procedure.
Figure 1 shows the 7 key factors that influence a consumer’s behaviour. Motivation is often seen as a major determinant of consumer behaviour, but cultural, personal, and social influences will also have an important effect on consumer purchases.
Motivations are inner drives that cause people to take action to satisfy their needs. Understanding consumer motivation is one of the most effective ways of gaining competitive differential advantage. Understanding the key triggers that lead to the purchase of a tourism or hospitality product, such as a visit to an attraction or a hotel booking, is recognized as one of the main factors in the success of competitive organizations.
Culture can be defined as the norms, beliefs and rituals that are unique to each person. These different factors influence how we live, communicate, and
The study of consumer behaviour focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption-related items. The field of consumer behavior covers a lot of ground. According to Solomon (1996), consumer behavior is a study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires. The marketer needs to understand 3 related aspects of consumer behaviour analysis : consumer motivations, consumer typologies, and the consumer purchasing process. Most tourism and hospitality organizations have an imperfect picture of their customer, and few monitor patterns of consumer behaviour at a level of detail necessary to remain competitive. Many organizations consider that they are sufficiently close to their visitors and therefore do not commit resources to more formal consumer studies. Others are constrained by limited marketing budgets and by the fact that researching consumer motivation and the buying process can be a time-consuming and difficult procedure.
Figure 1 shows the 7 key factors that influence a consumer’s behaviour. Motivation is often seen as a major determinant of consumer behaviour, but cultural, personal, and social influences will also have an important effect on consumer purchases.
Motivations are inner drives that cause people to take action to satisfy their needs. Understanding consumer motivation is one of the most effective ways of gaining competitive differential advantage. Understanding the key triggers that lead to the purchase of a tourism or hospitality product, such as a visit to an attraction or a hotel booking, is recognized as one of the main factors in the success of competitive organizations.
Culture can be defined as the norms, beliefs and rituals that are unique to each person. These different factors influence how we live, communicate, and